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All these items can be examined at the Midland Railway Study Centre in Derby by prior appointment. Due to alterations to enlarge the Study Centre, some collection items are temporarily stored off-site. Prior notice may therefore be necessary in order to make certain items available on the day of your visit. Please ensure you mention this to the Co-ordinator when making a booking.

1. The later design of Midland Railway cast iron trespass plates is fairly commonplace - large numbers were produced with a standard text and layout, except that the date was changed pretty frequently in the last years of the Company's life. This can still produce surprises today. The Trust has recently been able to acquire a plate with a date not previously seen (July 1922). It pays to examine things carefully - they may not always be as they seem!
   
   
   Bancroft July 1922 Trespass Plate
   
   
2. A number of interesting items have been donated recently to the Trust by Union Railways, having been recovered from the CTRL works at St Pancras. Among them are some Midland Railway Police record books, dating from 1893 to1909, which give a fascinating insight into the shift patterns then worked by the Company's policemen at St Pancras and the occurrences they had to deal with. Not many police records have survived from the pre-grouping period and so these are an especially important addition to the archive. They were found by contractors behind a bricked-up fireplace on the east side of St Pancras - one of the offices off the old platform 7 (see illustration).
   
   
   
   
   A police (uniform branch) time book for 1906-1907 with a sample page
   
   
   
   
   A police (detective) time book for 1908 with a sample page
   
   
3. The Trust has also acquired, on permanent loan from London & Continental Stations and Property Ltd., some important Midland Railway Hotel Department archives. These came from the former Midland Grand Hotel and consist of comprehensive records of instructions issued to the various hotels and refreshment rooms throughout the Midland system from Departmental Headquarters, which was located in the Midland Grand building at St Pancras. They relate to the period 1880 to 1902. Also amongst the material are comprehensive countrywide weekly staff wages records for the Hotels Department from the 1895 to 1899 period.
   
   
   
   
   Illustrated are two sample pages from the HQ record book and the cover of the "guard book" from Trent Refreshment Rooms. Each hotel and refreshment room had its own "guard book" and the instructions issued by HQ were pasted in upon receipt
   
   
4. Among other items on permanent loan from LCSP are a very early hotel vacuum cleaner and a coal scuttle - the latter probably from a suite or one of the more expensive bedrooms at the Midland Grand Hotel.
   
   
   Early vacuum cleaner
   
   
   Coal Scuttle
   
   
5. The Trust has been able to acquire a set of three medallion director's passes belonging to Herbert Jessel (later Lord Jessel) who was originally a Director of the London Tilbury & Southend Railway. This railway was, of course, taken over by the Midland in 1912 and Mr Jessel later became a Midland Director. The three passes make an interesting and unusual set. There are the LTSR and Midland gold passes from his periods as a director of those companies. The third is a silver Midland Railway pass which would have been his for travel on the Midland before 1912 by virtue of his directorship of the LTSR. Both sides of the passes are illustrated.
   
    
   
    
   
    
   
   
   
6. From a totally different field of Midland activity, Mike Sharman has donated to us a Veterinary Surgeon's leather bag. Horses were, of course, very important to the railway company, being the only means of effecting collection and delivery services to and from railway stations in the nineteenth century. The company owned many hundreds of horses and a large "logistics" organisation existed to ensure a proper supply of food - or provender - to the many stations where stables existed. This represented a sizeable investment and the horses' well-being was therefore important. The Company employed its own veterinary surgeons at major locations, such as Derby and London, and special horse ambulances were used to move lame horses to major depots where they could receive veterinary treatment.
   
   
   The MR Veterinary Surgeon's bag
   
   
7. Another recent acquisition has been the 1917 First Class folding season ticket for the short journey between Nottingham and Beeston. Both the outside and inside are illustrated.
   
   
   
   
   
8. An interesting item, not previously seen, has been acquired - namely a Midland Railway Bonded Warehouse Warrant from Burton on Trent. It authorises, in 1906, delivery to Ind Coope (the brewers) of 53 cases of Champagne from stock originally deposited in 1902. Note the stamp duty of three (old) pence.
   
   
   
   
9. A MR Telegraph Department wire tensioner is another recent acquisition.
   
   
   
   

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