[Source: Nick Catford & Darren Kitson]


During 2015 the brick seen above was discovered in a bricked-up fireplace within what was once Saffron Walden station's waiting room. As can be seen, the number 599 16 and a design representing a steam locomotive has been franked into the mortar. The mortar appears to have been applied for the sole purpose of providing the number and logo. An irregular lozenge shape, the brick appears to be red but badly discoloured which suggests it has been exposed to smoke. Not so, however, the mortar. All this may suggest the brick was secondhand and used when the fireplace was bricked up with the mortar applied at the same time. We just do not know, so if any individual or organisation can provided further information we would be most grateful. The brick itself is also numbered and '234' can just be seen at the top, right of centre, but inverted in this view. No photographic evidence has come to light of this type of brick being used anywhere else on Saffron Walden station and this may also suggest the brick dates from a later period.
Photo by Wumf Tuxworth

A close-up of the locomotive 'logo'. Although obviously very whimsical, there is some resemblance to the small tank locomotives of the Victorian era and not least the so-called 'coffee pot' locomotives of the Great Eastern Railway (later LNER/BR Class Y5). The 'logo' and number 599 16 will have been impressed onto the mortar with some sort of die or stamp probably engraved in wood. If so, there must have been more than one so-adorned brick and others may still exist hidden away somewhere. As previously, if anybody can provide further information we would be most grateful.