Train Daze - Watercress Line, Hampshire

"Speeding, sparks like lightning
Engine working hard
Furnace on the foot plate
Shining in the night
Iron striking metal
The sound of racing steel
It's all I ever wanna hear
It's music to my ears
She was a princess of the night
I saw her riding on the war
She was a princess of the night
I take a ride across the sky"

Peter "Biff" Byford, Steve Dawson, Pete Gill, Graham Oliver, and Paul Quinn [1981]

 

Alton Station

BR Class 20 - D8188 - Built 1964

Medstead & Four Marks Station

Arlesford Station

Guy Arab Mk III Southampton Corporation Transport

Guy Arab Mk III Southampton Corporation Transport
technical data

GWR Collett 5205 - 5239 "Goliath" Built 1924

Goliath swapping ends and leaving Alton for Arlesford

The Watercress Line

Horse and Groom, Arlesford

.. "to hell and back again" ..

Heading home from Lyme Regis, we took a diversion to Symondsbury, parked roadside and walked the holloways of Shute’s Lane and Hell Lane, which link the villages of Symondsbury and North Chideock. The paths lay at the feet of Colmer’s Hill, and Quarry Hill, and it has believed that the carts used to transport stone from the latter – were partly responsible for the deep erosion of the holloways themselves.

Shute's Lane walking west from Symondsbury

Shute’s Lane appears to hold most of the carvings and graffiti cut into the soft sandstone walls of both ‘ways. Although we did not traverse the full length of Hell Lane, due to the deep, wet mudded ruts which extended for a distance west, it was clear the natural stone walls had fewer engravings, and were the more arresting for it.

entrance to Hell

in Hell

the turnaround

Quarry Hill and beacon

Colmer's Hill

Ending the walk abruptly at the muddy mess we retraced our steps to Symondsbury. Hoping for a lunch stop at the Ilchester Arms we were a little disappointed to find the pub fully booked for service, but then on a fine day, and at the start of a school holiday, it was naive of us to have not booked ahead. A quick pint and salty snacks were the only option available to us, and it would have been rude not to?