The Mendips

Leaving traffic locked between the two sets of crossing gates, perhaps, and climbing the short distance out of Radstock, we pass on our left, the Bristol to Frome line, unusual because trains going in the same apparent direction would be going in opposite directions - if you follow me. All through here are plenty of signs of coal mining, indeed today there is an active coal tip preservation campaign.

Norton Hill Colliery's tip looks almost ready to slide down into the terraced former miner's homes of Midsomer Norton, - a very friendly town as your webmaster later discovered, as did also the great John Wesley in earlier times.

The S & D Trackbed Trust's restoration of Midsomer Norton Station (below), and Signal Box, will include an Ivo Peters memorial garden (bottom left in the right-hand picture, immediately before the platform fence).

After the continued climb to Masbury Summit, a swift descent ensues through one of the twin bore tunnels of Winsor Hill, and passing a Northbound train tackling the 1 in 50 slog back to Masbury.

Unlike mining, an industry which was, and still is, prominent in the Mendip Hills, is stone quarrying, though the S & D was not quite close enough to today's quarries for a degree of survival by carrying aggregate. The stone-built signal box at Winsor Hill is visible evidence of the quarries which flourished right here.

Please Click to:-

[Home] [Menu] [About us]