Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury episode 5
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TravelTranscript
00:00MUSIC
00:16Britain is a country that owes a great deal to its rail empire.
00:22For 100 years, the railways dominated the development of this country,
00:27the network that supported a global superpower.
00:33But today, our island is home to 10,000 miles of disused lines,
00:38a silent network of embankments, platforms and viaducts.
00:46For me and many others,
00:48they've become a perfect platform for exploring the country on foot.
00:57MUSIC
01:13Welcome to a sublimely sunny south coast of England.
01:16Now, Weymouth is arguably England's original seaside resort.
01:20It's where King George III used to take his summer breaks,
01:23sparking a national obsession with the seaside holiday
01:26that lasted for over 200 years.
01:2860 years after George III came here, so did the railway.
01:32A line was created from Weymouth
01:34to a unique feature on the British coastline.
01:37Today, I'm hoping to find out why a tiny outcrop
01:40like the Isle of Portland ever deserved its own railway
01:43and why Weymouth is more than just tourists.
01:46MUSIC
01:57Since 1857, people had been able to reach Weymouth
02:00by train from London.
02:02But my route today first took shape in 1865
02:06when an extension line was built south from the town,
02:09across the causeway to Portland.
02:12In 1902, the route was extended again
02:15by a quite separate rail company
02:17around the eastern cliffs of Portland to the village of Easton.
02:21But as with so many branch lines,
02:23the railroad fell victim to Dr Beeching's axe
02:26and Portland once more became a railway-free zone.
02:34This is where the track running out of Weymouth Station used to be.
02:38This car park.
02:40The route will get more interesting, I promise.
02:43But before I really get under way,
02:45let's take an aerial look at the route I'll be taking.
02:49From Weymouth Station, my walk heads south,
02:52taking me through my first truly urban section of railway walk.
02:56The Weymouth and Portland Railway cuts a clear path on an embankment
03:00as it passes through back streets and terraced housing
03:03on its way to meet Portland Harbour.
03:07Then there's a good 2.5 miles of coastal views
03:10as the railway path hugs the harbour.
03:13I'll take a direct route along the end of Chesil Beach,
03:16the famous shingle bank that permanently connects
03:19the Isle of Portland with the mainland.
03:28This is where the Easton and Church Hope Railway once took over,
03:32building a line around the eastern fringes of Portland
03:35through what would become Portland's naval base.
03:39The old track made use of the flat coastal plateau
03:42that overlooks the sea and Dorset's Jurassic coastline.
03:50I'll follow the railway almost to its conclusion
03:54before stepping off down to Portland's one and only beach
03:58at Church Hope Cove.
04:01Back in the centre of Weymouth, though,
04:03the solitude of a Portland cove seems a lot more than seven miles away.
04:09But it's only a matter of yards before you reach
04:11what is now the Rodwell Trail,
04:13a favourite rat-run for Weymouth walkers and cyclists.
04:17But, of course, once the track bed of the Portland branch,
04:21it's time to head back.
04:23So, no sooner am I on the Rodwell Trail, I'm at my first station.
04:26As you can see, that was Westham Halt,
04:29and Weymouth Station is just a few hundred yards that way.
04:33But it is just the beginning.
04:39The trail sticks strictly to the path of the old railway line.
04:42It really is an ideal way to get across town
04:45and escape the hustle and bustle of the city.
04:48Except where a dismantled bridge forces you back amongst the traffic.
04:56Before I get any further, I want to meet up with the man
04:58who recommended this railway walk to me.
05:00In fact, if you give him half a chance,
05:02he'd recommend a railway walk in every corner of the country.
05:07Geoff Vinter is a South Coast man himself,
05:09but, more importantly, he's a leading figure in the railways.
05:13He's a man who's been involved in the development of railways
05:16for many years, but, more importantly,
05:18he's a leading light of a nationwide group called Railway Ramblers.
05:22No prizes for guessing what their main interest is.
05:25But he suggested we meet by a rather curious railway landmark.
05:30During the Second World War,
05:32there was a great big naval base down at Portland,
05:35a natural target for the German aircraft,
05:38and this is one of the gun emplacements put in to protect the whole area.
05:43It was very much, during the Black Days of the Blitz,
05:47very much on the front line here.
05:49Now, when you look at the map, Geoff, of this route,
05:52it's like a spider's web of railways.
05:55Especially when you get up onto the top of Portland.
05:58The line that we're standing on here,
06:00and, indeed, all the lines on Portland,
06:02were motivated by the local industry,
06:05and that means Portland Stone.
06:07The passengers were very much an afterthought.
