Vintage railway film - Lets Imagine; A branch line railway - Sir John Betjeman - 1963
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- Опубликовано: 4 сен 2024
- This short film, filmed in 1962 and transmitted in 1963 by the BBC, features former British poet laureate Sir John Betjeman, as he looks at the Evercreech Junction to Burnham-on-Sea branch line on the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.
If only I could climb through that screen. Yes I know not everything was perfect. But still….
Yes, understand you perfectly.
In so many ways, we have gone backwards 😢
Me too!
My childhood and adolescence. All gone. Blue remembered hills…
@Auldpharte where we cannot go again.
Strange how John commented about "this overcrowded island" back in 1962...yet we're told the UK isn't overcrowded in 2024.
I'm with Mr Betjeman.
It is utterly tragic to see what we've lost. Wonderful film.
Ah, but progress you know 🙄🙄😢😢
@SMichaelDeHart funny how 'progress' benefits only the elite!
Sir John, a great man, who saved St. Pancras Station in London from scheduled demolition, and it was magnificently restored thereafter.
His statue, with floppy hat and briefcase, now stands gazing up at the roof of Barlow's train shed. You can almost hear him saying 'Gosh!'
Totally Magnificent
A man with vision, oh how right his comment about shutting branch lines
The driver filmed on the foot plate was Ray Stokes from Temple Coombe, he transferred to Bristol Bath Road when the S&D closed, nice guy to work with.
A Britain long lost and gone forever. Almost made me cry.
Timeless class and poetry that seems so thin on the ground these days. Where is our pride, our culture, our appetite for simple greatness?
Ex GWR 2204 Collett 2251 class 0-6-0 MT built 1939, withdrawn 1963, scrapped 1964. Lyrical, with a large dose of rose tinted spectacles maybe, but sensitively presented by Sir John, making one wish to go back in time to a gentler age, were that possible - especially if well heeled (as was JB.)
A glimpse into a lost world.
I loved Sir John because of his love for railways, nostalgia, heritage and everything positive about this, far from perfect, country of ours. He was ahead of his time in questioning the wanton dismantling of our past. He was, above all, a conservationist for the things that brought him joy.
I particularly enjoy watching Metro-Land because those places are familiar to me. Pinner Fair etc.
I live in St Petersburg, Florida (US), and I'm fascinated by all things British - especially the wonderful British railways and classic British television programs and movies.
These nostalgic films are wonderful to watch, and a great and calming diversion from the complicated lives we live today.
Thank you so much for sharing!
What Sir John said is very prophetic
Breeching butchered out rail services. So many lovely branch lines, gone. Thankfully, a few restored privately.
JB has such a wonderful Voice. Him reading his Summoned by Bells, is what I want to hear when I am finally about to depart this World.
love the old films, i live 8 miles from burnham on sea,and know where the old line was.shame it ever went,could have made money now with all the traffic.
So sad seeing those empty buildings that once bustled with life and work - self sufficiency. Now we ‘buy in’ most of our stock from elsewhere.
This a piece of heaven. Much better than today. I was nine at the time of filming, prefered steam to diesel
as i still do now.
A lovely film of times gone by
My parents took me for a holiday to Burnham on Sea in 1958, I was 5. I clearly remember getting on the train at Walsall station, but little else of the journey. I believe it was steam-hauled, and the carriages were definitely BR maroon. I don't know if it was a special excursion train direct to Burnham, or we had to change somewhere (where would that have been?), or perhaps even got off the train somewhere short of Burnham (West-super-Mare?) and then took a bus/coach, maybe, though I doubt that, I believe we went to Burnham station. But the holiday was great, I got sunburned on the beach (the tide goes out miles) and I acquired a life-long love of the smell of calamine lotion, applied by my mother to my red back. Somewhere in the loft is the tiny wooden sailing boat I sailed on a small pool somewhere on the beach-front.
Superb! Beautifully prophetic and shot with a true railway enthusiast’s eye.
John was right - towns and villages that still have a railway are very very lucky!! For example Portishead passenger station has been revived because car commutes into Bristol were horrendous.
When I go hiking on the Southwest Coast I always ensure I start near a railway station and end on a railway station.
They have been talking about re-opening the Portishead passenger line for 30 years. We are still a long way away from it. This year they finally got permission for some cp of land to renew the track.
I note the comment at the beginning about how clean and tidy Evercreech Junction was, a far cry from today's stations.
It’s almost as if the people still employed just don’t care themselves. I understand your note likely to get them all planted like they used to be but it seems we have a generation with a mind set that has a ‘why should I do more than the bare minimum’. To much effort to get even a wet wipe out and wipe down counter spaces and windows.
