looking ahead - midford

Having done an intense 3 day photo and measuring study of every facet of Midford, I firmly believe this is room for a single track railway and cyclepath from north of Tucking Mill viaduct to Wellow Trekking Centre, excepting a diversion for cyclists before Midford goods yard, over Long Arch bridge and along Midford platform. Hope and Anchor patrons can park on the site of Midford B goods yard.

The formation between Long Arch bridge south portal cutting slope and Midford platform is 25 feet wide minimum, 15 feet for railway and 10 for slewed to edge of drop-off cycle path, with appropriate fencing and masonry.

Pway materials (30 feet flat bottom, sleepers and ballast) could be delivered to “A” goods yard and the crane / loading gauge, weighbridge and huts put back with 2 box vans.

Thanks to Nick Howes for this.

midford restoration 90s style!

The first picture was taken in 1984, probably early in the year and I think was the first one I took there. It shows the platform swathed in foliage and the trackbed thickly layered with green turf all over the ballast. Nobody had yet chopped or dug at anything since 1960's.


The second picture was taken in June 1985 and shows my Honda CG125 parked up where the lamp hut used to be (probably what you refer to as "oil store"). This had only just been cleared, was invisible in jungle.


The third picture was taken in June 1990 from the same viewpoint and shows a derelict incomplete hut where the original lamp hut used to be. The people are Henry Allen and his son David visiting from Basingstoke. Five years before Henry hauled many tons of materials onto site here, and a few tons away, driving hired lorries.


The fourth picture was taken in September 1990 and shows the platform with foundations for station building scraped clear. A total of twelve visitors were in this picture taking as great an interest then as you describe your effort attracting now.

Above 4 pictures + text are © Brian Clarke - all rights reserved.
The third picture is the most emotive for me as I'm currently spending one afternoon a week trying to get Midford back to this position! I was aware of an earlier preservation attempt at Midford, and hopefully most of you that were involved in it back then will come up and get it restarted. Of course the idea back then was to simply restore the line from Midford to Tuckingmill with a DMU shuttling back and forth. We have a direct link with this scheme as it was Laurence Skinnerton who personally purchased the site in 1997 and has now sold it on to us. The earlier attempt has also persevered in a way as Midford is now nowhere near as overgrown as it was in some of these shots!

Midford restoration part 1 was probably years ahead of its time, and also suffered from the lack of vision - a working modern freight and passenger railway - that of course the New S&D offers. This meant, sadly, that the locals didn't support it 100%.

We will be putting in for planning permission for the whole site very soon, with restoration of the infrastructure and a commitment to relaying the track as soon as we can. I've already noticed quite an increase in memberships and donations over the last few weeks since restoration started!

Do try to come along and help restore/rebuild this most iconic location! Simply email me at leysiner@aol.com for more info, or just keep checking this blog for the latest news. Members can of course go up at any time and do some clearance work but please email me first, or phone on 0117 3738973 to let me know that you're going and also to let me give you an idea of what needs to be done!

for sale ...

We've been advised that Midford station is up for sale. The deal is the platform, the trackbed to the Long Arch bridge and associated land. Offers in the region of £50,000 are invited.

Had the New S&D been running for ten years we may well have had funds like this available. But in two months the Trackbed Fund amounts to £55. That's a big gap to bridge!

Midsomer Norton to Bath is one of our first target routes (the other being Blandford to Poole). Midford would be a superb starting point as it is, in my opinion, the most scenic spot on the whole route. A New S&D presence so close to Bath would be an excellent advertisement, and no doubt could be monetized to raise further funds. But to do this we would need some wealthy S&D enthusiast to hand us £49,945. Are you out there?

Or should we start a fund to do this?

Now Midford has already been the site of an unsuccessful revival. It fell through because it lacked vision. A DMU shuttling up and down to Tuckingmill viaduct was always going to be a difficult one to sell! But as part of a larger revival Midford makes sense. It protects this iconic location no matter how long the rails take to return. There would be no need for difficult stock movements on narrow roads - stock could be loaded at Bath or Radstock, or even off the network as the New S&D expands.

Incidentally the offer of sale included the information that Bath has at least one councillor who is keen to see the Bath-Radstock section be restored ASAP. Only one?