Image caption, Christopher Awdry was two years old when his father wrote Thomas the Tank Engine
ByBen Sidwell, Reporting fromin Kings Norton and Elliot Ball, West Midlands- Published2 hours ago
Many readers may not be aware that one of the most successful and culturally influential British children's series ever, which many will have read and still read, has its origins in a Birmingham suburb.
Christopher Awdry, the son of Reverend Wilbert Awdry who created Thomas the Tank Engine, said the series' roots were entrenched in Kings Norton, just 200 yards (183m) from its railway station where he lay ill with measles in 1942.
"It's not something we've really publicised," Christopher Awdry joked.
In a bid to keep his son entertained, his father would come up with stories and draw pictures of a gang on locomotives, who would go on to become Thomas and friends and, as Awdry says, "the rest was history".
"I caught measles in the middle of 1942, and my doctor told me to spend three weeks in bed in quarantine," the 85-year-old recalled. "No visitors.
"So father made up stories but to begin with he'd draw a picture and it was of an engine shed, and a line of locomotives in it.
"Apparently, I started asking questions about the engines and, from those answers, he realised he could make up a story about an engine that wanted to go out to pull a train and wasn't able to.
"That engine was called Edward. The story he made up was Edward being allowed to go out and pull a train.
"The story developed. Edward went out and pulled a train, it was a great success, he thoroughly enjoyed it but that was the end of that."
But there were more engines in Wilbert Awdry's original picture.
One of these was a "very big and very proud" engine called Gordon - inspired by one of Christopher Awdry's childhood friends.
Image source, PA MediaImage caption, The little blue engine went on to find fame on television screens
In an early story, Gordon became stuck on a steep hill and needed Edward to push him up it. According to Christopher Awdry, this hill was likely inspired by Lickey Hill, between Birmingham and Worcester.
"It would have been something an engine man would have experienced, or known of, from the nearby Lickey Hill that comes up from Bromsgrove to Lickey," he said.
A third character was named Henry, an engine who hated the rain and was actually inspired by a real American locomotive that had gone wrong and was left in a tunnel.
That left a fourth engine, who was not used in any story but would be made out of scraps and gifted to Christopher Awdryat Christmas.
The model was painted blue with the number one on its side, and Christopher would go on to name him Thomas.
"Don't ask me where I got the name Thomas from but that's how it happened, he said.
But Wilbert Awdry's stories did not make it to paper until he was urged by his wife to create something for his children after she had failed to find any suitable story books in Birmingham.
One family connection after another and he was put in touch with a publisher in Leicestershire who agreed to publish his stories on the condition he wrote a fourth story that had a happy ending for poor Henry.
The first editions of the books were released in 1945, around VE Day.
After three weeks, Wilbert Awdry was contacted by his publisher to say the series was doing so well a second edition was required immediately.
The books continued to sell like "hot cakes" and he was asked to write more stories, which he tested on his son.
These books were named Thomas The Tank Engine, and were all about His son's little blue model.
"The rest was history," said Christopher Awdry.
The stories have also proved a boon for the tourism industry in Staffordshire.
In 2008, Thomas Land was introduced at Drayton Manor, near Tamworth, and staff said since then, millions of people have been to see Thomas and his friends.
"One grew up with them," one parent told the BBC, "so because we get so excited about it, our son does too."
"He loves the trains, the engines, the tracks, he loves the stories," another mum said.
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Related topics
- Thomas the Tank Engine
- Children's television
- Television
- Steam trains
- Children's literature
- Tamworth
- Bromsgrove
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