as I stand on this spot in South Central UK I can tell you that
there are no Railways in any directions for miles
and there have been no Railways 10 miles to my north and south at least in another Direction
and maybe 15 miles in either direction East West this is England population 57 million and if you
include the entire UK the population density is something like 280 people per square kilometer and
that includes Wales Northern Ireland and Scotland but here on this relatively flat landscape in the
South, welcome to the story of why there are no Railways here just a bunch of abandoned roads.
have a look at this OS map dated between 1897 and 1907. it contains Shrewton railway
station now if I zoom down the South and to the Isle of what you'll also note that
it contains a tunnel under the solent now these two Railways have one thing
in common they don't exist never have done in my lifetime and probably never will do
now the Isle of Wight tunnels had test shafts sunk but collapsed and collapsed
led to abandonment and any attempt thereafter thwarted for the same reason but here ensuring
things were different the story behind the abandonment of this Railway well
we need to head back to a Time long before Railways were even thought of
just behind me is the Parish of East Coulston that sits about four miles to the east of Westbury with
a confusing sentence I'm heading up the hill to the south of that parish and I'm looking for the
first clue that this old Route way here was used a long time ago to cross Salisbury Plain maybe the
first killer actually is the absolute mountain of different species in the hedgerows are the side of
me that's not what I'm here to show you what is it's just over the brow of this hill if I've got
my GPS right view up here is something else here we go this is exactly what we've been looking for
this old Milestone says x i x so I guess that's 19.
from sarum XV 15 16 17 to Bath that way 17 miles to Bath that way 19 to Sarum, Salisbury now
let's go find the next one we should better predict what it says
okay so the next Milestone should be around here someone who should say sarum 18 bath 18
if that one was correct I think the old Maps um here we go the old maps
have got that slightly wrong they've taken off a 10. um yep there we are look at this
absolutely brilliant old Milestone now if we want to find the next one however
there is a bit of a problem which I'll show you just up ahead on today's little journey [Music]
on this route and follow it down to serum now my assumption perhaps like yours is that this was the
Turnpike Road because they would have used these milestones however this one doesn't appear to be
on any official record I want to carry on this old Route well got a bit of a problem you see
at this juncture here I want to carry on going there but I'm certainly not gonna
do that now some of these old milestones that we found well they date 17.50 and a
bit more research it turns out this route had the most romantic old name The Old Slow Coach
oh so Salisbury plane is split into three by the two narrow roads that seemingly survived
here in The Valleys it's an area that looks like it covers around 25 percent of wheelchair but in
essence the figure is actually 11 by area probably half of that is completely out of bounds for the
majority of the year and you'll probably have also worked out if you didn't know already that it's
strictly for military use but that still doesn't answer our question you see the war department
started buying up bits of land here when Railway Mania was at least 60 years old so the assumption
is that this baron landscape can't be blamed on the military so where do we go from here [Music]
so there are no Railways here and maybe that would imply that there's a mountainous landscape but it
doesn't look like that maybe there's a lack of population here for the railways to serve
either way let's head to our South down the old Marlborough Road because I think
there's a few Clues down here to help us unravel this puzzle
Okay I lied we're actually going to drive across this bit of plane because there's
quite a lot to see join us as we head south along the old Marlborough Road
all right never done this before and I've even considered doing this before driving across
Salisbury Plain this bit is a byway there's no restrictions other than the potential for red
flags now this side of the plane is a bit different to imber the imbecile 100 no go
unless they're going to imber on the odd one or two days a year but this side this is different
you can go along the pathways of footpaths by ways or restricted byways depending on the time
of day and if they're doing some firing now I haven't been online to have a look to see
if today's a foreign day so if we find the red flags in the danger zone which is on the map
and obviously we can't go any further we have to take a deviation but the moment
we're looking good we're traveling south across the old Marlborough Road [Music]
okay so as we try to show you just earlier through the window of the car
it's always been playing all aspects of saucepan of filled with all kinds of prehistoric stuff just
ahead of me there looks like maybe an old burial mound sort of probably Bronze Age covered in white
sticks and and to tank concrete blocks across the row from there something else which gives us a
hint of this road and what it was so if I'm right that is a milestone which should say Salisbury 13
Marlborough 14 in that direction and there it is probably got a benchmark on it somewhere as well
um again well looked after
now it's worth remembering at this point that this is not my truck I've borrowed it for the
day and I had no intention of getting it stuck here in the middle of Salisbury Plain we came
across some very deep trenches and it was something I wanted to show you so I'm back
on foot for a quick snippet here anyway what we're doing is we're looking for the source of
a river that source of the river is going to help us understand a bit more about this old
Route it's called Nine Mile River and now you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's called that
because it's nine miles long but it's not it's actually only four or four and a half miles long
so I am at the lowest point in this landscape here and I think this is where it's marked on the map
is roughly the area of the source of Nine Mile River now if you were one of your coaching staff
and traveling south from Marlborough that way up those trees through there towards Salisbury
but if you reach this point you're said to be nine miles from Salisbury and hence they
