Monday 14 January 2013

Steaming up the Valle Adurni

Until Mr Beeching had his wicked way, there was a railway line from Shoreham to Horsham, following the River Adur along much of its course: with a change at Christ's Hospital, you could travel on to Guildford, stopping at Bramley and Wonersh where our diocesan seminary is. How useful that would be to me today! Locals have told me that Beeching sent his ghouls out to inspect the traffic on the line during half term: the line was much used by school children, and it was these who principally suffered when the line closed. The timing of the inspection was considered to have been deliberate.

Anyway, do enjoy these short movies showing the line in action—quite a bit filmed in colour.





2 comments:

Singalong said...

Thank you Fr. Sean, brilliant. We used the station at Bramber a lot, when we lived in Upper Beeding. On one occasion a visitor, coming to us, was taken on to Shoreham because she could not open her carriage door!
In 1953, we went to London, from Henfield station, to watch the Coronation procession on a rather wet, but very exciting day

Fr John Hunwicke said...

Dear Father .... What an absolutely lovely pair of videos! It is rather uncanny to see things as they were just a few years before we arrived at Lancing College in the early seventies.

I recall that the rails were taken up by some 'railway workmen' whose bona fides nobody thought to verify!