Friday 4 April 2014

Southwold

 Been quiet here, reason being that we took a few days off and pottered around bits of East Anglia. There was a deliberate non- railway angle to the break. This was not too difficult as a) there's not a lot there and b) what there is was shut, it being the week before the Easter holidays. So nice and quiet, but losing because of it.
We stayed just outside Southwold which was new to both of us..... quiet. Tranquil. In rail terms it could possibly be a hotbed of activity, but isn't. There is a re-build/preservation group which have a small shop (above) which was shut all the time we were there. Reading between the lines it seems that the rebuilders have plans, but the local authorities don't really want it to happen. The beauty of the place is that it is not full of trippers, Mc Donalds and arcades, maybe they fear that a 'train ride' would open the flood gates and change the tone of the place. I tend to agree with that.
What we did do was walk the trackbed from the town and over the river to the site of Walberswick station where there is an area of concrete (odd as the platform would have been face and back-fill) and a bench with a detailed info plate. The ground levels don't seem to tie up with the period photos I have and the track rises very sharply out of shot left. Not the original alignment, and I'm not convinced that it's even the original site. However...

1 comment:

  1. Ah, Southwold, one of our favourite places. Had many happy times there. Did you go on the pier and see Hunkin's water feature? You may be right about them being concerned about the wrong sort of trippers - it is terribly middle class. Could also be because the trackbed goes through the golf course (I think) so shades of the resistance there is to the Rye and Camber being reinstated.

    Chris OD

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