Part 1 - A 1963 BBC programme showing the 24 mile S&D line from Evercreech Junction. In this first episode we reach Highbridge - then the end of passenger services.
"Forget motor cars, get rid of anxiety." Oh, indeed. An exquisite and most tidy presentation of the station and its train. Thank you, John Betjeman; how lovely to have a voice as you owned.
I wish this slow and relaxed style of presenting would make a return. These days every show on telly has some loud and obnoxious narrator with music constantly playing in the background.
Pure nostalgia. A quiet uncluttered England that has somehow been lost. John Betjeman documented it so poignantly in his poetry and these delightful little films.
These films feel like they are from a bygone age where life was little unchanged from 50 years ago. They are a delight to watch. Gas lamps in the 1960s!
An excellent program to relax your mind of today's trouble and turmoil with Sir John Betjeman, I can watch it time after time, I remember the early 60s so well
What an absolute national treasure this man is. We need to reinstate the branch lines in his honour. Glastonbury, Street and Wells without a railway station! A disgrace!
My Great-Great-Grandfather was stationmaster at Glastonbury in 1880. A life worth living indeed. A delightful little glimpse of what it must have been like.
Nearly 60 years ago now and he accurately predicted the traffic chaos and subsequent reduction in the quality of life, how was it that he could see this and yet no one else did? Unfortunately he mentioned one of the reasons the station was 2 miles from the village it served, this was the case for many village and town stations and this encouraged people to acquire a car.
Agreed. Also the train service would not have been frequent and an enterprising bus company might provide a more frequent service from the village square to the nearest town instead of a 2 mile walk. Once you had a car, why bother with the train ?
I'm live not far from this line (And the line from Wells to Yatton used to run through my village), but I recognize so many locations, such as the Girder bridge (at 5:55) and Shapwick, and there's no sign of the station now. A crying shame all the lines in the area were taken up. Worth mentioning too that the bus services in the area now are expensive and absolutely appalling! The railways are a link that we need, but we can't rebuild them. John. B was absolutely right, to the letter!
This is fantastic. Am I the only person struck by Sir John's comentary? His knowledge, the cadence and seductive language are identical to 'Metroland'. Put it on DVD and I'll buy it tomorrow
Thank you for uploading this video. I regret I missed the original program when it was first broadcast in 1963. Then aged 17, I suppose I was far 'too busy misspending my youth' and not taking too much heed of the 'diminishing treasures' being lost all around me. JB was truly a 'man of vision' and its such a pity that 'those in power' at the time failed to take notice. He was not a 'sentimentalist'. He correctly realised that the Branch Lines really had a part to play in the future of our country if our roads were not to 'grind to a halt' and become over-congested. Anyone stuck on a motorway for hours would readily agree with him.
Not Marples the Transport Minister appointee of Beeching and chairman of The Biggest Building Conglomorate in the Country. Just happened to collar all new motorway building contracts. Owed thirty years worth of back tax in 1974 too. Did a runner overnight to Luxembourg,then France where he had A Chateux. No doubt The U K Taxpayer bought that also !
I suspect the stations were quiet for most of the time and the staff had plenty of time to maintain the flowerbeds. Passenger numbers were probably low, and line was loss making.
A delight to watch. I highly recommend an evening dining train experience now offered on many preserved steam railways. It'll take you right back to those days and help keep them going too!
The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. What a crying shame they ripped up this line, now they have no rail link in that area MORE traffic on the roads. I did a 2 year survey of the remaining track bed and its mostly all still there! Wouldnt it be fantastic if it could be relaid and become a working steam railway again. They are opening up old lines again so why not the S&D? 🤷🏻♂️ This would be a superb way for people to get to Glastonbury Festival! My 2 heroes Sir John Betjeman and the S&DJR
It is remarkable that Sir John could see merit in Victorian buildings at a time when most historians saw anything dating after the Georgian period as vulgar and squalid. In his gentle and charming way he educated people in the true value of the local scene. Perhaps he contributed much to the later upsurge of interest in local history.
It was wonderfull around The Clyde Basin in the Late Fifties Early Sixties to a child,especially on walks on warm summer evenings and in the mornings. Also the odd glimpses I got of England when my parents went back.
I used to live near this line in a village called Ashcott, about a mile east of Shapwick. Of course the line had already been gone for 9 years when I got there in 1975.
The little Collett 0-6-0, so at home in its Somerset Levels surroundings makes me want to go off and model GWR/BR WR, but am too set in my LSWR/SR/BR SR ways! These films are delightful vignettes of days when England was a more caring, less greedy and selfish country, and who better than Betjeman presenting them?