06:10The important thing was to get the Portland Stone out.
06:12The most awkward thing is that when you get to Fortuneswell,
06:16there's been a bit of redevelopment of the railway,
06:18so you need to then step off onto some of the old tramways.
06:22When you get up there, there are some wonderful views,
06:25and it leads you on to the Portland Plateau,
06:29which is just riddled with old tramways,
06:31all to do with the stonework. They're all over the place.
06:34So a bit of hard work and a good view.
06:36You're telling me, yes.
06:37And you would come to Weymouth as a family, wouldn't you?
06:39Oh, yes, most definitely.
06:41When I was a little boy, all of our holidays were taken by train,
06:44and I can actually remember many of the lines here
06:47when they were still going.
06:48You remember beaching well?
06:49I remember beaching very well.
06:51I couldn't believe that so many lines were being closed,
06:54and the closures shut down a lot of places that we could go to.
06:58And in later years, my interest in these old railways
07:01has led me to discover all sorts of interesting places
07:05well off of the beaten track that I might never otherwise have found.
07:09So it's already clear that Weymouth isn't just a celebrated seaside resort,
07:18there's a military and an industrial background.
07:21And, as usual, the railway was there to play a part in both.
07:25The embankment that provides so many views across the city
07:29soon gives way to a cutting and a tunnel
07:31just in time for the next halt on the line at Rodwell.
07:40This station is beautifully secluded.
07:42You wouldn't know that the suburbs of Weymouth were all around you.
07:45But one thing is for certain, this station was definitely for passengers only.
07:50No freight access around here.
07:52The long platforms, however, are testament to the amount of passengers
07:55that would have piled on and off here every day,
07:58all heading to factories around Weymouth and Portland.
08:01And in its day, Rodwell was considered one of the prettiest stations in the country.
08:10The stations come thick and fast in this section of my walk.
08:14When the line first opened,
08:16it ran without stopping right to the northern tip of Portland.
08:23But as industry and workforces grew, more and more passenger stops were added.
08:28This station was actually the last to open on the line in 1932,
08:33which was only 33 years before the whole line was shut down.
08:37Here's a clue in the undergrowth.
08:39Look, if you have a rummage, that was the platform.
08:49Sandsfoot was a very simple structure,
08:51a single platform made entirely of wood.
08:55Its job was to serve the dense estates
08:57that grew up in the southern section of Weymouth.
09:00And at this point, there can't be many casual walkers
09:03who don't take a very short diversion.
09:05This is where the old railway line catches up with the coastline,
09:09which means visitors like me get their first sweeping view
09:13right across Portland Harbour.
09:19That is a tidy little view.
09:27With protection from the mainland,
09:29Chesil Beach and the Isle of Portland,
09:31this harbour is a vast natural bay and an ideal anchorage point.
09:36No surprise then that Henry VIII chose to build
09:39two of his famous coastal defences here,
09:42one across the Bay of Portland and one right here, Sandsfoot Castle.
09:49But since then, in fact, whilst the railway was being built,
09:52the Victorians were busy taking things one step at a time.
09:56A series of stone breakwaters now protects the bay,
09:59creating one of the world's largest man-made harbours.
10:10And this seems an appropriate place to meet a man
10:13with a real depth of knowledge about Portland Harbour.
10:17David Carter is a lifelong diver
10:19who has explored sites and wrecks in the local waters.
10:22Am I right in saying, David,
10:24that we're lucky to be walking on this trail?
10:26They've nearly turned it into a road.
10:28That's right.
10:29It was due to the pressure of the West Weymouth Conservation Society
10:33that it was turned into a cycle walkway,
10:36and so it's preserved it for...
10:38There's a nice green lung going through the town
10:41with outstanding views right down at the end here.
10:45No, Julie, we're going to take a detour off the main road
10:49No, Julie, we're going to take a detour off from the trail
10:52up onto the embankment so we get a better view of the harbour.
10:57And this is what it's all about.
10:59I've seen this magnificent harbour on a perfectly still day.
11:05Right, where shall I look first? Where shall I point?
11:08Start to the right and pan across Chesil Beach.
11:14And then the remnants of the Navy buildings,
11:16the old accommodation blocks...
11:18Which are not that attractive, to be honest.
11:20Not that attractive, but being converted into executive flats.
11:24Des res.
11:25You should try and imagine what this was like in 1944
11:28when preparations for the invasion of France in the Second World War.
11:32This was just full of servicemen ready to go,
11:35Americans and Canadians, and there was a host of boats
11:38and an enormous number of these floating harbours,
11:41which are the two we see over there, the Phoenix Casins,
11:44which are part of the temporary harbours,
11:46were to be towed across to support the troops once they got there.
