The Day the Trains Came
Before the railways came, Hereford was truly isolated. Helen J. Simpson tells the fascinating story of the coming of the railways on this rural part of England in the middle years of the last century. These years showed an astonishing proliferation of railway enterprise: The Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway; The Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway; The Hereford, Ross & Gloucester Railway; The Worcester & Hereford Railway, together with numerous branch lines. Sad to say, these local railways are now part of Herefordshire's past and our heritage is the wealth of tales and experiences which their creation has left behind. This book offers a ticket to the past.
The story of the railways brings to life a range of colourful characters. There are tales of a crooked railway contractor, a baronet Member of Parliament who was declared bankrupt, a Duke's daughter who demanded, and was given, her own private waiting room at Great Malvern station.
Nearer our own time come the tales of the people who kept the lines running during the war - one line was the means of saving the lives of wounded American soldiers, carrying survivors from Dunkirk to the hospital camp at Kington. But soon the decline of the branch lines began. By the 1960s many of the lines laid by those hardworking navvies were overgrown and the neatly kept little stations just a memory.
Helen J. Simpson was born in Hereford and lives in the north of the county at Burton Court, a 14th century historic house. She is a regular contributor to many national magazines and television programmes and to the Hereford Times on topics of food history and local subjects of interest. Her previous book was The Burton Court Recipes - English Food from Herefordshire.
Softback, 16x23cm, 143 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good/Very Good
ISBN: 9780852443743
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