News
Chorleywood Signal Box AGM 2024
The Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Chorleywood Signal Box (FoCSB) was held on Thursday 8th February 2024.
Click the button to the right to read the minutes of the meeting.
Notice of AGM 2024
Agenda for Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Chorleywood Signal Box (FoCSB) to be held on Thursday 8th February 2024 at 7pm at 17 Greenbury Close WD35QT.
The meeting will also be available on ZOOM. Contact the secretary for the zoom details.
(This meeting was delayed from October 2023 to allow more sales of the Committee’s book over the Christmas and New Year festive period)
Apologies for absence
Approval of previous minutes
Report from Officers
Status on sales of the book
Presentation and adoption of accounts
To consider the following motion to disband the Association – Motion: this meeting agrees to give the Committee the power of disbanding the Association once all remaining copies of the book have been sold or earlier if the Committee agrees.
Owen Edis
FoCSB Secretary
Newsletter Autumn 2023
Dear Member,
First of all, I must apologise for the lack of a Summer Newsletter.
In part, this was due to the fact that nothing much has happened if you discount the hard work Hugh and Owen have been putting into selling the book but the main reason is that my wife has been in hospital and I have spent every afternoon sitting by her bedside. I am happy to say she is home now.
AGM
We have just held a Committee meeting and discussed the future of the organisation.
With the failure of TfL to assist with our plans to make use of the signal box and thus nowhere to build the layout we planned that is two of our three projects hitting the buffers.
As a result, it is planned to wind up Friends of Chorleywood Signal Box once we have sold all copies of the book written by Hugh.
Thanks to the sterling efforts of Hugh and Owen, most of the stock of A4 copies of the book have been sold however we need to sell all, or most, of the copies before we can wind up the organisation and close the bank account.
We do need to sell the remaining copies and collect money from some of the retail outlets who hold stocks of the book and the total of both groups is in the region of 120 copies.
It was agreed that the Christmas period was going to be beneficial in reducing the number left and thus it was agreed by the Committee to recommend to the members that we should defer the AGM to Thursday the 8th of February 2024. I will be ringing the retail outlets at the beginning of January to either seek payment for the stock they hold
The meeting will be held both at Owens house in Chorleywood and also by Zoom and we do hope you will attend, either in person or by Zoom.
We do need a quorum to vote to wind the organisation up and to agree to close the bank account so I do hope you can help in this respect by putting the date in your diary.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
We have not been asking members to pay subscriptions since earlier this year having decided that membership will continue until the next AGM so if you get this e-mail, you are still a member.
MEMBERS BOOK OFFER
Members are reminded that they are entitled to a copy of ‘Rails to Chorleywood…and Beyond’ at the cost price of £5 plus postage (The retail price is £12). Please contact us to request your copy.
Chorleywood Signal Box Committee Meeting March 27th 2023
The committee met at 2pm on Monday 27th March 2023. Click the button to the right to read the minutes of the meeting.
Chorleywood Signal Box Status - March 2023
As explained in our Press Release that can be seen on the website, and in a Newsletter to Members, the committee have had to abandon their hopes of converting the inside of Chorleywood’s signal box into a community museum of educational interest for children and adults alike. Due to costs to be levied on our project by TfL, that included their own surveys and legal requirements before work could start on access and internal refurbishment, it was clear that without significantly greater funds to proceed the project was not viable. Furthermore, the change of mind by TfL on our use of the building’s ground floor, originally the signal interlocking room, for extending museum displays to include an operational model of Chorleywood station in the 1950s, prevented this most attractive feature from proceeding. Also, the lack of involvement by younger people, and with the local schools that were approached giving little support, the committee felt that there was insufficient longevity in the project, bearing in mind the average age of the project team members.
Nevertheless, considering the amount of effort largely from our archivist Hugh Howes in producing displays and a small booklet for the museum, the project refocused their efforts on expanding the booklet with significantly more information and pictures to produce a 62 Page A4 book. The development and completion of this was energetically led by Hugh, with support from others to enable completion before Christmas 2022. It is now selling well with excellent reviews from sources that include the Chiltern Society and London Underground. So the project focus has now shifted to promoting this book to sell all 500 copies printed in the course of the next few months. Hopefully this will lead to formal project closure with a General meeting later this year.
Newsletter Christmas 2022
The latest edition of our E-news is now available and has been sent to members. You can also read a copy by clicking the button to the right.
AGM 2022
The 2022 AGM was held at 7:30pm on Thursday 27th October 2022.
Venue: 17 Greenbury Close, Chorleywood, Herts. WD3 5QT
See the Autumn Newsletter for the agenda.
The AGM could also be attended by Zoom details of which have been circulated to members in the Autumn Newsletter.
Newsletter Autumn 2022
The latest edition of our E-news is now available and has been sent to members. You can also read a copy by clicking the button to the right.
Summer 2022 PRESS RELEASE
Click the button to read this important press release about the future of the project.
Newsletter Summer 2022
The fourth edition of our E-news is now available and has been sent to members. You can also read a copy by clicking the button to the right.
Newsletter Spring 2022
The third edition of our E-news is now available and has been sent to members. You can also read a copy by clicking the button to the right.
