As Mysteries go there's not a lot left to uncover but we can certainly try and unravel how things
turned out the way they did now one such mystery is what a Midland Railway never reached the South
Coast at least under their own Steam a quick look at this map by Rail map online now you're
looking at exactly what I did a few weeks ago and well I was wondering why all these Branch lines
never carried on from where they ultimately got to and then I saw these gwr branches and I wondered
why they too went to nowhere and this void in the landscape somehow managed to escape Railway Mania
welcome to the story of why Midland Railway didn't reach the South Coast under their own steam but
perhaps more importantly titled while those lines didn't ever join up so let's start here
with this little graphic 1840 London to Bristol was connected by gwr, ensue, Railway Mania not
long after this Midland Railway also reached Bristol but this time from the north well at
least 1845 they take over the line that did game on 1845 and the wheelchair and Gloucester Junction
Railway was proposed it would have passed Avening, now this sounds really positive although I'm not
sure who it was proposed by perhaps an independent company it's difficult not to see Midland Railway
benefiting in any way it didn't come to anything like so many of the railways at the time foreign
there was an act that passed that was the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway
which joined or intended to join Swindon on up to Cheltenham but it didn't make it certainly in
its early days there's a one disuse station on this main line which still exists today
um minty and Ashton Keynes it headed on up here but it didn't make it as
far as Cheltenham in fact it turned to the East and went to Cirencester
in stepped gwr and as Midland Railway reach Bristol gwr take
over this line and connect it on up through the Cotswolds to Gloucester
this bit of territory is now firmly in their grip and at this point Midland Railway must
have sensed that their task to reach the South Coast had become significantly harder
so my journey is going to start right here in fact I'm still in an old abandoned Railway right
now I'm going to walk along the Tetbury branch line but that didn't sound like a very exciting
YouTube video in its own right so I thought I'd tell you the story of all of those branch lines
whilst I walk along the Tetbury branched I know we're here at uh Kemble and it used to have a
couple of Branch lines going out from either side as active stations still at the moment
the Tetbury branch line went towards the west from this station the old platform was just over there
now Kemble quite a beautiful little station it's got a lot of architecture and a lot of
um hat tips to the old Railways so join me today as I walk along the Tetbury branch line and tell
you the story of all of those mini Branch lines and why they didn't really ever meet up thank you
I'm trying to find the first stop on the Tetbury branch line which is Jackaments halt
so this was a wooden halt set up in 1939 quite late obviously in the railway grounded scheme
of things for the workers who built the RAF base of course is now I guess Kimball Airport
platforms so I guess I'm not going to see anything
scouted around a bit I can't find much some lovely old coal that's around here though
1856 and we have the Dursley and Midland Junction Railway right at the top on the left of the map
Now by and large this isn't an attempt by Midland Railway to head south for a start it's too close
to the already existing Bristol line it's moreover Midland Railway just inheriting it as such because
it's making such losses yeah and we're just coming up to Rod Martin platform ahead of me
the two large Bridge abutments you can hear me over the traffic now Rod Martin platform
as far as can be told built 1904 it's one of the first places to use the term platform somewhere
between Holt and station is my understanding I don't know if there's any way up look
s like that just like that
I actually thought there may be something left to this platform being as it is a platform rather
than a halt alas nothing left I'm pretty sure it is this side so we would see if there was
just a thin embankment of the Railway which is beautiful in itself so we shall move on
1867 the story continues and we do have a line that's further away from the Bristol line it
could be a viable route itself there's a story we've told before you can check out the link
here it's the StoneHouse and nailsworth Branch line again built independently run out of money
within a year or so once again taken over by the Midland Railway company so is this a route
South is this something the Midland company can now get to grips with and carry it on
so stood is just above Churchill's whole open 1959 I guess an attempt to rescue the railway
close by the road we're closing 1964 and I can see very little remains even from down by the
bridge no steps up nothing no Pathways I could see all gone I'm afraid onwards to the east west west
so as far as the Tetbury line itself goes built 1889 an attempt by gwr to connect
