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Plumley

TRADING PLACES: Richard Brown relaxes on the bench he wants to trade for one in Hertfordshire

TRAIN boff Richard Brown isn't one to sit back and do nothing.

So he couldn't wait to offer his seat as the replacement for Plumley railway station's bench - now sitting outside a pub in Hertfordshire.

"I would just like to see the original brought back to Plumley station," he said.

Two weeks ago Guardian photographer Geoff Statham was on holiday and spotted the bench outside The Ancient Eaton Camp Inn.

He discovered that a business based at Plumley station had plans to return the original bench to its home - but needed a trade-off.

"It's fantastic news that Mr Brown has offered us his bench," said Bob Mitchell, operations manager for JPD.

"I think the landlord will be pleased too because he wanted a bench of the same age and we were going to buy him a new one."

Mr Brown, who bought his railway bench eight years ago, has since restored it to its former glory.

But he said: "I wouldn't mind giving my bench up so that the one in Hertfordshire could be returned."

Now that a replacement has been tracked down, the biggest problem seems to be how to do the swap.

"I think it would take a lot of phone calls to organise for a train company to move the bench," said Mr Mitchell.

"We were looking at using a van, but it will have to be a big one because I think the benches are quite long."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.