Foxcote ManorSocietyRegistered Charity No. 1053410
About No. 7822
The story, character and continuing preservation of Foxcote Manor.
The locomotive
Built at Swindon Works in December 1950, Foxcote Manor is one of nine surviving Great Western Railway 78xx Manor Class locomotives.
A locomotive with an identity
Independent, charity-owned, a proud example of the best of British engineering.
A working locomotive
Foxcote Manor has completed 30 years of active service in preservation across four boiler tickets and more than 100,000 miles.
A continuing history
GWR No. 7822 Foxcote Manor was built at Swindon Works as the third of the final batch of ten Manor Class locomotives produced after nationalisation by British Railways. She was outshopped in unlined black livery.
The locomotive takes its name from Foxcote Manor, a Grade II listed manor house in the Cotswolds near Withington in Gloucestershire.
Designed by Charles Collett, the Manor Class combined mixed traffic power with permissive blue route availability across the GWR network.
No. 7822 entered traffic at Oswestry in December 1950. Throughout a fifteen-year British Railways career, Foxcote remained closely associated with the former Cambrian system, hauling passenger and freight trains across mid and north Wales, the Welsh Marches and the West Midlands.
Foxcote acquired a reputation for spirited performance and is reputed to hold the Manor Class speed record at 86 mph. One career highlight came on 10 August 1963, when No. 7822 was entrusted with hauling the Royal Train.
| Date | Shed | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 31 December 1950 | 89A | Oswestry |
| 24 April 1954 | 84K | Chester West |
| 6 September 1958 | 89A | Oswestry |
| 28 December 1963 | 6F | Machynlleth |
| 23 January 1965 | 6D | Shrewsbury |
Foxcote Manor was withdrawn from service in November 1965 after covering 482,693 miles under British Railways. In 1966 she was transferred to Woodham Brothers scrapyard at Barry Island.
What became the Foxcote Manor Society was formed in 1972 to rescue a Manor Class locomotive. Foxcote was purchased in 1974 and returned to Oswestry in January 1975, where volunteers began dismantling the heavily weathered engine.
Following the move to the Llangollen Railway and years of volunteer work and fundraising, No. 7822 returned to steam in 1987.
Once restored, Foxcote Manor became one of the principal locomotives of the Llangollen Railway. On Good Friday 1990 she hauled the first passenger train to reach Deeside Loop, and in 2016 became the first Manor Class locomotive to reach Corwen in 51 years.
Foxcote has also operated at preserved railways and events across the UK, building the working record that the Society continues to protect.
Foxcote Manor runs with the same tender she was paired with when sent to Barry Scrapyard. Investigation suggests that the chassis number 1727 is more likely to be its correct identity than the official number 2347.
Foxcote has completed 30 years of active service in preservation across four boiler tickets and more than 100,000 miles. During that time, the Society has invested heavily in the locomotive, including a new front tubeplate, bogie, driving wheel and tender tyres, tender tank, tender drag box and smokebox.
The boiler is a 1938-built example first fitted to No. 7819 Hinton Manor. Its copper firebox is now being renewed, together with a new steel doorplate and new three-quarter steel side sheets.
Today, No. 7822 Foxcote Manor remains a testament to the preservationists who saved her from Barry Scrapyard and to the volunteers and members supporting her return to steam.