some more of the uh populations and the industry in this area
kind of a bit of a red herring in the whole story because the whole story Still Remains
why did Midland Railway not connect down South by their own steam this line really ultimately
probably has nothing to do with that story but I still wanted to take off because there's a
lot of stations so forgive me for my um own Indulgence and this is one of two that was
actually built when the line opened itself so 1889 Culkerton station and Tetbury were
the only ones on there obviously at halts as we've seen added along the way private house
what has confused me is the way it looks now looks like a huge Circle Box I really would
love to see an old picture of Culkerton can't seem to find one on the internet
but obviously that's now a private residence um it was open as I said it's one of the main
stations on the line closed in 1956 reopened in 1959 as a whole with some of the other halts
I think Bradshaw always referred to it as a station didn't add halt foreign
so we're just picking up the last section of the line before we get into Tetbury
we've missed the station TroubleHouse halt one of the Quirk here
uh disuse stations that we've seen that was this wonderful story it summarizes for me the end of
the Railway era it's only open for five years but obviously plays such an important part in
that period for the lives of the people that lived around it and used it and utilized it
because the last train to leave this line headed down to Paddington and it contained
from that station trouble household a coffin with empty whiskey jars in and they were all inscribed
with Richard beaching on them as a sort of Acts of defiance if you will it's a beautiful little Story
and there's a few others from this line too which I won't bother you with right now but just Google
trouble household what we are going to see now is our last beautiful section of this line as we try
and piece together all of these Branch lines in this area we've got one more to talk about
as we head into Tetbury where I'm really pleased to found this um part of the line to walk on line
the old um war effort to stop in tank Invasion I guess right there never knew that was part of this
um area of the world so I'm really pleased I found this bit of track bed that we've uh walking along
because it's probably the only bit of today's walk that we can actually do that and it is
ah really rather beautiful we've got another mile or so to go before we get into Tetbury and it's
probably time we talked about one last Branch line in this area and that's the malsbury branch
line now very early on we talked about the 1845 proposed root straight line across there which
would have taken into account malesby but it took till 9 1865 for malsbury to be back on the cards
this time with the wilts and Gloucester Railway company where Junction's gone now
it's just great news the people of Maryland we've got extremely excited
and again an independent company the first sod was cut in malmesbury 1865 as a station a tunnel
and a joyous time such was the the enthusiasm of the company they said to gwr and Midland Railway
at the time that they would build the railway both standard gauge and Broad gate what could possibly
go wrong well immediately that rang alarm Bell certainly for gwr and probably forbidden Railway
to a degree because that meant that they will both be able to get into each other's territory
progress on the line pretty much came to a halt straight away gwr found every possible way to
get out of their agreement with the wheelchair and Gloucester Railway company and they did that
malesbury would unfortunately have to wait another 13 or 14 years before it got its own
Railway and even then it was just a branch up from daunstey on the gwr main Bristol to London line
Midland Railway though didn't seem too displeased at the time because
they already had an ace up their sleeve they'd yet to use yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah
so from the Tetbury branch line itself well this is the end of the line in Tetbury and
there's so many little hat tips to the railway here the old turntable there
station building or at least the station good shed perhaps that's what it was
um and a million other different hat tips to the railway just back down there lovely little
Parkland area here very quiet very tranquil until I came along and started waffling
so what was the ace it was up the sleeve of the Midland Railway well Somerset and Dorset Railway
was losing money and eventually it was taken over jointly by the Midland Railway and London
Southwestern Railway which kind of makes sense brings a nice conclusion to the end of this and
why Midland rally didn't reach the South Coast by their own steam although they did reach the South
Coast perhaps under terms they didn't exactly want having to share it with another Railway company so
this has been every disused station from the Tetbury branch line hope you've enjoyed it I
hope you've enjoyed um this type of video because we do still want to cover Railways even though we
um do stray a little bit from them we'll see you this time next Sunday thanks for watching