I’ve commuted daily from the Bournemouth area to Basingstoke for over 30 years. I’m pleased to report that the stations on this line are all well kept, have been regularly repainted and the lighting upgraded and improved in the years I’ve been travelling on the line. My own station, New Milton has been upgraded with new toilets and refurbished booking hall. Bournemouth station itself is breathtaking, the restoration of the roof has transformed it. If you get a chance to see it please do you won’t be disappointed. The staff keep it clean and tidy. It’s vastly better kept than in steam days. So not all is bad. I’ll be retiring soon from my commute and I’m grateful for all the efforts made to maintain the infrastructure I’ve used. The train service itself has sadly deteriorated in recent years due to continuous industrial action (since about 2017 with a break for Covid).
That's great to hear. I now live in Australia and miss the trains terribly. When I was last back home in the UK some years ago, I was deeply disappointed at the state of the stations and how no one seemed to care anymore, even the appearance of the station staff was a lot to be desired. As for Australian train, they've got nothing that comes close to British trains, with the exception of the Ghan (Adelaide to Darwin). I'm yet to travel on this one for the cost of a one-way ticket is around £1,300 (2 nights - 3 days), way out of my pocket at the moment.
@@davidrobinson8224 Hello David thanks for your reply hope things are going well for you in Oz. I’ve seen videos of the Ghan it looks amazing, out of my price range too but I hope you make a trip on it someday. As for the UK on the upside we’ve still got a comprehensive system and new lines and stations are being built. Our problem is that the system is fragmented and badly organised. There is plenty of investment going on but I’m not sure we are getting value for money. Best wishes, Ian
@@ianpotter5840 Hi Ian, Yep love it here, but miss 3 things - Trains - Country Pubs - Christmas. Certainly don't miss the road traffic. Went to see a friend last Friday about 150 miles, 8 of which are normal roads the rest freeway. took just over 1 1/2 hours.
Screw the Beeching Axe for closing this line.
The Vaughan Williams at the end suits this so perfectly. Wonderful nostalgia, thank you.
Which VW piece is it please?
@@missasinenomine It's "The Lost Lady Found" by Percy Grainger from his "Lincolnshire Posy" suite for wind band.
Thank you! But Quebecoisegal says it's Vaughan Williams.@@gavinmist6723
@@gavinmist6723 I believe it is an old folk song called Green Bushes.
@@rogermusson4110 The tune of 'Green Bushes' does indeed sound very similar to 'The Lost Lady Found' but it's definitely the latter used in the film. There are recordings on YT to do some comparisons. It's interesting how similar to each other some folk tunes are.
A magical film, full of misty nostalgia, that does the viewer a lot of good, moodwise and horizonwise. Betjeman, as all teachers should, opens our outer and inner eyes in his unassuming, natural way, delivering nuggets of wisdom to guide us on our flights through our lives and through our minds.
One side of my family originates in and around Eddington and Burtle. Been there a couple of times, this is pure nostalgia.
Stunning film with the intelligent Sir John...buried at St Enedoch Church Cornwall 😢witth the most beautiful headßtone
This evokes a melancholy joy.
3 years later beeching axe came down on glastebury & street, oh how the festival gowers wouls love to use that station now
So sad, it's all gone. The government at the time who got rid of our railways did not look to the future. This is why we have so much traffic on the roads today.
I'd like to be sitting in that waiting room at Glastonbury on a cold winters evening, while the rain pours outside, waiting for my train home and a warm supper.
traffic there must've already been a problem without any expressway yet, so the irony of under-used railways must've been doubly foreboding -- this guide's clarion heralds make sense, he's really aghast
9:35 "Airfix". It built the Empire.
Prophetic Man.. How could he be so lucid about the future
Gosh! "overcrowded island"? I hate to think what Sir John would make of the present state of the country with a government that allows every man and his dog to flood into it?
Too True, Mate!
He was a Gentleman and a Socialist, unlike you...Gammon
With a name like yours you must be Putin loving scum!@@philraminski2759
It would indeed be very interesting to find out. We shall never know this side of eternity.
Brilliant!
Joyous viewing. JB is such an engaging companion.
Thanks for posting. 👏
Sorry all. No time machine available at this time. Thank you for your patience and understanding. -Mgt.
As an interesting side note,during the history of the Baldwin Locomotive Works,it was run under a partnership arrangement! The owners, were Burnham,Parry and Williams! So mayhaps a son of Dorset,was involved in railroads even in the United States 🇺🇸! Anyway,a bit of trivia,and just a change of pace!! Thank you 😇 😊!
A great docu from a great man indeed.
Wonderfully nostalgic. Dreams of my childhood days.
