Schoolboy, Servant, GWR Apprentice: The Memoirs Of Alfred Plumley

In 1890, after strings were pulled by his kindly mistress at the big house, 16-year-old pageboy Alfred Plumley unexpectedly found himself leaving domestic service and beginning an apprenticeship with the GWR. Based on his own eloquent memoir, this book uses Alfred’s two years as a "lad porter" at a Somerset village station to explore the importance of the railways in 19th century rural life. Highspirited Alfred quickly comes to love his new life and, undeterred by an unhappy temporary posting to the "great city" of Bristol, ends up spending 45 years a GWR employee. Alfred's words evoke a time when life was harder but pleasures were simple, friendships were lasting and the railway was king.