[Source: Darren Kitson]
 This photograph is interesting as the running-in board announces TIPTREE HEATH, the original name for the station which in the event opened simply as TIPTREE. This view therefore dates from before the line opened which explains the evidence of workmen still being present. Tiptree Heath is an archaic name for what is now Tiptree village and the 1914 Kelly's Directory entry for the village mentions "Formerly known as Tiptree Heath". There was also the Parish of Tiptree Heath which was created in 1858 and did not disappear until 1961. The Heath is today a nature reserve, located to the south-west of Tiptree on the road to Great Totham. Returning to the photograph, the original goods loading gauge is present. Its wooden gantry was in due course replaced by a tubular metal structure. The access path to the station is seen right of centre and there is a much better view of it in another photograph. The screening on the end of the station building was the Gentlemen's urinal.
Photo from John Mann collection  
This extract from the 1922 1:2,500 OS map gives a good idea of the track layout in and around the jam factory. Visible is the wagon turntable and the track which led off it into the factory. What are assumed to be other tracks within the factory complex would have been parts of the internal narrow gauge system. Trewlands was the farm, the land of which the factory and the railway was built upon. It was once the home of Charles Wilkin.
The 1954 1:2,500 OS map shows only a few changes compared to 1922. The narrow gauge tracks in the factory have gone, or at least the sections in the open air have gone. 'Station' has been replaced by 'Platform' and both level crossings are now marked. At top left there is a minor change to the entrance to the goods yard while at top right an electricity substation has appeared. Curiously the milepost (MP) is marked ½ when it was actually the 3½ milepost.
 The 1971 1:2,500 OS map shows the remains of the former railway marked as 'track'. A new telephone exchange blocks what was the road access to the goods yard although a fragment of it still appears south-east of the exchange. There had been some minor changes to the jam factory while a few more buildings have appeared along Station Road, at the top of the map. The numbered houses, 1 to 18, along Cherry Chase, which is a private road, are some of the 100 houses built by Wilkin for his workers as are the two at Mulberry Walk and the four at Trewlands Cottages. Of the named and rather grander houses along Cherry Chase some, as the above maps indicated, were built later and whether these have any connection with Wilkin is unclear. Roads which were built for the housing of workers are predominantly named after various fruits as may by now be realised. Gate House (farm) at the bottom of the map was once occupied by Stanley Wilkin.
Soon after the line had opened 0-4-2T No. 25 approaches Tiptree with a mixed train for Kelvedon. Notable is the lack of waiting passengers. The shadowy figure of what appears, going by the uniform buttons, to be a member of staff waits in a somewhat nonchalant pose on a platform bench seat. The small hut was a lamp room. The station area and much of the line through Tiptree was built on land donated by the Britannia Fruit Preserving Company, later Wilkin and Sons Limited. It is said that "the camera never lies" although it can play tricks. Here the platform appears to have been originally built on wooden props whereas later photographs show some form of solid facing at least.
Photo from Jim Lake collection 
GER 0-4-2T No. 25 is again seen at Tiptree, this time with a passenger (only) train. Her presence tells us this is another photograph taken not long after the line opened and this time with passengers present. Not only did Arthur Wilkin donate land for the railway, he also provided flora such as rose bushes as seen here lining the access path to the station. The goods wagons are on Tiptree's double ended siding, from which branched the sidings into the jam factory, seen here at left background.
Photo from John Mann collection  On 9 April 1910 Class R24 No. 267 arrives at Tiptree with a passenger train from either Tollesbury Pier or Tollesbury. The running-in board on the right announced 'Tiptree Heath' when the station was built but by the time the line opened it had been changed to simply 'Tiptree'. Wilkin's factory is partially visible left background as is a rather large road cart; at this time the sidings had not been extended right into the factory. The locomotive lived on to become British Railways Class J67 No. 68575 and would survive until October 1960.
