Leaving a comment, liking and sharing this film helps raise its profile - might you be able to help? Please do subscribe to this channel and The Alan Snowdon Archive, here: www.youtube.com/@AlanSnowdonArchive If you feel you can support my channel further, do consider buying me a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/rediscovering
Thanks RLR for featuring Alan's film; original is ua-cam.com/video/GhKpl9XZlV4/v-deo.html ...appreciate everyone's kind comments about my late father, yes his films will outlive us all on UA-cam and I'll add the many unseen & re-scanned films to his archive. I hope your wonderfully evocative storytelling here will serve as a reminder for us to treasure & travel the routes we still have, whilst finding feasible preservation projects. Looking forward to future channel collaboration, next stop... Hawkhurst?
Ok done also could you make a video on the branch line from ormskirk to skelmersdale I'm hoping with funding to reopen a section of the line in the future and I'd love you to visit it as skelmersdale is the 2 largest UK town without a rail connection.
@@RediscoveringLostRailways Reality sadly meant that whilst it might have come early, it was in the end inevitable. The car, heavier trucks and buses were the death knell of the lesser used rail routes. On the topic of photos, I have one or two that might be of interest that will otherwise disappear. Any suggestions as where to send them?
Lovely film, well edited and illustrated with Alan Snowdon's wonderful archive, it is about as close as one can get now to actually travel this quiet rural line again. Thank you so much.
I enjoyed that, knowing the areas seen to a fashion. I used to keep 2 preserved London Transport buses in an old aircraft hanger (which came from Biggin Hill) at Yeldham, on the Hunnable Industrial Estate, right next door to the old station. The line did play an important role in World War II as there were a few air force bases around Earls Colne and quite a lot of freight and military trains were run in support...... And the viaduct at Haverhill is known locally as Sturmer Arches, until your upload i never knew that wasn't its railway name!
The railbus in the film is one of 5 built by BR in the transitional period from steam to diesel in 1958-9. Built under contract by Wagen Machinenbau in Germany, they were all based at Cambridge for working the CVR from Havehill to Chappel and Wakes Colne, the Bartlow Saffron Walden Audley End section or Haverhill to Marks Tey via Sudbury. They also worked the Maldon to Witham line, and were all based at Cambridge Depot. 4 of them survived into preservation - 2 being at the Keighly and Worth Valley in Yorkshire, and the other 2 went to the North Norfolk Railway. 79963, was repatriated to Essex at the East Anglian Railway Museum several years ago and after extensive restoration, is experienced on a regular basis on the Museum's short line in the confines of Wakes Colne Station goods yard. 79963 also featured in one of Alan's films on the Saffron Walden line. It's claim to fame - if it can be called that - is that it was the last train to operate that line in September 1964. We had a copy of a photo from a local newspaper of the time on display in the shed where we were working on it, which showed the driver illuminated by the camera flash gun in his cab ready to take the empty train back to Cambridge after the last run with the assembled townsfolk on the platform. A visitor came into the shed where we were working on it, took one look at the photo and pronounced that he knew the driver. It was his Father! Sweet memories. Thanks, there's more to these old films than you think!
Excellent. Around 20 years back I used to often stop on my driving job at Castle Heddingham to avail myself of the cafe within a converted railway carriage.
It was great to see the Hamlet road viaduct in Haverhill, now in my 70's i recall riding my bicycle along the parapet as a 10yr old and getting caught by a local bobby, one clip around the ear.
A nice film. Unfortunately I don't see much chance for this line to reopen but the Colne Valley Railway have done a excellent job of bringing something back to life.
As ever a nostalgic venture into the sadly now past life that was British Railways. Beautifully crafted and presented that leaves you longing for more.
Tremendous video as always. But always makes me sad seeing this lost railways especially ones that are relatively local like this one. At a time when we've got too many cars on the road, a bus service which is unreliable outside of the big cities most of which already have a decent public transport and for those that cannot drive. Railways let us explore the world and there are many local places that are inaccessible now without a car. It's a damn shame. It is promising that some lines are reopening but unfortunately not enough and in a few recent cases only partial routes have reopened.
Always a mixture of sadness and anger at the amount we have lost, and the short-sightedness of those who are only interested in destruction and feathering their own nest. Your explorations are always excellent, and lead to further research. Love the use of vintage footage, and pleased to hear you'll be using Alan Snowdon's archive in future too. (btw the link to his page is broken). Thank you for a Sunday treat!
I worked briefly with a guy 30 years ago that volunteered at the heritage railway/museum there. He had a new girlfriend whose father was, shall we say, 'old school'. For the first few weeks he managed to convince his potential father-in-law of his virtue by telling him that he 'went to Chappel every Sunday'. 🙂 True story.
Thank you for another fascinating and interesting video. If only in the Beeching days they could have foreseen the state of Britain's road infrastructure today; if so, many of these lines would still be operational.
