Charles Smith and family, Histon Station

Histon Station, Station Road

History of Histon Station

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1881 Station Road

Charles Paige, 34, station master, b Essex

Elizabeth née Smith, 24, b Herts

Alice, 3, b London, b London

Frederick William, 1,

Maria, 5 mos, b Impington

Charles held various positions from age 14 at Wisbech before becoming station master at Histon. He retired through ill health in January 1908 and died later that year at the Limes, Impington.

Charles was the son of Frederick William Paige. Frederick suffered a number of injuries working for Great Eastern Railway.

Accident record of Frederick William Paige GER

Accidents which happened to Frederick William Paige who was 30 years a servant of the Great Eastern Railway Co.
Right arm broken

Ruptured a blood vessel

Right leg fractured and bone protruded through the skin

Right ribs badly injured and one broken

Right eye taken out and scraped

Little finger of right hand dislocated

Second finger nail and part of first joint of right hand taken away

Left side badly injured and cartilages ruptured. Nearly fatal.

Left arm nearly torn out by an engine

Left arm dislocated

Right leg badly injured two years before he recovered.

Left hand poisoned dangerously

He had had several teeth extracted, also had been leeched, bled, cupped, blistered, and had mustard plasters by dozens.

He died by sudden inflammation on the heart on Feb. 18th 1874.

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1891 Railway Station

Charles Paige, 44, railway station master, b Essex

Elizabeth, 34, b Herts

Alice, 13, b London

Frederick, 11, b Impington

Lilian, 6, b Impington

Eva M Jones, visitor, 4, b Histon

Alice became a professional photographer and later a clerk at Chivers.

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1901 Railway Station

In the photo are Charles and Elizabeth Smith, Frederick William, Alice, Maud Amy in front of Frederick and Lilian.

Charles Paige, 54, station master

Elizabeth, 44,

Frederick, 21, railway goods clerk

Maud, 20,

Lilian, 16

Frederick was a railway clerk initially in Cambridge but then moved to Bishops Stortford.

Maud married her cousin Percival.

Lilian became the principal of a private music school and married a man 22 years her junior who was also a clerk at Chivers. In 1939 Lilian and Reginald Barnes are at 77 Station Road and Alice at 79 Chesterton ….

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1915

PC sent this very helpful email in 2026:

Frederick William Paige (Senior) was the first of the Paige family to work for Great Easter Railway and what he started led to a cumulative 724 years of Paiges working on the railway. He also suffered a number of injuries while working for GER, which I include as one of the resources. One of his sons, Charles Paige, features on the Histon Station project. Charles Paige was my great grandfather, he married Elizabeth (nee Smith) and as the Histon Project notes, had 4 children, Alice, Frederick William (I have found references to his name as “Frederic”, I presume to distinguish him from his grandfather) then Maud Amy and Lilian. These were my grandfather and great aunts. And of course little Maria, of whom I knew nothing about until reading your pages – do you have any further information? I presume a death in infancy? As an aside, on the Histon Project under the 1901 Census heading, the description of the current photo I think suggests Charles’s surname was Smith, which, of course, is wrong.

The photo I attach, entitled Staff at Histon Station (c. 1915) features my grandfather, Frederic Paige, middle row second from the right, and to his right the Station Master William Becket Herbert, who I assume succeeded Charles Paige at Histon. The Herberts were also grand railwaying folk, at least 3 generations, and William Becket’s daughter, Blanche Kate Herbert ended up marrying Frederic William Paige in on 5th February, 1915 and hence two great railway families were united. First product of that marriage was my mother, Vera Paige.

Frederic became Station Master at Clare Station, I think when my mother was still a young girl, so early 1920s(?) and the station house there was my mother’s childhood home.

My great aunt Maud did indeed marry her cousin, Percival (or Percy) in 1927. She was housekeeper (and neice) to Percy’s recently widowed father, and that’s how they got to know each other.

Cyril Paige, who features in the press cutting, the last known Paige to work for the railway, moved to the Hunstanton area. He would have been an uncle to my mother, and another famous Paige was Police Sergeant Ken Paige, who suffered a career-ending injury in the Cambridge student riots of the 1960s, when Harold Wilson was visiting – some press cuttings if you are interested? Ken would have been a cousin of my mother.

My great aunt Alice lived next door to her sister, Lilian and her Husband Reginald, and after Lilian’s death, Reginald used to drive Alice to and from my parent’s house in Barkingside where she stayed for a couple of weeks, perhaps twice a year. This is where, in May 1967, Alice met her tragic death, falling into the goldfish pond, striking her head on a concrete feature and thus drowned before my parents could save her. 

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1965 press cutting about the Paige family

Photo captions:

At the end of the line—Mr. Cyril Paige, who retires today after 51 years as a booking clerk at Hunstanton.

Grandfather—Mr. Frederick William Paige. He started the family’s railway record in 1838.

END OF THE LINE OF RAILWAY PAIGES
BRITAIN’S longest-serving railway family, the Paiges, come to the end of the line today.

In all, 21 Paiges have served a total of 724 years on the railways. And the last of them, Mr. Cyril Paige, of Church Street, Hunstanton, retires today after 51 years as a booking clerk.

The Paiges’ remarkable record all started with grandfather, Mr. Frederick William Paige, who joined the railways in 1838. When he retired after 36 years’ service he was stationmaster at North Wootton.

Four of the 21 railway Paiges were women, who worked at stations during the second world war. But, strangely enough, although the railway was in the family’s blood, not one of them became an engine driver.

Mr. Cyril Paige, who has worked at Hunstanton all his life, says:

“I was born in a station house and a railwayman almost before I could walk.”
Asked if there was a secret behind the family’s remarkable association with the railways, he said it wasn’t so much choice in those days.

“What is it about the railways? Well, there’s certainly a fraternal spirit among railwaymen. I have no regrets for taking the job.”
When he began he received 85 shillings for a 72-hour week doing general clerical duties. Sunday was a day off. But the Paiges could not resist spending it by the side of a model railway.

CHANGES
Mr. Paige says:

“There’s been a tremendous amount of chopping and changing on the railways over the past few years. But railwaymen today enjoy better working conditions and shorter hours. Their lot has improved tremendously.”
Three other members of the family also served on the railways for 51 years and three others for 50 years.

Most of the service was in East Anglia.

This is the family record:

Frederick William Paige, 36 years; his sons,

Charles Paige, 46
E. G. Paige, 51
A. W. Paige, 51
W. B. Paige, 50
T. A. Paige, 36
F. W. Paige, son of Charles Paige, 49

Alice Paige (daughter of Charles Paige), 6

A. E. Paige, 50

W. R. Paige, 44

George Paige, 51

S. Paige, 15

(all sons of E. G. Paige)

A. T. Paige, 50

H. E. Paige, 34

P. Paige, 47

W. R. Paige, 43

(sons of A. W. Paige)

C. Paige, 51

H. Paige, 1

Florence Paige, 4

(sons and daughter of F. A. Paige)

Mrs. S. Jackson, 6

Mrs. J. Bodger, 3

(daughters of A. E. Paige)