Photo by Ken Nunn 
The loading bay at the jam factory in Great Eastern Railway days. Loading of railway wagons here would have been an everyday activity although this scene is quite obviously deliberately posed for publicity purposes to show the various places around the world that Wilkin exported to. The wording on the crates appears to have been deliberately boldened. Whether the goods would have really travelled to the docks in non tarpaulin open wagons is open to question. Two crates have been positioned to face the camera and in such a manner as to make the eye instantly catch them. One, at lower left, bears the company name and address (more of these are stacked on the right) while another, just left of centre, bears the name of H. M. Yacht. This crate is placed exactly where the eye would naturally first look. Each wagon has a label on its side, one without an apostrophe and one with, i.e. 'Wilkins' and 'Wilkin's'. Part of the factory's internal narrow gauge railway system may be seen along with a wagon turntable on the right. Wagons resembling platform barrows on flanged wheels were pushed around manually and as far as is known there was never any form of locomotive. H. M. Yacht Victoria & Albert was, at the time of this photograph, the third vessel to carry the name. Built by Pembroke Dock she was launched on 9 May 1899 and commissioned at Portsmouth on 23 July 1901. She was decommissioned as the Royal Yacht in 1939 and went on to serve during WWII. She was broken up in 1954, replaced by HMY Britannia, herself decommissioned on 11 December 1997 and now an attraction at Leith, Edinburgh.
Photo from Dick Challis  Looking towards the Britannia Fruit Preserving Company's premises from the Tiptree station access path, bottom right. Clearly this is an early photograph and the original railway loading bay can be seen in the right background, partly obscured by the lamp. The photograph is thought to have been taken sometime in the latter half of 1911 when the second siding with wagon turntable was added, this then becoming No. 1 siding with the original becoming No. 2 siding. The two open wagons are sitting on Tiptree's double-ended siding, the points into the factory being at the far, from the camera, end and barely visible here. In 2024 the 'Britannia' company was still registered at Companies House with Wilkin & Sons being the majority shareholder.
Photo from John Mann collection  A postcard view of Tiptree station in its early years but after a siding was provided directly into the jam factory in 1911. The goods loading gauge still has its origin wooden post and bracket. The station's running-in board, which originally announced 'Tiptree Heath', was poorly sited at the rear of the platform and is here hidden from view by the bushes at the near end of the station building. The row of bushes on the right lined the access path to the station. On the left stands the grounded body of a GER horse box but what purpose it served is not known. It does not appear to have been a long term fixture. The GER had a large fleet of these vehicles and older examples began to be withdrawn in the early years of the twentieth century with many bodies being sold off for use on farms etc. One such example has been rescued and restored from very dilapidated condition by the Mid Suffolk Light Railway, Brockford, Suffolk. It had been GER No. 180 and has been painted as Mid-Suffolk Light Railway No. 15.
Photo from John Mann collection  A nice view of Tiptree station, the clarity perhaps compensating for it being undated although the buildings are not yet in LNER livery. What the mostly, but not entirely, triangular objects stacked up towards the right are is not known, although they resemble the wooden boxes once used for transporting rolled-up paperwork. One also wonders why such a long ladder was required. There is a shorter ladder on the wall of the parcels store. This one would have been used when tending the oil lamps. The black hut in the left background was for a permanent way trolley and there is a better view of this
in another photograph. Photo from John Mann collection  This young man resplendent in his GER uniform is believed to be Henry Edward Peirce, commonly referred to as 'Ted'. The family are said to have been proud of the unusual spelling of the surname but 'Pierce' and 'Pearce' have also been used. Born in 1901, Ted became Porter-in-Charge at Tiptree station in 1936 and reputedly lived in what is today 'Station House' on Station Road, Tiptree. It is unlikely this house, now extended, was built for the railway company. The only such house known to have been built for the railway was that at Tolleshunt D'Arcy, before the GER decided any further staff houses along the line to Tollesbury were unjustified and where necessary existing properties would be rented. As explained elsewhere, as an economy measure the Kelvedon & Tollesbury came under the jurisdiction of the Kelvedon (main line stationmaster) and the line never had stationmasters of its own. Nevertheless the myth to the contrary persists. Ted is said to have remained at Tiptree until 1962 but this is unconfirmed. The location of this photograph remains a mystery but the brick building with brick arched window is a design common in south Essex. The brick building with Booking Office does tell us the location is not on the Kelvedon & Tollesbury. The open Booking Office door beside which Ted stands might suggest he was a booking clerk at the time of the photograph and certainly his uniform is a 'public fronting' style. Hanging from chains is a tag which would have stated his payroll number with a more elaborate badge which the photograph does not permit positive identification of. It does look vaguely like a Railway Service badge, issued to staff who had served in some capacity during the First World War but not necessarily in combat. The idea was to avoid the 'white feather' cowardice accusation and these badges were issued by most railway companies. Again we cannot positively identify the badge Ted was wearing but nevertheless Railway Service is an interesting possibility.
