25 Jan Bird’s Folly – Photos of Blyth and Wifrid George’s donation of his land to HMGT
Master Peter George on the footplate of Southwold Railway locomotive, No.2, ‘Blyth’ at Bird’s Folly, Halesworth. The photographs were probably taken in the mid to late 1930s. They were donated to HSNGR by Wilfrid George, together with the photos of the George family children playing on and around ‘Blyth’ in the Halesworth loco shed. These were featured in an earlier post.
Wilfrid, who is well known locally for his excellent hand drawn maps of Halesworth’s footpaths, as well as other footpaths that are located further afield, conveyed to Halesworth Millennium Green Trust, all his land at Bird’s Folly, which land included the trackbed of the Southwold Railway.
When James and Ken visited Wilfrid a few years back, he told them that he had had to convey his land to HMGT to preserve it for public benefit because at that time there was no willing local railway society or trust in existence that he could convey it to. He said that had always been his preferred choice.. He was delighted to learn that such a society is now in existence, HSNGR having been forned in April 2018. He went on to say that he wished HSNGR had been in existence back then, because he would have conveyed his land to them instead of HMGT. He also told James and Ken that his dearest wish is that all the trackbed at Bird’s Folly is relaid with track and that he had written to HMGT to that effect. Although, of course, he appreciated that, as he no longer owned the land, all he could do now was to ask them to comply with his wishes. Sad to say, that has yet to come to pass.
James and Ken gave him a copy of Peter Paye’s book about the Southwold Railway and he was absolutely delighted.