11:51But there's one harbour landmark that's particularly close to David's heart.
11:56But in truth, it isn't actually a landmark at all.
11:59Beneath the waves that crash into the harbour's breakwater
12:03lies the wreck of HMS Hood,
12:05a battleship that was deliberately sunk in 1914
12:09to blockade the harbour's south entrance.
12:12This is where the Hood still rests to this day,
12:15protecting Weymouth and Portland from U-boats
12:18and torpedo attacks from the Channel.
12:21For David and his fellow divers,
12:23it's arguably the harbour's leading attraction.
12:27Well, in the old days, you could go, it was the complete battleship,
12:31and you just swam down the outside
12:33and you could go in and look through the portholes to look inside.
12:37Fascinating.
12:39But sadly now, time has taken its toll and it's started to collapse
12:43and it's now considered too dangerous to be able to dive on.
12:47The dreaded health and safety.
12:49But there are still lots of other nice dive sites here.
12:52There's submarines, Old East Indiamen, 18th-century barges.
12:58See, we don't do good tropical fish in this country when it comes to diving,
13:01but we do good wrecks, don't we?
13:03We do good wrecks, indeed.
13:05But if you pass on by, finally you get a chance to dive,
13:08finally you get right into Sandsford Castle again,
13:10where we started our walk.
13:13Yeah.
13:15Very nice, too.
13:17A good little ark, that is. Beautiful.
13:19Right. Yep.
13:22When you think about places of key naval significance on the south coast,
13:26it always seems to be Portsmouth and Plymouth that spring to mind,
13:29but Portland has been of strategic and technological significance
13:33for centuries.
13:35The presence of the anti-aircraft gun at the beginning of my walk
13:38suddenly now seems particularly appropriate.
13:43This is actually the home of the torpedo.
13:46This is where Robert Whitehead made his factory in 1891.
13:51He was the inventor of the torpedo.
13:55A century ago, this modern housing estate
13:58was one of the key industrial sites along the railway line
14:01and one which had an impact around the world.
14:05Lancastrian engineer Robert Whitehead was the pioneer of explosives
14:09that could be detonated both remotely and underwater.
14:13His factory took over eight acres
14:15and had its own pier stretching out into the harbour
14:18where testing took place.
14:21OK, now we need to go just straight into the left here
14:24to see the very last... To see the bollard?
14:26Not the bollard, but the last remaining piece of the torpedo factory.
14:30This is the stone.
14:33So Mr Whitehead was responsible for the deadly torpedo.
14:38Whilst it was a very great engineering achievement,
14:41it nevertheless left a very sad sort of legacy
14:44of millions of tonnes of shipping that were sunk by torpedoes
14:48and a terrible loss of life,
14:50because it is such a historic part of the town.
14:53And this actually is called Whitehead Drive,
14:56so his name is recorded for posterity.
15:00Thank you very much.
15:02Whitehead's torpedo factory lies at the end of the Rodwell Trail,
15:06right on the southern tip of the Dorset mainland.
15:09From here, I step onto that section of the walk
15:12that will always be the highlight for aspiring geography teachers.
15:18The railway ran along a narrow spit of land,
15:21slowly formed as more and more silt, mud and shingle
15:24were deposited here by the currents,
15:26eventually connecting the Isle of Portland with the mainland.
15:35In the background is Chesil Beach,
15:37stretching out with its salty lagoon known as The Fleet.
15:42This was where Barnes Wallace's revolutionary bouncing bomb
15:45was tested during World War II,
15:48a strange contrast to The Fleet's protected status
15:51now as a unique habitat for wading birds.
15:57But at the Portland end of the beach
15:59is one of the most vibrant spots anywhere on the south coast.
16:0540 years after the railway tracks were ripped up,
16:08this area is now filled with the National Sailing Academy,
16:11host of the 2012 Olympic Sailing Regatta.
16:17It's soon to be adjoined by a brand spanky new marina
16:21and is overlooked by the redeveloped naval apartments.
16:26As predicted, the walk becomes slightly more complicated here.
16:29Nothing too tricky, though.
16:31The old railway track follows the east coast of Portland
16:34and we can't go that way because it's now private land,
16:36it's the old Royal Naval Base.
16:38So what we're going to do is follow this old tramway track
16:41and go up Merchant's Incline and make our way onto Portland proper that way.
16:45And there's a hill to climb.
16:56This railway feels like the start of a new chapter.
16:59The urban back streets are gone, so too the vast history of the harbour.
17:05Now it's all about this unusual tide island.