Although I moved to Haverhill in 1963, I don't remember passenger trains coming up this line. I do, however, remember goods trains coming out of Haverhill station over the viaduct that we used to call Sturmer Arches and then reversing into Haverhill South goods yard. In those days there was nothing to tell people that it used to be a passenger station. When I moved away in 1970, there was little to show for the Colne Valley line but a lot of the Stour Valley line. I remember those railbuses very well as they used to run between Haverhill and Audley End, with DMUs running from Cambridge to Sudbury and beyond. Sadly, the frequency and timing of Cambridge trains wasn't enough to maintain much usage and a lot of people used the buses instead. Getting to and from Sudbury from Haverhill wasn't easy.
Brilliant, what a loss the railway to Haverhill was, it was earmarked as another London overspill town and could have been as large as Harlow but with a rail link to London already there.
Forgot to add that it would be interesting to know the number of the railbus in the film as we have l of the five in working order at the East Anglian railway museum
Very good. It is a great pity so much of the nations rail infrastructure was destroyed in the 1960's. Many of the closed routes would be very useful today...
Another superb lost railway documentary with your usual gentle informative commentary and soundtrack - always a delight to watch: thank you. If only the rail planners of the 1960s had had crystal ball foresight to imagine how towns and villages would develop by the turn of the millennium and beyond, we may have seen more protected trackbeds waiting for those all-important reopening feasibility studies!
Really nicely presented video, thank you. Essex does not have a particularly good reputation for looking after its heritage so it's heartening to see so much surviving on that side of the border. I hope your video inspires Essex residents to get together to protect what's left, and you never know the Stour Valley and Colne Valley railways might one day meet. Over the border, Haverhill definitely needs to be reconnected to the present day rail network. I hope the wait will not be too long.
The station canopy at Colne Valley Railway is the one from Glemsford Station. Haverhill is my favourite station on the Stour Valley/Colne Valley route, I'd love to model the two stations in Haverhill along with the Sturmer arches. That'd make a great layout.
Great editing and presentation. Although it's unfortunate that more of the railway isn't preserved, the White Colne station building looks great in its current role and the painstaking relocation of Sible and Castle Hedingham is really admirable.
The opening scene made me sad - Alan Snowden whose archive footage you use recently passed away. A great man that spent much time in the 1960’s filming fast disappearing scenes (as you said).
Even in LNER and BR days the the CVHR was run in a semi independent manner as were other lines that had a long history of Independent Ownership the closure warning signs first appeared in the early 1950's but the use of Demu's in 57/58 gave some hope but the rise of car ownership and use there was even a plan to cut the middle section leaving two shortish stub lines at either end but only the Sudbury Branch was enacted but the East Anglia Railway Museum is a brilliant day out for all railway buffs of all ages,Finally thank you for another fine video a little short perhaps to gain the full flavour of a once common cross country line RLR.
Being local to the old railway I really enjoyed the watch. Loved you did it the other way round for this updated version. Great work so much could be recovered from nature to reinstall the line sadly some buildings sit in the way. Great blog though. Well done.
Beautiful video, super well crafted, I truely enjoyed it. A gilpse from the past in the old english countryside. I built a fascination with trains since I was a lad living near to the train tacks in my hometown, I see them pass everyday and I still believe the future is trains again.
Amazing to see historic footage interwoven with views of what remains today. Truly an unbeatable combination! I still miss the nostalgic music of the English pastoral movement though...
Once again a thank you for an excellent film, with wonderful lyrical narration. Definitely as a commercial transport undertaking, it is a line lost to history - as soon as mangle wurzels creased to be transported by rail from the fields, it had no economic future.
Wonderful archive footage to compensate for the little that remains of this long lost railway. As you say, hope springs eternal and at some time in the future, the sizeable town of Haverhill may, just possibly, get its railway back. Thank you.
Cracking video! My Aunt moved to Haverhill in 1965. My Mum said she caught the train to there but that would have been from Saffron Walden I think. I went there quite a few times but the line was shut and it was a bus from Audley End. I did manage to walk a bit of line from Haverhill towards Linton, maybe in 1968? The track was still there. My Uncle ran his car battery business from the yard at Haverhill, maybe the goods shed. The Colne Valley part of the track at Haverhill used to pass Hamlet Croft, site of Haverhill Rovers FC, also now gone.