Photo from Tiptree Jam Museum  This article appeared in the Chelmsford Chronicle of Friday 8 June 1928. It depicts of party consisting of a large number of children about to return to Tollesbury after a day trip to Tiptree and presumably to the jam factory. The special train would have used a loco and stock allocated to the line, the special running in between timetabled journeys. The story was on Page 2 of the newspaper and can be read on the British Newspaper Archive website.Photo from Chelmsford Chronicle Click here for Tiptree Station: Gallery 2
c1930s - 6 April 1857
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Notes: The Essex village of Tiptree dates back to at least the 13th century, at which time it was little more than a scattering of cottages and farms. Historically the village was known as Tiptree Heath. In the early 18th century the Wilkin family were arable farmers centred at Trewlands Farm and in 1865 decided to change to fruit farming, probably as a result of the then Prime Minister, W. E. Gladstone, promoting the preserving of fruit and it is from this the term 'Preserves', meaning jam and marmalade for example originates. Arthur Wilkin rightly identified a major business opportunity and in 1885 formed the Britannia Fruit Preserving Company. This title eventually became Wilkin & Sons Ltd and the "Tiptree" name used as it brand. Most of the Britannia output was exported to Australia, prior to which produce was taken by horse and cart to Kelvedon station for onwards movement to markets and primarily in London. By the mid 19th century the population of Tiptree was about 800 people.
Trewlands Farm became the site of Tiptree jam factory and remains so to this day. Wilkin owned and still does own large swaths of land on the area and for this large numbers of workers were required both on the land and in the factory. 
Tiptree railway station was one of the original stations on the Kelvedon & Tollesbury Light Railway, opening with the line on 1 October 1904. At 3 miles 39 chains from Kelvedon Low Level it was initially the first station down the line from Kelvedon. It was typical of the initial stations with low (15in from rail level) platform about 100ft long and wooden station building with centre doorway and window either side. The running-in board was stanchion-mounted and positioned toward the Kelvedon end of the platform. The station did however have some difference from the line norm. In addition to the station building there was a small hut positioned at a right angle to the platform. This is thought to have been a lamp room. At the Tollesbury end of the platform was another hut a little smaller than the station building, being a parcels office and store. Platform furniture comprised two bench seats and two stanchion-mounted oil lamps, the casements of which carried the station name. There was a third oil lamp mounted onto the wall of the parcels office. However, the parcels office was not present for the entire life of the station and when it was and was not can only be judged, roughly, from photographs.
The station, which was managed by a porter-in-charge with an assistant, was situated on the Up side of the line and immediately after the station in the Up direction was an ungated level crossing. All ungated crossings on the line were provided with cattle guards as was standard practice at such crossings and locomotives were required to give one long whistle and proceed over the crossings at 10mph maximum. Given that the level crossing at Tiptree was adjacent to the station its presence made little difference to the operation of passenger trains, crews merely having to sound the whistle and keep a sharp lookout, being prepared to stop if necessary. However, there was a problem when the jam factory sidings needed shunting in that the locomotive and wagons had to repeatedly shuffle back and forth over the level crossing. At busy times the porter-in-charge would place temporary barriers across the road for safety reasons and to eliminate the need for locomotives to constantly whistle.
Opposite the station platform on the Down side was the usual, for this line, double ended siding and goods yard. A loading gauge and 10cwt (half ton) weighing machine were provided. There was one major difference to this siding; what would otherwise be the headshunt continued in the Tollesbury direction and split into two sidings serving the jam factory. The siding adjacent to the running line (No. 1 Siding) ran alongside the factory and from it ran, via a wagon turntable, another siding which disappeared inside the factory at a right angle to the siding from which it branched. The second siding (No. 2 Siding) off the loop ran into a loading bay which was part of the factory complex and may also have had wagon turntable linking into the aforementioned siding within the factory but this is unconfirmed.
When the passenger service was still operating and traffic to and from the jam factory was heavy, and a dedicated goods trip working was operated from Kelvedon to avoid excessive delays to the mixed trains. 
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