# Midford Village May 11



## oldscrote (May 22, 2011)

Midford is a small village that sits astride the Wiltshire Somerset border to the south of Bath and between the early 1800s and the fall of the Beeching axe in the 60s was a busy place with 2 railways and a canal passing through.Now apart from a fairly busy B road all is tranquillity again.There were originally 2 Stations one Midford station was on the Somerset and Dorset Joint line and the other Midford Halt was on the Limpley Stoke and Camerton light railway{a branch line built by the GWR in 1905}There is no evidence left of the halt but the remains of main station is still there and now lies on a cycle route.When I took the pictures a few volunteers were clearing the site of the station loos with a view to rebuilding them fr cyclists use.

1 The platform looking West




2 And looking east




3 Detail of back wall of platform the station was built on a ledge carved out of the hillside




4 Set of steps leading I know not where




5 The back wall of the station showing bedrock poking through and brick support




6 The site of the old loo looks a bit like an archaeological dig




7 A view looking west from the end of the platform looking over the viaduct





8 The view looking south from the viaduct with the remains of the LS and C light Rly viaduct just visible on the bend




9 the only relic I could see was this signal mast base at the east end of the platform





theres a bit more to come in part 2


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## night crawler (May 22, 2011)

Awesome stuff, I'm haveing a great Sunday with Pilboxes and old railways. What more could you want.


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## oldscrote (May 22, 2011)

Right here we go with part 2 which features the two viaducts that pass across the village the river and the canal.The Somerset and Dorset is the more impressive of the two and the LS and C one has been dismantled where it crosses a couple of roads,It also at one point dives under the S and D viaduct.Some of this was hard to photograph due to a load of trees but I hope I've got the essence of it.

1 The Limpley Stoke bridge dismantled span




2 The same




3 More of the LS and c viaduct this span goes over somebody's garden




4 This is the Sand D bridge that was shown in the first part of the post




5 The crossing of the S and D over the LS and c




6 The same crossing showing some more of the impressive height of the S and D to the right




7 The viaduct to the left and a road bridge over the canal a fine example of the riveters art




8 The same bridge and viaduct from underneath




9 The road through the village at one point in time was a toll road as this cast mile post shows




This link Has a nice set of Pictures of Midford railway In Its heyday.

http://www.alextrack.co.uk/model_railways/midford/prototype_midford_photographs.shtml

The Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt was filmed on the LS and C line just after it closed and the opening sequence shows Midford.


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## oldscrote (May 22, 2011)

Lastly the canal.This was the Somerset Coal Canal that ran from Monkton Coombe to Midford where it split one branch went to Radstock the other to Timsbury. the line was built over in a lot of places by the LS and C railway. A good link is here for history maps etc.

http://www.coalcanal.org/ 

There is a bit left at Midford although I was headed off at the pass short of the packhorse bridge by a couple of mustangs

1 The canal bed near the viaducts




2 out into the open there was a large basin here where the 2 branches split Aqueduct in distance




3 The bed is very obvious here




4 




5 Stone banking of the original canal bed




6 Aqueduct taking the Radstock branch over the river




7




8




9 The wild Mustangs approaching in the canal bed




I must apologise for the lousy quality of some of these shots.Due to barbed wire, electric fences and so on I had to use the not very good zoom on my camera.


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## night crawler (May 22, 2011)

What more to get me going other that disused canals and a rail viaduct as well Awsome.


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## oldscrote (May 22, 2011)

Cheers for the comments Night crawler glad to have made your day..........


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## Munchh (May 23, 2011)

That's quite a piece of work oldscrote and looks a really enjoyable explore. Making the effort brings its own rewards eh. Those who spend their weekends in the city just don't get the benefit of this quality of countryside. I really must post pics of the various rail bridges along the TSL that I don't usually include, seems there may be more appreciation of their artistry than I realised. Thanks for this, and reasonably local to me too.


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## oldscrote (May 24, 2011)

Thanks for the comments Munchh.I've always had a soft spot for monumental brickwork,the sheer labour that went into building these viaducts was awesome, no concrete mixers and site forklifts back then just a shovel, a hod, and very dodgy scaffolding.Apparently there's a bit of WW2 defences around Midford based on the river but I failed to spot any of it due to lack of access and too much undergrowth.......almost a case of roll on the winter


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## krela (May 24, 2011)

oldscrote said:


> Thanks for the comments Munchh.I've always had a soft spot for monumental brickwork,the sheer labour that went into building these viaducts was awesome, no concrete mixers and site forklifts back then just a shovel, a hod, and very dodgy scaffolding.Apparently there's a bit of WW2 defences around Midford based on the river but I failed to spot any of it due to lack of access and too much undergrowth.......almost a case of roll on the winter



Yeah, The Green Line (Bristol Outer Defence) runs down the valley.


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## Foxylady (May 27, 2011)

Wonderful stuff, Oldscrote. Looks like a great day out. Cheers for such a good tour.


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## manof2worlds (May 27, 2011)

This is great and inspirational work. I'm into landscape archaeology and former canal systems and railways fall so perfectly into the subject, I'm doing something similar in Norfolk looking at old railway systems and green roads. Seeing this has given me a real boost to get at it


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