17:13Local author Thomas Hardy once described Portland
17:16as the Gibraltar of Wessex.
17:20And on a hot day like today, well, I leave it to you to decide.
17:27In preparing for this walk,
17:29there was one person that everybody said I should talk to.
17:32He's a true son of Portland and a leading local historian,
17:35so he should definitely know a thing or two.
17:38Hello, Stuart. Hello.
17:40Nice to see you. Nice to see you.
17:42I like that. A little bit of a steep walk up there. It's good.
17:45It certainly is steep, isn't it? Yes.
17:47Yeah, it is. A bit of exercise. That's good.
17:49These railway walls are quite flat. Yes.
17:51Funny, that. Not this one. Right.
17:53And, of course, from here we've got a fantastic view
17:55of the route that I followed. Yes.
17:57From here you can see the route of the 1865 railway from Weymouth
18:01going along the back of Chesil Beach there,
18:03which originally terminated at Victoria Square.
18:06But the line we're on here predates that by some margin.
18:12It was in 1826 that a group of merchants got together
18:16and decided to build a tramway
18:20to take the stone from the quarries on the top of the island...
18:23Yeah. ..down to what is this area here,
18:26which is now Portland Harbour.
18:28And, of course, stone was very, very important to Portland.
18:31It was a massive industry.
18:32Stone was a major industry for Portland and for the country.
18:35I mean, Portland stone is probably the most famous in the world.
18:38But the stone had to be got away from the islands.
18:40How did they manage that from an engineering point of view?
18:43Well, the stone was brought to this point by horses.
18:47It was never a steam railway, it was always horse-drawn.
18:50Right down the bottom, the empty trucks were hooked up
18:54and, of course, you had then the system of the weight of the full trucks
18:58pulling the empty ones back up.
18:59We're talking about large slabs of stone, aren't we, here?
19:03Up to 10 tonnes on these very crude, simple stone trucks.
19:06Imagine that, hurtling down if the chain system broke.
19:09It doesn't bear thinking about. No, the noise alone.
19:13Shall we continue up the hill, Stuart? You can show me more.
19:16Right. Have we got another steep bit to go?
19:19There is a bit, yes, up there.
19:24It's a compact little town.
19:27Yes, yes, I was born and brought up here, actually, in this area.
19:32We haven't lived here all our lives, but nearly.
19:34But it's a superb, ready-made adventure playground
19:38for youngsters to grow up in.
19:40I mean, I can remember some of these very, very steep slopes.
19:43Horrendous to think of it now, but we used to slide on pieces of cardboard
19:46all the way down from the top and up in a blackberry bush.
19:49It was great fun.
19:50But to explore all the Victorian fortresses
19:53and the gun emplacements and things like this, it's a...
19:56Yeah, as you say, a real playground. Yeah.
20:00As we round the headland above the village of Fortuneswell,
20:03it becomes clear just what a network of tramways
20:06there were around the upper slopes of Portland.
20:10But to get to quarries at the very top of the island,
20:13a second inclined system had to be built.
20:19This one had to pass under existing roads and other tramways.
20:25From my point of view, at least, it seems steeper than the first.
20:33It's certainly been left surprisingly untouched,
20:36with sections of the old stone track bed clearly visible in places.
20:40Can't help thinking about those horses.
20:43Fortunately, they didn't have to haul down or up this particular route
20:47because gravity did the work here.
20:49This was the incline operated by gravity.
20:52Oh, we made it to the top, all right. Yes, that's right.
20:55We're now on the track bed of the old tramway,
20:58which led from the top of that incline, or to the top of that incline,
21:01where the stone from this old quarry here
21:04would have been taken.
21:06And as you can see, the landscape has been totally transformed by nature.
21:10It's reclaimed ground again.
21:12But the landscape is still evolving and changing,
21:15as we'll see around the next corner.
21:18This is what it's all about today, Stuart.
21:21Yes, very much so, yes, this is an active quarry.
21:24This shows the scale of the industry,
21:27which has been Portland's bread and butter for countless centuries,
21:31going right back to Roman times.
21:34And, of course, Portland stone has been used
21:37for very many famous buildings.
21:39St Paul's Cathedral obviously comes to mind.
21:42Buckingham Palace has got a... Buckingham Palace, yes.
21:44And the whole of Regent Street, Bank of England, you name it,
21:47it is the ideal building stone for the capital and anywhere
21:51that wants a prestigious sort of facade to their building.
21:57The stone in this quarry, however,
21:59is destined for somewhere far more local.
22:01It's being used to build the stone jetties of the new Olympic Marina.