Yep, a new station opened on a line near me. It consists of some benches, a footbridge over the line, and a ticket machine. Long gone are the days of the beautifully constructed Victorian stations. Wouldn’t it be great to travel back in time and explore all of the lines and buildings which have since forever disappeared
In most cases there isn't even an active station nowadays thanks to the British Satan, 'Bastard' Beeching. I remember reading that one region in Scotland hasn't seen ANY public transport (even buses) for 50 years.
This just has to be one of the finest railways films ever made, but sadly the ruthless destruction conveyed so eloquently by JB still thrives today in the hearts and minds of those too stupid to learn from past mistakes, after 31 years as a village station master i discovered the managers want to reduce the manned hours from 128 a week to 15 throwing 2 livelihoods in jeopardy ,JB would turn in his grave if he knew lessons from the past had not been learnt .
I wouldn't read too much into it - I think the idea is the best sort of nostalgia is one where you have no memory of it in the first place - just an impression of what an era was like - hence my feel for the 1950's are very much peace and tranquility as seen in the video above.
Travelled to The Clyde Coast on them regularly as a young kid in 58 - 64. Must have been awfull for adults needing the loo. Still remember the belts on the windows,the lovely photographs and the heating valves. Not to mention the ashtrays. What a B - - - - - mess a kid could make. A Very happy childhood,I was lucky.
There are more people traveling on railways than ever before and yes I do think it could be made to pay if these local lines were run more like a tram system. Don't get me wrong, I love the steamers especially the GWR. I do have vague memories of travelling on this line when I was very small, about 5 or 6 so it did make some impression on me. Thanks for posting.
Went to London from Glasgow as a kid of five.Then on to Shoram by electric. London train was hauled by what I much Later learned was A Duchess Pacific from 'That Great Then Cathedral of Steam,St Enoch Station,as big as Central and even more interesting. Still Remember the accents as the crews changed over sixty odd years later. One of many great train journeys.
Heartbreakingly sad. Our railways were closed down and ripped up for one reason, and that reason was Tory transport minister Ernest Marples a director of Marples Ridgeway road building consortium who enrolled Beeching (who knew nothing about railways) to decimate the railway network as much as possible and spend money on roads instead so that he Marples would get the road building contracts. Marples later fled abroad to escape fraud prosecution. The whole thing stinks.
Was most likely necessary however, network rail can scarcely maintain the mainlines that we have today let alone countless branch lines. It is a shame that it was removed but many would be unusable and unprofitable now anyway.
Many branch lines were closed here in the US. It was the railroad companies that closed them, as they were unprofitable, especially in the granger country in the Mid-West. Now, grain elevators are located next to the main lines. Also many mines and mills closed, hence, no need for branch lines.
@soaringstar this was a BBC production - it's never been released on DVD, and this upload has been taken from a 1987 BBC VHS release. The Betjeman BBC work that *should* be on DVD is 'Thank God It's Sunday' of course ... that 1995 repeat was key for me.
I fully agree, if I stray to an upload I am not overly interested in, as long as its not offensive or made to offend. I simply leave and continue to look for something I am, I don't leave a dislike for no valid reason.
@brucesterman well, you have to remember that at the time (1962/3) a lot of people *didn't* want it to stay like that - many things people have now (for good reason) got bored with/depressed by (the universal car, pop culture, mass commercialism/Americanisation, etc.) seemed exciting then to an extent that is hard to understand now. That is why this film moves me, actually - the sense that that world was crumbling, the Beatles just on the edge (read Ian McEwan's 'On Chesil Beach').
And it wasn't Beeching who had lines lifted - his recommendation was that they be closed until such time as a a need for them arose - the government disagreed, and built all over the lifted routes.
Beeching was Marples Patsy.Fewer people recognised this at the time, thats how 'The Bold Boy got away with it. Beeching was appointed at three times the salary of General Sir Brian Robertson whom he replaced and had less than half the knowledge of railways,if any.
Looking at Google Earth, I can see traces of this and other branch lines on the land and thru towns. The route thru and outside of Burnham-on-Sea is obvious.
He was so right. To re-instate the Oxford to Cambridge railway, closed around 50 years ago, the Government is proposing to spend £6-7 billion. For something that was once already there.
Railways are a public service. The concept took a long time in coming. Too late to save many of the lines we now wish we had kept. Corrupt politicians and a public that fell out of love with railways. And when a railway is reinstated after all the planners consultants and all and sundry have had their cut it costs so much more than what they saved by shutting the thing in the first place.
At last someone talking sense on this daft message board! The way people talk of branch lines and Beeching you would have thought they were demolished at the height of their popularity (a bit like closing the M25 next thursday)!
@starstruckone absolutely. Not everyone was happy, but the Government of the day was so short-sighted that they really could not foresee today's crowded railways
The line you are referring to is very famous - I have heard loads of discussion about how it was nearly saved until a last minute change of plan (the scenery is indeed superb).I'm guessing bridges have to be knocked down, tunnels filled in etc due to safety concerns - unless such features are manintained then they will collapse - after all why have bridges crossing main roads when in all likely hood they will never been used again - likewise farmers levelling cuttings and embankments.
