Railway Story (DS81)

A story no doubt repeated in many places ... 

There was a railway running through the village, started in 1871, ran into difficulties, closed, reopened, extended rationalised, declined closed to passengers in 1951 and freight in 1962. The railway passed through a cutting, now overgrown and just beyond our garden fence, which was part of a line joining Stratford upon Avon to Fenny Compton. Once there, the main line could be joined for journeys on to London.  Map & more info here

There are tall trees growing on the sides of the cutting which now shade and/or drop crab apples into our garden, and as the fence needs a post replacing we decided to remove a few of the staves to get access and tidy up some of the ivy etc.  Behind the fence the builders put in, sits a row of these old posts, now much dilapidated and definitely derelict.  I had to cut and roll up some of the old wire which you can see wrapped around the post.

 As ever with these things, once started it was easier to keep going rather than to stop so I cleared more than I was expecting and have probably dealt with one of the apple trees.  The long term aim is to find out who owns the land and see if we can buy it or have some form of access.  The extra shows the current state of play ... quite a mess but it attracts a lot of birdlife so were thinking of a lower or more open fence so we can at least see what is nesting in there.

The modern fence post I was intending to repair,  is all but broken off and will need another one setting up next to it ...