22:07150 years ago, stone was used to build the breakwaters
22:11that kept foreign enemies at bay.
22:13Today, it would be catering for the foremost foreign sports stars.
22:21But, of course, the Victorians were obsessed with national security.
22:26And the summit of Portland itself is given over to defence.
22:31The high-angle battery is where shells would have been lobbed up and over
22:35onto the deck of any vessel that threatened the fleet
22:38moored inside the harbour.
22:43The crowning feature, though, is the great Verne Citadel,
22:47a structure so secure it now serves as a prison.
22:54It was built as a massive fortress.
22:57It could have held up to 2,000 men in time of war.
23:00They took the whole of the hilltop here and reshaped it.
23:04A lot of what you can see, what you can't see, in fact,
23:07is underground and underneath these embankments and huge earth mouldings
23:11which reshaped this whole hilltop.
23:13Who would have done the work? Who would have carried it out?
23:16It was essentially by convict labour.
23:18The prisoners were brought here to dig the stone for the breakwater.
23:25So convicts did a lot of the hard work... Yes.
23:28..and convicts now are within these walls.
23:30That's an ironic thing, yes, because it wasn't built...
23:33The convicts were building it as a military fortress.
23:35But it's certainly keeping them in now.
23:37They were on their way to Australia, but now, of course,
23:40yes, it's keeping them in now, very effectively too.
23:42So with all this quarrying, the guns, the citadel,
23:45we've forgotten about the railway, Stuart.
23:47Well, let's head to the East Cliffs.
23:49There's a lovely vantage point there where you can see where the railway is.
23:53From the air, the scale of the Victorian citadel becomes clear.
23:57You can also see how it sits a good 400 feet
24:00above the path of the old railway.
24:05The Eastern and Church Hope wound its way
24:07around the northern tip of the island,
24:10eventually emerging for a straight run down the east side of Portland.
24:19A cracking view of the Jurassic coastline as well.
24:22Magnificent panorama of Weymouth Bay
24:24and the view of the site of the 2012 Olympic sailing events.
24:30Not many tourists know about this area
24:33and it is a superb vantage point, as I say.
24:38So it's time to rejoin the railway line.
24:43A walk which involves some rapid descent
24:46and takes you past a local feature known as Nicodemus Knob,
24:50an artificial limestone stack that quarry workers left behind,
24:54proving just how much of Portland has been dug up and moved elsewhere.
25:21Finally, back on the railway track, and you can really see from here
25:25how Portland's cliffs have been shoved back over the centuries
25:28by all the quarrying.
25:31For a walk that has been so utterly carved out by man,
25:34the east coast of Portland is a surprisingly beautiful place.
25:42You can only imagine the industry that must have been here
25:45when Christopher Wren came to choose the finest stone
25:48for St Paul's Cathedral.
25:57This used to be one of the most beautiful and dramatic parts of the railway.
26:01There was a bridge that ran over the top.
26:04And then about 40 years ago, a Portland stone company came along,
26:08bought up this stretch of land and essentially filled it in
26:11so they could get their lorries up and down.
26:14All in the name of industry.
26:18This is where I'm going to park company with the railway track
26:21and head this-a-way round to the cove.
26:27For a railway that was such a challenge to build and maintain,
26:30it seems sad that it lasted such a short period of time.
26:34Fully opened in 1902, the Portland section of my railway
26:37ceased carrying passengers just 50 years later
26:41and was completely closed in 1965.
26:48So while the Eastern and Church Hope curved inland to its terminus at Eastern,
26:53I thought I'd pay a visit to the Church Ope bit,
26:56a secluded bay and one of the few places on Portland
27:00that's remained untouched by the continuous production of stone.
27:10Believe it or not, this is the only place on Portland
27:13where walkers can actually get right down to the shoreline.
27:16Thousands of visitors used to flock here in their bathers
27:19to take advantage of the island's one and only beach.
27:22And as you can see, it's hardly enormous, but there are signs of life.
27:31These photos really show the cove put to good use.
27:35The folk of 1920s and 30s Britain seemed unfazed
27:39that they were just yards from quarries, naval ships and torpedoes.
27:44There was even a paddle steamer that would haul itself onto the rocks and shingle,
27:48far enough for visitors to walk a short plank onto the beach.
27:57So my walk has ended as it began, at a spot favoured by holidaymakers,
28:01but along the way, all the flavours have been very different.
28:04There's been military, industry, Portland stone,
28:07all served by that railway line that was.
28:10But with the Olympics on the way, and all the shiny new stuff that that entails,
28:14you can imagine that the golden age of British tourism will return here very soon.
28:40Thanks for watching!