Mixed Memories around Midford

Last Monday promised to be another blisteringly hot day for a ramble, so we chose to take things easy with a fairly level walk from Midford (near Bath) to Avoncliff and a section of the Kennet & Avon Canal.

Midford once boasted two railway lines, both of which featured in the 1953 Ealing Comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt. You can see them in this clip from the film, which also includes Pearce & Crups rival bus service.

Back in 1982 I was attending an Open University Summer School in Bath and one afternoon a tutor declared that he would like to visit Midford where two railway viaducts and the remains of the Somerset Coal Canal crossed each other.

The trespass must have happened about here, on the old Titfield branch.
This location would be roughly at the rear of the train in the first photo.

He gathered 4 students to his cause and I volunteered to be the driver.  On arrival, I dropped my passengers near the viaducts then motored about 50 yards down the road to park. In my absence the others had scrambled through a fence and were up on a railway embankment. A worryingly muscular, red-faced neighbour of the landowner then appeared, accusing them of trespassing. "I'm reporting you lot to the police," he declared, "and I've got your car registration number!" As the only one of the party lacking the courage or fool-hardiness to trespass, I pleaded my innocence but he was in no mood to listen. The tutor retorted that it was only 'trespass' if they damaged anything and continued to explore the track bed for another 10 minutes. I, who respected his skills in teaching mathematical modelling but was less certain about his legal ones, just looked on bemusedly. Thankfully, the rest of the Summer School passed off relatively peacefully and the police never called.

Enough of that particular memory. I recall that I was supposed to be describing a walk. Our chosen track climbed some 300ft out of Midford's valley then down to Freshford where, after cooling down and refreshing ourselves at The Inn at Freshford, we came to the banks of the River Avon. We passed a couple from the New World. "Say, what do you think this river is called," asked one. "Just some river," said the other. I suppressed a giggle then, when they were safely out of earshot, burst into hysterical laughter. "Just some river" indeed! Yet how right they had been, for Avon means 'river' so this really was the River River!

At Avoncliff we joined the Kennet & Avon Canal and crossed the impressive aqueduct. "O, I remember this," declared S--. Indeed, we both did as memories flooded back of a wonderful canal holiday, 15 years ago — two sun-bleached weeks exploring the K&A between Bath and Great Bedwyn.

The canal in this area is very beautiful and the shade afforded by the tall trees most welcome. As we walked, we exchanged more 15 year-old memories. "Do you remember the Cain Hill flight of locks?... How could we forget?... The gongoozlers at the top (we felt so proud!)... Exploring Savernake Forest... Lovely meals onboard... Breakfasts in the middle of nowhere... The wine... and more wine!"

This young lady seemed to be feeling the heat, but on closer inspection she turned out not to be real. No wonder she sat so still as we passed.

A little over 2 miles after leaving Avoncliff we arrived at Dundas Aquaduct and the refreshing sight of the Dawdling Dairy. What could we do but buy two ice cream cornets and dawdle a while?

This lift bridge at the opposite end of the aqueduct to the Dawling Dairy marks the beginning of a short length of the Somerset Coal Canal, which predates the K&A by several years. Here was the boatyard from where we had hired our narrowboat. She was called Tulip; I wonder what became of her?

And there she was! Clearly now in private hands but looking immaculate. In 2003 she had been a blue tulip; now she was a black one but unquestionably the same boat.

'Blue' Tulip, 2003

Our path back to Midford lay along the course of the old Titfield line – more accurately the Camerton Branch Line – and soon we passed a cricket ground. Surely this was the one that featured in the film when The Titfield Thunderbolt so distracted the batsman that he was bowled out.

After Monkton Coombe the footpath became much more rural as it threaded its way along the banks of Midford Brook, then beside the old railway line.

At last we were in Midford again but our walk wasn't quite complete. Keen to exorcise the ghosts of summers past, I made my way up past the Hope & Anchor pub, under Midford Viaduct and onto the track bed of the former Somerset & Dorset Railway.  And this time legally, for it's now a cycle way. At one end of the viaduct is Midford Station, where once upon a time one could board a train to Bournmouth in one direction or Bath in the other. The last train departed on 7th March 1966 and I suspected that I'd be in for a long wait for the next one.  Now the time had come for me to depart too.

At 10.1 miles, this didn't quite turn out to be the restful stroll that we had envisaged, but I'm glad we came... not least for the memories.