I remember visiting the signal box in the station in the mid 1960s just before it closed.
The signal man told me that between the wars and in the 1950s the goods yard was full of wagons loading and unloading, and that there was far too much work and that the hours were long and hard. Yachtsman used to come down from (or was it up to?) London to sail; in special Saturday trains.
In the 1930s the boat yard owners during the depression used to pay their employees out of their own pockets if there was not enough work. (They were after all men that they had known and trusted all their lives).
Some of the young men from Oldton used to crew on the 12m yachts and became national heroes.
David Mason
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