Following World War 2 the railways of Great Britain were in a very run down state and had suffered from under investment and competition from road transport. Heavy financial losses continued and a Modernisation Plan was developed to both reduce the size of the network and eliminate steam traction.
As a result steam traction was run down as dirty, inefficient, labour intensive and unattractive to work on.
Firstly 7812 found itself displaced from the South West by the early onset of dieselisation in 1960(?). Regular piloting of express trains over the gradients between Newton Abbot and Plymouth was no longer required with reducing train lengths and powerful diesels. Fortunately 7812 found further employment joining its sister locomotives on the former Cambrian lines.
Regional boundary changes saw the Cambrian routes change to London Midland Region management and younger BR Standard locomotives displaced by dieselisation elsewhere became available. As a result the rein on the Manors in North Wales came to an end in late 1965 at the same time as the remaining Western Region examples were taken out of service.
With a few last rites on special workings during their last year in service, 7802 and 7812 were withdrawn in November 1965 along with the other Manors by then allocated to Shrewsbury Depot.
From the late 1950’s faced with the disposal of thousands of redundant steam locomotives, BR had created a market in their disposal as scrap to private contractors.
Tranches of several locos were offered for sale by competitive tender and with a near flooded market sold at knock down prices to the highest bidding contractor.
As a result Manors 7802/12/19/20/21/22/27/28 were all sold to Woodham Bros of Barry and towed there on what should have been their final journey in spring 1966. Interestingly 7802 was the last to make that journey lingering at Shrewsbury for several months after the others had gone. The reason for that remains a mystery.
Had they been sold to any of the other contractors it is certain that breaking up would have taken place within weeks.