My name is Michael Holley and I live in Langley, British Columbia, Canada  (Now 85 years old in 2010) but spent my very early childhood  between the years of 1929  to 1940  in the village  parish of Ridge  Nr Wareham  Dorset, and as such would like to comment on the published Memory "School Train" by the late Elsie Tomes. In reading her story about using Fayle's Clay works tramway to help with transporting children. One of the names mentioned in her biography that presented an instant recall of my years living in Ridge. At the time we as a family which consisted of My Father, Sidney Herbert  Holly  (Note spelling differs from mine now), My Mother, Eva Holly (ne Galpin) and myself lived in a very old thatched roof cottage at the East end of Barnhill Road on a lane called Brookside which consisted of three houses. In the centre one of the three lived a family by the name of Tubbs and they had two boys about the same age as myself which would have been 7 to 14 years, we all attended the Church School in Wareham. I was just wondering if Mr. Frank Tubb mentioned in the biography was related to my next door neighbor who had the similar name. My Father did not work for the Clay works but I have very fond memories living within 200 feet of the tramway in the village of Ridge and very close the old Engine House. 

When I lived there I recall a Mr. Gover inviting me over to the engine House many times and took me for a ride in the engine. At that time they had two engines one which was always kept in the engine house when not working, it was at that time 1930 plus a very new engine. The old engine was very old and was put out to pasture and left along side the Engine House on the West side or right side if one was standing  in the front of the engine house. I never did know the first name of Mr. Gover the engineer because in those days it was not considered polite for a young boy like myself to address an elder other than Mr. or Mrs.. He was a very big man but at the same time always so very pleasant to me and I have to tell you a short story of  the appreciation I had for Mr. Gover.

The story  goes something like this .

The Clay works at the weekend stopped work about midday on Saturday and restarted the following Monday so by 12 noon on Saturday the engine was parked for the weekend in the engine house and  of course Saturday not being a School day,  I would always go over and help Mr. Gover clean out the engine fire box and also wipe down the whole engine so that it would be all nice and clean for Monday morning. Now of course being a steam engine  Mr. Gover had to turn up at the Engine Shed very early 4.30 am to light the boiler fire so that the engine would be ready for work at 7 am.

Anyway after spending many Saturdays over at the Engine House with Mr. Gover one day he showed me how to lay out the wood and coal in the  engine fire box and to light it you got a large piece of oily waste (Rag ) and lit it, then tossed it into the fire box, then after the wood got going one would keep adding steam coal. Anyway Mr. Gover gave me lots of lessons on how to do this and in the end I was very pleased with myself that I could do the whole  lighting of the fire by myself. Well one such day Mr. Gover said, Son  how would you like to light the engine fire on a Monday morning for me but it will mean you will have to get up real early like 4 am come over  (No further than a 100 yards from my house) and light the fire then I can get an extra hour sleep in on Monday morning. Well as you can imagine  I was so pleased that he had trusted me to do this. So the next Monday I went over unlocked  the Engine House  (Mr. Gover  had given  me the key) and got the fire started which did not take very long  and went home but did not go back to sleep waited to about 6.00am and back to the engine house by this time Mr. Gover had arrived and the engine fire was burning real good, he seemed very pleased with what I had done. He gave me a sixpence which at first I did not want to take but he insisted. A sixpence in those days was a lot of money, at least it was to our family. I continued to do this small chore for Mr. Glover for a very long time and in return, apart from the sixpence he gave me, I got many rides both down to wharf and up to clay mines. 

I remember some of the pit workers that lived in either Ridge or Arne would ride home in a empty  waggon down from Furzebrook, those that lived in Arne would jump off at the level crossing at Arne road and the Ridge men would  stop the waggon just by my old house at the foot of Barnhill Road. We used to wait till the men had gone home an then we would climb onto the waggon, let the brake off and ride the tram down to the wharf. That was stopped when they put a big chain through the  wheels of the tram, still we had fun for a while. 

There was a Pikes Foreman, can't remember his name but I do recall he was a very slightly built man and did not like us boys  trespassing on the railway.  I think he was the Forman in charge of the clay washing plant in Ridge a place where  we kids always were going to.


I remember vividly being over at the Engine shed when Mr. Gover would bring out his lunch which consisted of a very large part of a home made loaf of bread which had a hole on the middle which had either butter or cheese in the hole, he also very often had a hard boiled egg. He took cold tea to have with his lunch which he brought  in a glass bottle maybe a old milk bottle . Now when it was cold in the winter months he would warm the tea up with a hot poker from the engine fire box, I remember him showing me how that was done. In the summer on hot days I used to bring the engine crew some of my Mothers home made lemonade or apple juice, just one more bribe to catch a ride on the foot plate down to the wharf and back, always worked.! 

Mr. Gover wore heavy hobnail boots, moleskin trousers, stripy flannel shirt, and a waistcoat to carry his snuff box in.

My Dad (Sidney Herbert Holly) had his small Electrical  business on South Street just a few feet away from the Black Bear Hotel, in fact John,  he wired the Hotel for electric light for the very first time in the very early 1930 or late 1920s.  Wareham had very few places in those days that had electric light. Dad was also a personal friend of TE Lawrence, they rode motor cycles together at Bovington military camp.