Notice of Annual General Meeting
Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Chorleywood Signal Box will be held at the Chorleywood Golf Club, Common Road, Chorleywood, Herts. WD3 5LN at 7pm on Thursday the 9th of December.
AGENDA
Apologies for Absence.
Approval of the Minutes – as this is our first AGM, there are none.
Reports of Officers.
Presentation and adoption of accounts.
Election of Officers for the next calendar year.
Subscriptions and fees for the coming year.
Any other motions which have been advised with the AGM notice.
Any other business.
Date of next meeting.
Newsletter Autumn 2021
The second edition of our E-news is now available and has been sent to members. You can also read a copy by clicking the button to the right.
Newsletter Summer 2021
The first edition of our E-news is now available and has been sent to members. You can also read a copy by clicking the button to the right.
Thank You !
A big thank you to every one who has already donated to the signal box project, many of which have been anonymous.
With special thanks to Chorleywood Parish Council for their generous grant of £3,500 and to County Councillor Phil Williams for a grant of £500 from his Locality Budget.
March 2021 - New appeal for Chorley Wood Signal Box
Last autumn we asked residents for suggestions about the possible use of the empty signal box at the south end of our station’s down platform. This prompted suggestions that included an educational museum for children and adults alike. This could focus on the railway and how it affected the development of Chorleywood.
Next a committee of wide local representation was established by Martin Trevett and Owen Edis. This included members from CRA, CPC, TRDC, RDRA, CU3A and A&CMRS (see in full below). Since then five Zoom meetings have been held from which good progress has been made in establishing a Constitution, appointing officers, obtaining a bank account, and setting up this website. Most recently a representative from TfL, the owners of the Box, has joined in the meetings. We are hoping for a second site visit in April (when allowed) that will involve other London Underground specialists including the curator of LU Museum.
Ideas for the museum are to have display boards with historical photographs and posters showing the original development and changes to the railway. This would include original track plans with a possible operational model of the station and goods yard (now occupied by the station car park). Also information about past events, reference books, memories of those who served on or watched the railway over the years, and displays of any railwayana that can be made available. We may even include some sounds from steam days.
But before we can do this, the inside of the box needs refurbishing and safe access arrangements need to be installed bearing in mind it is situated on a working railway. It is estimated that these works would cost in the region of £15,000. So our next step is to seek donations and obtain grants from whatever sources we can. To get started we have sent out a Just Giving (Crowdfunding) notice hoping to initially raise £5000 from interested people.
This link will take you to the Just Giving page. Please contribute.
In the meantime, if you have any photos, interesting personal experiences/memories of the railway to describe, or appropriate items of railwayana, please contact the project secretary at 07713862738 or secretary@chorleywoodsignalbox.co.uk. Much of this will go on the Gallery, Memories and History pages on this website some of which will be displayed in the museum when it comes to fruition.
Abbreviations:
CRA = Chorleywood Residents Association
CPC = Chorleywood Parish Council
TRDC = Three Rivers District Council
RDRA = Rickmansworth and District Residents Association
CU3A = Chorleywood University of Third Age
A&CMRS = Amersham and Chorleywood Model Railway Society
January 2021 - Progress Report
Towards the end of 2020, The Chorleywood Residents Association (CRA) sent out a survey to all subscribers to their monthly e-Newsletter to get views of the residents on possible use of the empty signal box on Chorleywood station. A majority of residents thought it might be best used as an educational museum to include information about the influence of the coming of the railway in 1889 to the development of Chorleywood. This could be similar to the Lady Ela museum in the old summer house in the Chorleywood House Estate with displays of historic posters, photographs, books, memories and perhaps a working model of the station when it was operated before electrification with a functional goods yard.
Accordingly, a virtual project was set up by Martin Trevett and Owen Edis to move this idea forward. A group consisting of representatives from Three Rivers and the Chorleywood Parish Councils, Chorleywood U3A, Amersham and Chorleywood Model Railway Society, Rickmansworth and District Residents’ Association, CRA and most recently Transport for London, was formed.
So far the team has met virtually three times and had a virtual meeting with TfL to find out about protocols and significent issues that affect the project such as leasing, insurance etc. etc. Some long standing residents have already started sharing books and photographs and providing information from their memories of when the line was operated by steam.
Next steps are to get answers to our many questions from TfL, confirm costing proposals made last year by TfL which were to refurbish the interior and provide safe access either from the car park or the down platform. Then there will be a need to raise funds from as many sources as possible, including local residents who would like to support the project. In this connection ideas are being considered to start a Friends of Chorleywood Signal Box and of course, open a business bank account. We have agreed on three officers of Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. CRA’s IT guru Mike Stansfield has started dedicated email addresses for the three Officers and opened a website for which this article might be the first.
It is proposed to keep residents informed via the CRA eNewsletter and their biannual magazine ‘The Chorleywood Resident’. We thank all residents who have already offered their support and we shall be keeping those individuals appraised of progress directly.
August 2020 - The future of our Locally Listed Signal Box
Between 26th August and 19th September 2020 over 100 responses were received to a survey included in the CRA August 2020 e-Newsletter (link).
You can read the results below.