Manure is animal excrement, mainly from farm animals and horses, used to fertilise the land. Compost is decayed plant matter, a different thing but which can be added to manure. Human excrement can also be used but in its raw form is relatively toxic and contains traces of various metals and other unfriendly things such as E. coli, therefore has to be treated before it can be used as fertiliser. This is done at a Sewage Treatment Works, installations at one time and still to a degree today referred to as 'Sewage Farms', with the end product being either in a slurry form or in an earthy form. Either way it has a foul stench and for that reason is often pumped into the ground so it does not lie on or very close to the surface. Fertiliser of the animal excrement form was commonly laid onto the surface, by means of being shovelled out of trailer hauled by a tractor, and then ploughed in, but increasingly it is being dispensed via a 'muck spreader'. This type of manure has an unpleasant odour but is not as foul as the human variety. Today there are strict environmental regulations governing the operation, especially in relation to the contamination of watercourses, and it is a seasonal operation undertaken early in the year. Human aside, pig manure is among the most foul smelling but the odours of any type disperse within a day or two of being dispensed.

Needless to say, the fruit growers around Tiptree required large quantities of manure and delivering it was the purpose of Tudwick Road Siding, hereinafter generally referred to as 'the siding'. There are some myths surrounding the siding which tend to originate on and be perpetuated by the internet. A very common myth claims the siding was used by the jam factory to send out its products. It wasn't, it was a public siding although it was built on land donated by Wilkin and misinterpretation of this may be the source of the myth. The '1956 Handbook of Stations' also listed goods sidings, Tudwick Road being categorised simply as 'G' which means 'general goods traffic' and this was always the case. This perhaps rather vague category excluded coal, minerals, livestock and parcels. The siding therefore catered only for goods which could be manually loaded or unloaded to or from wagons. No crane was provided and indeed no fixed cranes were provided anywhere on the Kelvedon & Tollesbury.

Another myth incorrectly claims the siding opened with the line in 1904 when in fact it was sometime in the 1907 - 1910 period, the exact date now being lost in the mists of time. On 2 May 1905 the GER Way & Works Committee noted that an expenditure of £815 was agreed upon; in effect this was the 'green light' for construction to go ahead. However the siding did not appear in the 1907 Working Timetable and the earliest known surviving Working Timetable which included the siding was that of 1910. The Committee also noted, on the same date, that 2000 tons [of manure] was estimated to arrive at the siding annually in addition to what it described as "general traffic", this being the 'G' category already mentioned. This would have included fruit and other agricultural produce for markets further afield, in London in particular.

It is worth deviating for a moment to mention that manure traffic was once an important traffic for the railways. Numerous country stations had sidings dealing with the traffic and sometimes a storage shed would be provided. Such sheds were often built by the railway companies and then rented to farmers. The manure was transported, usually, in packed form but what form this packaging took over a century ago is uncertain. In 1917 the Great Eastern Railway noted that its own stables produced from 3000 to 4000 tons of manure per annum, added to which was horse droppings swept up from goods yards and streets. Thus what would otherwise be a waste product could be sold to farmers, smallholdings and [horticultural] nurseries etc., providing additional revenue for the railway. In the 21st century it is easy to forget, or be ignorant of, the number of horses used commercially in an age before road motor transport became widespread. Railway companies also used horses for shunting wagons in goods yards and British Railways did not retire its final shunting horse until 1967, this was Charlie who worked at Newmarket's original station shunting, usually, horse boxes (a type of small, four-wheeled van used for transporting horses and provided with a compartment for a groom).

At some point in time a small storage building with loading platform was provided on the east side of the siding. Built using Fletton bricks (Fletton Brickworks was located at Peterborough), this building survives as of September 2024. The Colchester Heritage Explorer website suggests the storage building dates from "c.1920" and this is based upon it appearing on a 1920 OS map. While saying "c.1920" is perfectly legitimate, as opposed to claiming the building was provided in 1920, it must be remembered that the Ordnance Survey revises or surveys its maps some time in advance of publication. In other words, the earliest evidence of the existence of the storage building dates from 1920. Another source dates the building to 1914 - 1918 which is a fair approximation and actually hints at a need to cater for the increased food production during the First World War. On 19 December 1912 the GER recorded, amongst a list of minor alterations and improvements "Tiptree siding, cost £40". This it must be stressed may not necessarily refer to Tudwick Road although the £40 cost would have been about right at the time for such a small brick-built storage building to a utility design which needed minimal fitting out. The building is 21 ft x 15ft 6in in plan externally and stands approximately 20ft high depending upon where on the rough ground one measures from. It contained two levels with external doorways to each and a corrugated iron catslide type roof. The upper level appears to have been accessed via an earth bank, another indication of a hurriedly-built utility structure. What is unclear however is if the land donated was only for the siding and not the building, in other words the building may have been built on land retained by Wilkin. As generous to the Great Eastern Railway as Wilkin was, only the minimal land necessary would have originally been donated. This question of ownership would be answered if it could be shown that the siding and the storage building were built at the same time but at the time of writing evidence either way had not been forthcoming.

The siding was accessed by points trailing in the Down direction and the running line was protected in the usual manner by a trap point. Points were unlocked by key attached to a train staff as per elsewhere along the line. Length of the siding was 6 chains or 5½ chains inside the trap point, this equating to approximately 132 and 125 yards respectively. At this location the running line headed east south-east in the Down, Tollesbury, direction while the siding ended facing north north-west. Much of the siding was therefore on a curve, dictated by presence on its west side by Tudwick Road. The siding was on the level and there were rising gradients either side, that is rising in the Kelvedon and Tollesbury directions. Road access was via Tudwick Road which means access to the storage building involved crossing the track of the siding. There was also a track (path) leading from behind the storage building across a field to Factory Hill, now the B1023, emerging directly opposite the entrance to Brook Hall. This track, likely created when the siding was built, no longer exists but its point of emergence opposite Brook Hall is marked by a length of somewhat overgrown wooden fencing adjacent to where it crossed a roadside ditch.

