Location?

[Charlflo]

Hello, I wonder if anyone knows the location of this photo? At the bottom of the photo is a Barton & Co wagon on the track.

Thanks

[6C]

The nameboard in the bottom pic. reads .... DOBELL...& Compy. - I think it is on the roof of the building - not on the track....

[Ironduke]

The nameboard in the bottom pic. reads .... DOBELL...& Compy. - I think it is on the roof of the building - not on the track....

You can see the top of the Barton & coy wagon in the lower left quadrant of the photo. I'm guessing Charlflo has moved to greener pastures since nobody was able to help 6 months ago.

[Bigmet]

Having only just seen this, it's a strange photograph to start with, all that very dark smoke in what looks to be a fairly rural location. If that wagon happens to be on home turf in the Wrexham area, I wonder whether this could be a record of the Gresford deep coal mine explosions and fires which caused hundreds of fatalities. (To give an idea of how bad, at least one man was killed on the surface - not even down the pit - when an explosion demolished construction around a shaft.) I don't know the area at all, and the business premises name doesn't yield sufficient clues to be useful in locating it.

[6C]

I know the area pretty well - industry failed to overcome the natural beauty of the area, except around Johnstown, Trefor and Brymbo.

Barton was a biggish player as a local colliery owner and merchant.

There seems to be a least 4 separate plumes of smoke too, maybe more.

[glencairn]

The mention of Dobell & Company (Birkenhead) gives rise to fascinating information on the family (imo).

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/ ... .1950.0004

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov. ... 0aad0724e6


Whilst the family lived in Birkenhead Barton & Co could well have been a supplier for Dobell & Company.

Glencairn

[6C]

I can absolutely confirm - this is not Birkenhead - I was born there, and live back on the Wirral now. (see my shedplate !!)

I know this doesn't help - but it is an elimination !

[6C]

Decided to try and get more forensic and look at clues:

1) There is a large 'country' house beyond the first line of trees - it has a distintive round turret/tower and seems to have a little bit of mock-tudor decoration on one of the end elevations.

2) The railway line is not a main line - so is not on the former S&C (Shrewsbury and Chester).

3) The lineside fencing seems to be of GWR pattern.

4) Candidates - of GWR influence - Moss Valley Branch - Brymbo and Minera branch, comprising :

Minera Line
Berwig
Vicarage Crossing
Coedpoeth
Pentresaeson
Brymbo West Crossing
Brymbo
The Lodge
Plas Power
Moss Valley Junction

Moss Valley
Moss Platform
Gwersyllt Hill
Pentre Broughton

[Bufferstop]

Any date for the photo, as in time of year, it could be the effect of smoke from stubble burning and a rather long exposure. Given a date you might match it to an article and thus a location.

[Bigmet]

...There seems to be a least 4 separate plumes of smoke too, maybe more.

And it is very dense smoke too, that's what got my attention: pretty sure the picture was taken to show this smoke. With a Wrexham area wagon, the thought of the Gresford colliery disaster of 1934 came to mind. But I don't know the area at all to be able to take it any further.

[Renovater]

Any date for the photo, as in time of year, it could be the effect of smoke from stubble burning and a rather long exposure. Given a date you might match it to an article and thus a location.

I also thought it could well be stubble burning. Is there something written on the wall of the house middle far left side ?

[Bigmet]

And after some delay... Quite by chance last week, I learned there was a prominent family named 'Dobell' living in the Wrexham area in the nineteenth century. (Then it took me a while to work out why that 'rang a bell' and then to find this thread where we have been chewing over the picture.)

I will try and remember to dig around when in the Wrexham area: my wife has Erddig on her 'to do' list, but that 's one of a hundred similar items in a motely of archaeological sites, art galleries, gardens and great houses, historical and museum exhibits, so who knows when we get there.