Singing "Oranges and Lemons"
Charfield is a village north of Yate on the railway between Bristol and Birmingham. It used to have a station served by local trains.
You might think, foolishly, that you could see the remnants off Charfield station from Station Road ...
... but you would be sadly deluded. All you can see is a hedge.
Behind the hedge are some scruffy industrial premises, presumably created on the station yard. Behind the industrial stuff are the former station buildings. But to see them you need to choose the next road west. This is Little Bristol Lane ...
... which, as we all should know, leads to Little Bristol. (See map at the head of this blog.) But there you will find what is left of Charfield Station.
The station opened in 1844, was the site of a railway crash in 1928 and closed in January 1965.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Leeds to Bristol night mail train failed to stop at the signals protecting the down refuge siding at Charfield railway station. The weather was misty, but there was not a sufficiently thick fog for the signalman at Charfield to employ fog signalmen. A freight train was in the process of being shunted from the down main line to the siding, and another train of empty goods wagons was passing through the station from the Bristol (up) direction.
The mail train collided with the freight train and was derailed, coming into collision with the up train underneath the road bridge to the north of the station. Gas used to light the carriages ignited, and four carriages were burnt out.
Here is the station in happier times.
Back up on the main village road we have the Railway Tavern ...
... later rebranded as The Railway Hotel ...
... reverting to the Railway Tavern today!
Possibly!
The hostelry offers a good selection of beers, wines and spirits and has a typical pub menu of traditional pub grub. fbb is almost salivating!
It has clearly survived the loss of its railway.
The Tavern will feature when we return to "Oranges and Lemons" tomorrow.
In the meantime, Charfield is to get its station back.
Originally planned for an opening in 2024, but, guess what ...
... they haven't started yet!
But they will be starting soon - honest. And the new station will be super smashing and lovely - in 2027!
Possibly.
But we have artists' impressions.
With lifts as well!
But maybe we could, in theory, get to Charfield by bus?
Please Note:-
fbb's comment yesterday about how easy the new Linux Fedora set-up was, proved somewhat premature. The basics are indeed straightforward but, trying to put everything together has proved a little more challenging. Things look different on-screen and stuff is not always where you think it ought to be.
Apologies for any consequent limitations in blogging over the next few days.
But, as usual, fbb will, as they say, keep calm and carry on.
Next Fruity blog : Tues 12 Aug
No comments:
Post a Comment