Post by Dave on Sept 13, 2010 18:26:51 GMT
Primrose Junction, The End Of The Line
Carol and I sure have walked plenty of miles this week, starting On Sunday with our Princetown to Kings Tor walk and then Our Budleigh Salterton beach special followed by our Bath marathon, so we were looking for something to do today that was a little less demanding. The morning rain put paid to our plans and so we used the morning to catch up on a few things we needed to do hoping for a break in the clouds so we could at least go out and do something sometime today.
About 1.30pm it was looking a lot brighter and while it was far too late to do anything on our wish list, I thought it would be good to go and take some pictures of what is left of Primrose Junction in South Brent to complete my pieces I have been doing on the Primrose Line. As the very tiny South Brent fish and chip shop just happens to be one of our favourites that opens at 5pm, we were sure we could find plenty do in South Brent for three hours until it opened.
Its all a bit strange really my recent interest in old train lines as trains have never really interested me all of my life and now these days I seem to be always planning the next disused line for Carol and I to walk. I know how it started and where and it came about after an old disused railway bridge in Kingsbridge than once carried all the traffic into Kingsbridge from Plymouth was uncovered after being hidden by undergrowth for many years.
A small sort of bypass had been built to the right of the bridge and over the years it simply disappeared from view, but now it’s been uncovered again, it’s a feature of Kingsbridge. I leaned soon after I first noticed the bridge that the small industrial estate I call at in Kingsbridge was in fact the site of the Kingsbridge station and one railway building was still standing on the site.
So that was where Carol and I went first in our quest to discover and see as much as possible of what remained of the old Primrose Line. In the following weeks and months we walked on parts of the old track bed around Loddiswell and saw the station there and also parts of the line and the old station at Gara Bridge.
We drove to South Brent and headed for the car park and the car park is the place the station once stood. The first thing you notice is the whole platform is still there but is very overgrown and it also has a fence now running along its whole length as on the other side is the main Plymouth line. You will also see the old signal box that is all boarded it up and one remaining building that is now of all things a dental lab.
Standing looking at the signal bow you will see a bridge over the main line on your left and one on your right and if you walk to the right hand side of the car park there is now a gate to keep you off the lines, but it marks the spot where the train on the Primrose line entered the station..
We left the car part the way we had come into it and turned right over the bridge that goes over the main line to get around the other side of the main line track to get a much better shot of the signal box. We stopped on the bridge to watch an intercity train fly through the old station and an elderly gentleman stopped and asked if I was interested in trains.
I told him only the Primrose line and I struck gold as he knew all there was to know about this line and knew the whole layout of Primrose Junction and even remembered catching trains from the very station. I could have used up those three hours there and then as you know what I’m like when I get talking.
While Barton is partly right about the line being built over in South Brent, the man told me that if you go out of South Brent past the football ground on the right the track can be seen going across the fields and he also told me there was two ends of a bridge still standing after having the top removed from it. When we left South Brent at 5.45pm it was bucketing down with rain and I couldn’t really see where the track was and so the next time Ant plays at South Brent I’ll go early and take a walk down the road and try to find it.
After getting some good shots of the signal box we carried on walking to the bridge that the train would have gone under to enter the station and while I struggled to be able to look over it, I could clearly see where the train would have come out from to run alongside the main Plymouth line, I have a few shots of this I will put up with the others. I did say to Carol that I wonder if the box is fully intact inside complete with all the levers etc, I would love the chance to get a look inside one day
Having taken all the pictures I needed of Primrose Junction it was time to take a nice stroll around the village and a riverside walk to Lydia Bridge. We carried on over the bridge and turned right down the main village street that leads to the church, passing our fish and chip shot that still had two hours to go before it opened.
Halfway down this street is an old toll house but reading the board it was more to do with the cattle market of old than anything else. All the cottages are painted in different colours and at the bottom you turn right again that heads back toward the car park and on the left is a wonderful church. I went inside and took some great shots and loved the piped organ and some of the stain glassed windows but some are missing for whatever reason.
After leaving the church you come to the first stone bridge that if you go over you turn right once over it to get into the car park, the second bridge just after this one is the bridge over the main line on the Plymouth side of the old station.
But just before the first bridge is a very small lane that looks like is private property but it is in fact a public footpath that goes along the banks of the river Avon to Lydia bridge which is one of my favourite bridges. I did not know about this footpath until today and my good man who told me all about the station informed me about this riverside walk.
What is amazing is that just a short way down the slope and you go under a hidden bridge and this bridge is not visible from up on the road and as the train goes under the bridge as it leaves the station it goes straight over this hidden bridge and even looking over from the road bridge you would never know the train was going over the hidden bridge.
The walk to Lydia Bridge is not a long walk and I really enjoyed it and how great to see the Lydia Bridge from the river level and it sure looks good as you see the water crashing over the rocks as you look through the opening under the bridge.
Some local kids have put up a swing from a branch over hanging the river next the to bridge, as a kid we had swings over the river at Penn Inn park and also over the river Lemon in Bradley Woods, but I don’t think I would have wanted to have a go on this swing not for love nor money.
We walked back to South Brent the road way and had to sit in the car as it was now raining hard for twenty minute or so waiting for the fish and chip shop to open. I went and got them to save Carol getting wet. A really fine afternoon and my sort of afternoon, maybe I’m just a country boy at heart and simply lost in the City