There so safe in Scotland in country areas.Lunatic drug crazed drivers are forever killing themselves and walkers wheras previously they litteraly could not go so fast. Add to That 'Nae Polis Scotland,' in these areas now the local offices are flogged off and you have mayhem auto's. Local proprieter Mr Brian Fade ! Thanks Loony S N P. Not entirely guilty but no help.
My memory of trains as a child (early 70s) is they were dirty, cold, never ran on time, often cancelled and slow. Now I catch an air conditioned fast punctual train. Much as it is picturesque and I love restored railways I wouldn't actually use one for a daily commute. I'd use a modern service.
Bean Counters made the Railway Like That Deliberately. There is the famous story in Scotland of The Peebles Loop. Oh, We will get The Transport Users Consultative Committee(did A Bolshevik think that name )up to investigate closure. They were nowhere to be seen on the day.The local police were dispatched to find them. They found them ! In a local hostelry laughing and jugging it up with the British Railways Civil Servants appointed to close the line .It Closed to local opposition. There are countless stories of surveys taken when the lines were at their quietest. Not on busy summer days when extra coaches had to be put on packed trains. Vandalisation of coaching stock to put passengers off,second men on diesels (your case) who did not know how the train heating boiler worked,passengers got to freeze. The best wheeze I personally came across was on T V for the whole viewing public to see. A senior civil servant admitted getting one of the nations most popular comedians of the day to make a programme ridiculing train travel. He was paid handsomely,and duly did so. I remember seeing the episode as a child although I had no Knowledge then of the agenda. I thought I still travel weekly for a long journey by bus.I am about ready to puke at the end if it I do not get like that on a train.
Now I have always liked anything John Betjeman, but he's made a mistake in saying GWR broad gauge, the line was built by the Somerset and Dorset Railway at standard gauge. the wide bridge was part of the line that had two tracks not broad gauge! the line between Glastonbury and Highbridge was mostly single line.
The waiting rooms of that time were more like home from home rooms while the modern waiting rooms resemble more like public latrines Great Shame, Britain in 2022 is just a burnt out husk
There is a plethora of videos on the S & D, but I have never seen one on the Mid;and and South Western Junction line between Cheltenham and Andover. Was one ever produced?
@starstruckone Because we didn't use the branch lines and the railways were bleeding money - in other words we didn't pay for the railways with bums on seats...
oh yeah: "the good old days" where people had two weeks holiday a year where they could go to Butlins in minehead or even exotic Skegness,houses without central heating in the then long winter months, a class system where everyone knew their place, foreign wars such as Suez,Aden,Malaysia,Kenya where British soldiers could commit atrocities which would remain secret for decades, a deferential society where few even questioned the existence of even the Royal family - so glad I missed it all!
So people warmed their living rooms and did not sit playing video games or watching TV alone in their bedrooms. Perhaps they went out to play social games, dances or the like. Foreign wars and not people blowing you up or running you down on your doorstep. The Royal family who stayed in London and did not flee the land during WWII. Familiar faces and familiar codes. I wouldn't have a problem, I know my mother who lived in this landscape certainly did not and spoke of the warmth and easy social life. I'm sad I missed it.
I know a lady from Manchester who does not speak of the warmth and easy social life of that era... on the contrary. Opinions depend on who you ask. It's well known that feelings about the past tend to be romanticized. I catch myself doing it often. I love steam trains, but they were inefficient and atrocious polluters. It's too bad that the branch lines were not saved by the lighter and more efficient diesel loco. However, it was the lighter diesel lorry engine that really trimmed the branches. I think that it was the shared hardships and beliefs of those times that wove people together. We just don't want those hardships and our beliefs face greater challenges. I think I am, at least, partly right in what i've said. Yet, I miss my local railway and the trains that are no more. Especially the steam engines. In fact, I model British trains of the pre-grouping GWR and S&DJR. Anyone reading this would probably like the BBC series here on RU-vid, Full Steam Ahead. It's in five parts and tells the story of the development of railways in Britain. It's lively, informative and entertaining.
you mean real food, not processed rubbish, an industry, no nuclear waste,a community, no corporate law, a fishing industry, cleaner air not totally polluted by cars lorries chemicals and chemtrails, when people took a pride in what they did, now its throw away products and throw away people, were you even there ?
I was a British soldier in Malaya, Singapore and Thailand 1965 -67. I witnessed the end of the British Empire. I do assure you that we committed NO atrocities.
What would Betjeman have written about cars and traffic if he were alive today. To me looking at this clip it seems like from a byegone and tranquil age.
I am totally disgusted with what beeching/marbles did with the railways bring back steam and the branch lines before its to late Roads have ruined our way of life Bring back the old railways NOW.