Great man and railway
Wonderful film. Thank you Sir John. I was born a year before this aired. I have very fond memories of the last days of steam albeit from Weymouth. Having lived in Burnham-On-Sea for several years in the 2000s its fascinating to see it his it was on ‘63.
I am very lucky to live on the Severn Beach Line, one of the prettiest urban branch lines. Rescued by a campaign group, subsidised by the council, now part of the GWR network again. Bristol politicians are talking about "reversing Beeching". The Severn Beach Line has just opened a new stop, Portway, to link with the Park & Ride. Its the first new station in Bristol for 96 years. I hope the Portishead Line reopens for passengers in my lifetime! 😂
wow, too funny: I'd clear forgot about Sedgemoor .. Glastonbury Tor was the only lore-inspired skyline I'd ever been accustomed to...
Was the passenger line still open in 1958 to Burnham on sea. I lived in Glastonbury at that time, I remember a day in Burnham, and I'm trying to remember how I got there, was it bus, or a train. If anyone knows when the passenger line closed to Burnham, I would love to know. What a wonderful film this is. Thanks for putting this on You tube
This is an utterly wonderful and nostalgic historical document. Watching it, as always I am struck by the changes that have come about in the intervening years, notably, the lack of obese people and the lack of cars. The roads and streets are becoming so clogged up today, I imagine that soon we shall resort to stacking cars one on top of another in order to find parking space for them.
Wonderful, I've seen this film so many times!
And not a passenger to be seen other than Betjeman
Marvellous, thank you for posting this.
Nice
A Great video😊😊😊😮
Which sadly shows us what we lost all over Britain
Bad management controlled by accountants closed it all😂😂😂shame
not a gimmigrant in sight, lovely film.
Nice to see. Probably useful nowadays
Betj looks more tottery and frayed round the edges than when he was filming on the Lynn-Hunstanton line a year or two earlier. That was about dieselization, and there was a spirit of rejuvenation about rural railways. Now, after the Beeching Report, JB sounds pessimistic and prophetically angry that routes will be deliberately destroyed, not just mothballed, and that the mania for private motoring will damage the environment.
Easier than ever,it -has- either trees or a
sprinter is
Can you do the driver view of Australind from Perth to Bunbury please
You might end up with a bus view for part of the journey, but in fairness they are upgrading the line. No train, the last time I tried in Feb '23.
Shocking that the Teds (Teddy boys) smashed that carriage up! 11:59.
Steam still powers this country only not coal it's gas or nuclear. We still have millions of tons of coal to go forward I think we need to go back. If I am wrong please tell me. If I could afford it I would put my fire place back. Could not afford the electric to run a heat pump, plus live in Scotland the ground does not get that hot.
You are seriously wrong and not thinking of the future of the Planet for our families and descendants. Wind and Water power will give you less expensive Electricity, BUT we need to dump the Tory Government first even you folk in Scotland. Good luck.
Didn't he mean Victorian tradition carried into Edwardian times?
And thanks to Dr Beeching, we lost the lot! Such lack of foresight. If they’d have been kept going, think how different this country would be, even today! Now, the trains are far far too expensive and too full. The roads are chock of block with cars and you can’t get anywhere anymore!
And Marples with his road building agenda.
alas they came and took it all away. to be replaced by ??????????
Amazed at the thinly-veiled racism in the comments. Also, don't forget that Beeching and his boss, Ernest Marples, had vested interests in road building. The latter fled the country for tax evasion. Can't remember who was the government then but I think I can guess.
Amazed you may be but surely not surprised.
@rogerturner5504 I have spent my life trying to undo some of the attitudes inculcated from the 1950s. Coming from Birkenhead, the anti-catholicism of that time now appals me. There is a song in South Pacific which sums it all up. "You've got to be taught" is the opening line.
@@felixwaterman4448Religious prejudice is not racial prejudice. I was brought up Catholic but I abandoned it when I realised the nonsense of one form of Christianity killing a slightly different form. Yes, I know that the issues were more about jobs amd housing than God. Nice talking to you.
John Betjeman(I deliberately omitted the "Sir" title as I hold aristocracy in contempt) part-wrote the song *Myfanwy* with a fellow named Read, the song was recorded by David Essex in 1987.
@Jack_Warner Granted, but the reference to his title is in the title of the video.
You must be a supporter of that well known working class Labour Party leader "Sir" Kier Starmer then?
Which is why I vote and stand for ReformUK.@Jack_Warner
@@johnallen7807 Wrong country. I'm Australian. Our Labor PM is Anthony Albanese.
I'm sorry for you lol. One thing for sure you had even more of a "police state" government during the Covid hysteria than we did in the UK!@@neilforbes416
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