name this Nine Mile River despite the fact that it is only four and a half miles long
so we do have a few Road Crossings on the plane the mile markers give that away and we do have a
mountain of prehistoric activity there too but no Railways well it turns out that wasn't for lack
of trying 1882 London Southwestern Railway come up with a curiously titled proposal the Bristol
and London and South Western Junction Railway I'm gonna tell you the root of that that kind of
makes sense now I'm not sure if that's what we're looking at up ahead but we do have our first clue
to a railway attempt to cross a plane now the root of this line is hugely important because
it would have left London Southwestern Railways main line just across the field it greatly just
this side of greatly cut across here onto Newton Tony, shrewton Imber we'll come to Imber shortly
North up through Westbury Edington and then on to join a main line at radstock it doesn't
take a railway historian to tell you that well gwr virulently opposed this effectively this
would mean that London Southwestern Railway had running rights to Bristol from Southampton via
Andover gwr clearly opposed this Railway and were ultimately successful in blocking its construction
what that doesn't give us any clue really as to why this line was built a year later 1883 when gwr
came up with their proposal to cross a plane maybe this is part of that it turns out it wasn't 1883
and they proposed a route across the plain from pewsey down to Salisbury and on to Southampton
and take a genius again to tell you that this time it was time for London Southwestern Railway
to oppose because that would be right into their Heartland the top part of that line was authorized
Pewsey to Salisbury it obviously wasn't built at least as far as we know perhaps because they
were never going to get to Southampton so what exactly is this bridge for was there a line here
it happened on the plane for another decade or so in fact it took till 1896 for things to move once
again with one of the most important Railway acts of that era 1896 the light Railways act
and perhaps now we're going to get our first insight as to why that line was built how far
it went and why was there a stationary shooting that wasn't built but was on the maps over to gwr
if you're on a disuse railway it's always worth turning up at places sure about because this isn't
marked on a map and yet I can walk up this Old Railway past Newton Tony and the light Railways
Act made it really easy for Railway companies to just build a line there was less paperwork less
bureaucracy I could just get on and uh build a railway fairly cheaply gwr in this area saw
that benefit and took advantage of it straight away they proposed a line that would go from
Salisbury or Bemerton on up the Avon Valley again up towards pewsey cutting right across Salisbury
Plain this was a great plan the light Railways Act was in place what could possibly go wrong
yeah in steps London's Southwestern Railway and all this time they've been busy thinking
outside the box you see the war office have been buying up huge sways of land here on Salisbury
Plain and whilst gwr were making their own plans and involving the light Railway act but it turns
out that London Southwestern Railway had been making plans with the very people that could
indeed influence a line across Salisbury Plain they'd been making plans with the war office
so how far ahead did London South western Railway think because their line was proposed from
here just west of greatly and on to Newton Tony Amesbury and towards Shrewton now that is probably
where the map we originally showed you comes into play but why build a Rowan stop just there
perhaps I guess once you have a line that far you can propose more take more land rail geography and
you may creep closer and closer to the goal that is Bristol but that didn't happen their line only
ever got as far in a passenger sense as Amesbury there's a few more branches for Freight to Bulford
Rollestone and even Stonehenge Airfield but no line was ever built across the plain
so why no lines here why no life here and when the war office did buy up huge sways
of land here well Railway Mania had been around for at least 60 years so maybe we
should actually be looking at the landscape here after all November the 1st 1943 and the
residents of imber the village in the middle of the western third of Salisbury playing with call
to a meeting now this meeting would change their lives more drastically than anything in the last
1,000 years of recorded history and probably more they were given 47 days to move out the village
was to be used by American forces to practice on street fighting the residents gave Little
Resistance it was all part of the war effort and they were doing their bit but above all
they would get their land and houses back this was a promise now there has been many attempts
soldiers at the time all kinds of evidence including a copy of the original letter
promising that they would be able to return to their homes at some point thereafter however it
wasn't to be you can visit the village on some gorgeous old London buses once
a year a couple of times outside of that for worship and reflection at the church
but that aside you can't help fill the sadness at the loss of a community here
of all the Landscapes that we've visited this one's relatively close to us and on
our doorstep and yet stand here miles probably from the nearest person no roads no Railways no
Industrial Revolution to change the landscape here and perhaps that's the key to this video
for me personally in the journey that I've been on finding these old Route ways that would have
been coaching roads Roman roads like this one perhaps could have been well maybe this is
the one that's given me the most sense of what things would have looked like in an era it's 2
000 plus years old because we've got a lot of pre-history here and maybe that
above all is the reason why there is no development Perhaps pre-history Perhaps 2
000 years ago well life pretty much stopped here with regard to the land and
its potential for agricultural purposes with relatively high up on this plateau of chalk
maybe that instead of many other reasons that have been suggested I've been Paul I really
appreciate your um watching your viewership if you want a bit more from behind the scenes and
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and there and of course you'd be helping out the channel I'll see you in the next video [Music]