Walking Britain's Railways - C5 8pm

Sun 13 Dec 2020, 13:56

Brigid - I’m not sure any of that stretch is publicly accessible.  It was a landslip around Great Rollright/Hook Norton that shut that part of the line even before Beeching.

Sun 13 Dec 2020, 13:42 (last edited on Sun 13 Dec 2020, 14:02)

For those interested in what the environment and social conditions were about the area around Hook Norton through which the railway ran plus some more limited footage of the line itself and the ironstone works and the Hook Norton brewery.

Whilst it is not about our immediate area, the study was meant to be about rural issues in general which could be applied across the other areas and, obviously, to our part of Oxfordshire. There were themes of depopulation, dependency on buses, reducing farm labour forces, consolidation of farms, land ownership.

It's also obvious from this just how different things before the cars took over.

What is also striking is that this was based on a study by Oxford University in 1943 looking at post-war reconstruction. We tend to think that, during WW II, the war effort would have dominated everything and there wasn't time to consider the future. However, it wasn't so. Much of what we now take for granted was researched during WW II, from things like domestic electrical wiring standards to health, social security and education.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lAYSqNOd88&feature=emb_logo

nb. the film was narrated by John Arlott, if you wonder where you've heard that voice before.

Sat 12 Dec 2020, 19:00

Can anyone recommend a walkable stretch of the track between Chippy and Hook Norton? I've visited the nature reserve by the tunnel N-W of Swerford, but that's an isolated bit.  As none of it appears as a footpath on the OS map it's hard to tell how one might access it.

Fri 11 Dec 2020, 21:26

Thanks for the heads up on this Steve. I found it fascinating. I know a lot of this landscape but it was great to see all the old pictures - it's incredible to think how the countryside can change so radically in a few generations.

Thu 10 Dec 2020, 16:24

One Crawborough resident (not I) worked at Chippy Station 1951 - 1956, and commuted there by rail.

Thu 10 Dec 2020, 08:28

Thanks Steve. Always a favourite walk around the viaduct piers at Hook Norton. And the drainage still works well on the old trackbed! 

Wed 9 Dec 2020, 12:51 (last edited on Wed 9 Dec 2020, 12:51)

Thanks Steve.

Apologies, I didn't "clock" the time!

Will begin warming the valves now!

Also, thanks for the catch up link...

Wed 9 Dec 2020, 12:44

Apologies, time (8pm) was in the title, but not the date, which is this Friday (11th). There is a catch-up service as well.

https://www.channel5.com/show/walking-britains-lost-railways/

Wed 9 Dec 2020, 12:03

Thanks for this,, look forward to seeing it 

Wed 9 Dec 2020, 11:51

Thanks Steve.  Time/date?

Wed 9 Dec 2020, 10:02 (last edited on Wed 9 Dec 2020, 10:17)

For those interested in such things, the trailer for the next episode of C5's excellent "Walking Britain's Railways" series shows it will be featuring the disused line from Kingham to Banbury via Kings Sutton that passed through Chipping Norton and Hook Norton and seems to include a visit to the brewery at the latter. Quite a lot is accessible in that area as there's a linear nature reserve on part of the old track bed, but a lot is not.

There are some interesting things on that line, including the remains of two viaducts near Hook Norton and the remains of a couple of significant tunnels. I'm sure Bliss Mill will surely feature too. Of course, the line continued through Kingham to the south west via Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water to Cheltenham. It's unclear from the trailer if that's covered too, but I suspect it will be as the whole thing became what was called the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway.

Presumably some of the older residents of Charlbury will recall using the line before it closed in 1963 as part of the Beeching cuts.