Great Western Coffee Shop

Last Thursday I re-visited the sites of some of the military railways in the Amesbury-Bulford area and passed the Stonehenge Inn between Larkhill and Bulford. In its garden I noticed what appeared to be an old railway carriage - and so it proved to be:

The Sun article (https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/14975281/builder-train-carriage-bungalow/)

The use of railway carriages for housing was actually quite common between the wars. I guess this one was already in use, and then "extended" into a proper house. I had a look for newspaper references, and found quite a few "railway carriage bungalows", though none in Wiltshire. They were mainly along the south coast, and in some places were seen as a problem by officialdom. Here's an example, from the Chichester Observer of 30 November 1932:

There was an example of this at Purley on Thames. In the 1920s or 1930s a field near Mapledurham Lock was acquired at auction by a speculator who divided into plots and sold it for cheap holiday homes - mostly old railway carriages, caravans, huts and similar. Many were bought by Londoners, who then moved into them permanently, especially after the Blitz began. The "Purley Park River Estate" came into being.

After the 1960s a process of gentrification, encouraged by the local planners began and helped by the fact that many of the residents were getting old. Plots were consolidated and redeveloped and most of the badly rutted gravel roads made up to highway standards and taken over by the highway authority.

One of the converted carriages was rescued and is now at Didcot - see https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/145/no-2511-dean-6-wheel-family-saloon

More about the Purley Park River Estate here (http://project-purley.net/N2101.php)

There are still two or three modest and ramshackle buildings among the modern up-market houses.

Peacehaven in Sussex was also noted for cheap and improvised dwellings. Railway carriages might have been a bit upmarket for Peacehaven, old horse drawn caravans, and garden sheds featured, also war surplus huts, FIRST war of course.

The pre war founding of Peacehaven was regarded as a scandal by some and it is alleged that the Town and country planning acts were introduced to prevent a repeat.

Jaywick in Essex is a bit similar with a lot of cheap and low quality housing. Portahuts of various types feature, I wonder if any pacers will end up in Jaywick ?

Reverting (albeit a little clumsily) to Bulford, here's a clip  (https://ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=63964)(starting at 04.09) of New Zealander troops entraining at Bulford during the Great War.

Note the extra large canopy added at the request of the War Office to provide more shelter for troops.

Pity that most of the track-bed (now a right-of-way) is almost impossible to walk because of very deep ruts caused in part by civilian off-road vehicles.