Griseburn Ballast Sidings

A Memory of Griseburn.

During the 1950's my grandparents Mary and Jack Holder lived in the railway cottages at Griseburn. My grandfather worked in the signal box and I spent summer holidays with them. One had to leave the road, go down a cart track to Horn's farm, leave your vehicle, cross a stile and walk the path past the signal box to the cottages. The other cottage was occupied by a man called Milner. There was no electricity or plumbing. The pump in the garden hadn't worked in years by the look of it, and my grandmother brought water from the farm in two buckets. She was quite a character and used to get about on a little Corgi motorbike. I wasn't supposed to be in the signal box so my grandfather made sure I was out of sight when the trains passed. The stokers on the engines used to push huge pieces of coal onto the side of the track for the benefit of the cottages. It was a very isolated place. My grandparents eventually retired to Milburn, enjoying electricity and a bathroom.