The location of the siding in the midst of what was and largely still is open land between Tiptree and Tolleshunt Knights was ideally placed for the delivery of manure and for the loading of outgoing produce directly to and from farms. The public siding at Tiptree station was relatively unsuitable, hence why the siding was provided, while the nearest alternative public sidings were Heath, adjacent to Inworth station, and Church located near Tolleshunt D'Arcy. There were never any siding facilities at nearby Tolleshunt Knights which was nothing more than an unstaffed passenger halt. Given that the points to Tudwick Road Siding were trailing in the Down direction, wagons were dropped off and collected by Down, Tollesbury bound, trains and then taken forward to Tollesbury then back to Kelvedon where they would be transferred to one or other of the main line goods yards where the reverse applied in the Down direction. This method of moving wagons in one direction before returning them in the opposite direction was normal practice and especially on lines where single-ended sidings were provided. This was one of the reasons why the 'pick up goods train' as they were known, was inefficient compared to the often door-to-door road transport and block trains operating directly between Point A and Point B.

Like all the wayside sidings between stations (Brooklands, Heath, Church and Old Hall) Tudwick Road was not served by mixed trains. Instead it was worked by the early morning goods train, the departure time of which from Kelvedon varied over the years but was around 6.40am. This train, as mentioned on another page, also conveyed empty coaching stock in readiness for the first Up service train of the day which therefore ran as a mixed train. When the aforementioned wayside sidings were required to be shunted the porter-in-charge of whichever station was responsible for a siding was required to be present. In the case of Tudwick Road the man required to be present was the Tiptree porter-in-charge. Leaving his assistant, a porter/shunter, at Tiptree station he would first make his way to Heath Siding if required (which presumably was usually the case as the goods train was booked to call) and then travel on the goods train to Tiptree before continuing to Tudwick Road by the same means. He would then make his own way back to Tiptree station where, one imagines, his assistant would have the kettle simmering away on the stove. For clarity it is worth mentioning that the GER commonly referred to the porter-in-charge grade as "Man in charge", a grade which in time came to be referred to as "Leading Porter". Whatever the terminology, this grade was not the same as the more senior grade of 'stationmaster' contrary to what so many people unfortunately believe or want to believe.

After total closure of the section of line to Tollesbury in May 1951 the track was lifted back to Tolleshunt Knights, the short section from there to Tudwick Road being retained as a headshunt. Hunslet diesel D2571 with the final goods train on 28 September 1962 is thought to have run through to Tudwick Road but this remains unconfirmed. The remaining track had been lifted by the summer of 1963 and with that event the Kelvedon & Tollesbury Light Railway passed into history.

Photographs showing Tudwick Road Siding in use are rare and at the time of writing this the photo above is the only example to have come to light. The Drewry diesel shunter is pottering on the siding with a rake of five or six mineral wagons, possibly coal traffic. This photograph and that showing the diesel on the headshunt may have been taken on a different occasion to others showing the diesel locomotive. The brake van would be moved by gravity over the points and the locomotive coupled to it, with wagons retrieved from the siding being pushed the short distance to Tiptree. At Tiptree the brake van would be uncoupled and left out of the way while the locomotive ran round the wagons and collected wagons or vans, if any, from Wilkin's sidings. This done, the train would then reverse to reattach the brake van and the trundle back to Kelvedon would commence. In the foreground is Bridge 874, at 3 miles 74 chains taking the line over Layer Brook. Whether this bridge still exists is not known as the location is today deep within private property. Tudwick Road Siding had a trap point but it is all but invisible due to the weeds. It would appear the land alongside the siding was used as a garden and perhaps not immediately obvious is somebody kneeling on the ground to the left of the locomotive tending to something. On the right is an orchard. The tall chimney right of centre was at Wilkin's factory adjacent to which was Tiptree station, the running line curving round, as is fairly obvious, on the left. At left background can be seen a road traffic 'TRAINS CROSS HERE' warning sign for the level crossing on Tudwick Road.
Photo from Ron Sargent collection

With secondman Derek Jackson making sure he gets in the picture, the Drewry diesel shunter is here seen just beyond the points for Tudwick Road Siding. The bufferstop in the distance was at the site of Tolleshunt Knights station which although usually referred to as a station was in fact an unstaffed halt. The bufferstop is just about at the Kelvedon end of the platform. This short section of what until 1951 was the running line had been retained as a headshunt. The use of diesel shunters on branch goods trains was not uncommon and especially in East Anglia. The small 204hp shunters such as that depicted here were somewhat underpowered and therefore not entirely suitable, overheating being a common problem.
Photo from Ron Sargent collection

View from the north end of the siding looking south towards the junction with the
Kelvedon & Tollesbury line
.

The back (east) side of the building.

The back (east) side of the building.
Photo by Rob Wisdom

The lower was divided into two rooms with a doorway linking the rooms.

Exposed timber ceiling joists above the lower floor.

The siding building seen from Tudwick Lane in August 2009.
Photo by Pauline Marshall

The Tudwick Road siding building in July 2024. The building is now securely locked and an earth bank in front of the building prevents access to the lower floor.

Photo by Nick Catford

[Source: Darren Kitson]

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