>William gave his occupation as servant, which could mean >many things. Possibly in this case 'railway servant' which included clerks etc. >However they moved to Wakefield, Yorks around 1840 and by 1841 his occupation >was Railway Inspector. By 1851 he was the station master in Wakefield. >In your previous response you made reference to the difficulty in getting a job >as a station employee. I have often wondered how a country boy from Kent, >working far from home, managed to get what was probably a very good job at the >other end of the country. He must have had a reasonable education, since clerks were expected to write a very neat hand, deal with maths etc. And to become a station master he must have been a high flyer. It will certainly be worth looking for him in the records of the railway company. Finding out which railway co is the first necessity - maybe (London and) North Eastern, or maybe one of the cross Pennine lines. Writing to the Railway Museum in York may get the necessary information in this case (saying he was stationmaster at Wakerfield). >I don't recall having seen you mention your railway ancestors before in your >many postings so was interested to see the comment. My Dimmock line were yeoman >farmers in Bedfordshire around Wootton. William Dimmock, well known Bucks name. > son of a yeoman farmer >was born 1805, became a tenant farmer (coincidentally near Sherington I think) >as his inheritance wasn't very big. His son Barnard, b 1831, worked on the farm >at first, then moved to Newport Pagnell where he became a corn merchant. His >father William retired and lived with him. The business presumably failed as >both father and son then went to work on the railway, the old boy as a porter >and the son as a labourer at Wolverton loco works. The family then moved to >Derby where many of them worked in the loco and carriage & wagon works. The >story seems to be typical of the move from working on the land to industrial >towns. There are some recoprds of the Wolverton Works in the Milton Keyenes Museum (open spring-autumn - and you need a special appointment to see the railway staff books, because someone h as to sit with you.) -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society