In the early 1990s I worked on the BR bridge department. We inspected bridges on this line still owned by BR. We were at one structure one day when a woman on a horse came by and asked us what we were doing. We got chatting and I asked her if she would like the railway back. 'Oh no , we have cars now' she replied. The only time I experienced someone not wanting a railway line reopened
hi there, great video.sad its past in to history, luckily i can remember railways in the early 60s living in sussex at the time, another line you might like is the Harrow and Stanmore railway where you can walk on parts of it, sort of reminds me of the Railway Children [1971]
The station is actually Chappel and Wakes Colne. You can see the name Chappel on the signal box. Due to the parishes being made up of various parcels of church land, the main station building is in Wakes Colne parish but some of the goods yard is in Chappel parish! The station is called Chappel Station in the original 1855 act of Parliament authorising the line. Sorry to be a pedant 😊
Yes! I did enjoy that film very much. Thank you. I actually remember Halstead station, still intact, as we went over the crossing in my step dad's car, coming back from a visit to Norfolk! I thought, how wonderfully integrated into the town!
Hi , Nice one remember it well, ( all in the name of progress 😅, ) makes me very sad, ( the country going to pot😮) many thanks ,(as i wipe the tears away) All the best Brian 😭
Great stuff as usual, this time from my home country of Essex, from which I have long been exiled. I had a Grandmother who lived in Cressing and have vague memories of train journeys in the area, so it's likely I actually traveled on the line you feature.Thank you, Mike.
I always look forward to receiving notification of a new video from you, knowing I'll never be disappointed in its content - and once again, this has proven to be the case. I wonder if you could cover the long-closed Stamford to Wansford line at some point in your inimitable style, please? Before long, the surviving Wansford Road station (just by the A47 where it passes over the A1) is due to be dismantled and moved into Peterborough, to form a 'new' building on the Nene Valley Railway. The track bed is fairly easy to follow and some infrastructure remains including at least one complete bridge at Southorpe, the station at Barnack and abutments carrying the line over a road and the railway line at Uffington level crossing. Other lines from Stamford can also be followed, including the line to Essendine but this latter is slowly disappearing under development.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this film and my others. I was only taking my son for a ride on the Nene Valley line the other day, so that coupled with your remarks here has piqued my interest...I'll do some research, thanks for the tip!
Superb film, as always. I once thought a route from Cambridge to Colchester via Haverhill would have been a sensible retention by BR, until I looked at the timetables. It was a very leisurely railway!
That was a nostalgic journey for me. My Grandmother lived near Chappel & Wakes Colne Station and I spent holidays there as a child. I was a frequent visitor to both the station and the signal box and I was allowed, as an unaccompanied child ,to use the railcar along the Colne Valley line, often returning from Cambridge via Sudbury on the Stour Valley line. This film brought back those days. Thank you.
Very interesting,I was born in Halstead in the year it closed to passenger traffic , I do have vague memories of being taken to see the trains, I guess that would have been the freight traffic. I think there was a bus station around there, but as I was only when we moved away I may be wrong!
Thanks for another interesting video, I’m not familiar with the area, but I’m sure the line is missed by a few locals in the area who remember it, there’s some relics left and it’s good to see there is a preservation society running trains on a part of the line. The rest of the lines condition tells of a story of a lot of disused lines, covered over, built over, obliterated. Thanks for your time and hard work.👍
A great video as ever, thank you. You missed the bit between White Colne and Earls Colne which is mostly a public footpath with a few artefacts remaining, an especially interesting part being the narrow gauge rails supporting the footsteps back up onto the trackbed just after the former station.
Thanks for such an interesting retrospective view of a lovely little country railway. Although it’s sad to consider how completely it has been swept away, it’s also encouraging to see that some of it has been preserved. I wonder if the unidentified BTH Class 15 pictured at Haverhill is the one that survives to this day.
Thank you for sharing this piece of history.Elegantly narrated as well,glad some of the line has been saved to this day,was a really interesting story 👍👌
Another excellent film. Every time I watch one of your films I am further angered and depressed by what has been thrown away and destroyed. All the work and effort that went into building these lines - which would be so useful these days of dominance by cars and fear of climate change - wasted completely. Not even the right of way maintained. And now the cost of reinstating even a fraction of these lines would be so much as to be 'prohibitive' (unlike new and 'improved' roads, which are just 'necessary'). But I guess when my generation passes - the last to remember regular travel by steam and the vast network of local lines axed by Beeching - few will care, and life will go on.
Another cracking video of a long lost line ,with superb archive film esp' showing the deep blue of station totems and boards ,as for re-opening , ok on paper but would it make money ? so i think not i am afraid.
I covet Eastern Region totems...if I was around when these lines were closed, I would certainly have gone and 'borrowed' them for safe keeping...thanks so much for your ongoing support!
Thank you, nicely presented film. As an edit suggestion if I may - at the beginning you refer to Wakes Colne Station. Historically it has either been Chappel Station or later renamed Chappel and Wakes Colne Station. I believe the railbus in the Alan Snowdon film is preserved and running at the East Anglian Railway Museum
Thanks for the welcome suggestion and for clarifying, much appreciated. I did not know that the one at the museum is the exact one in the film - fantastic!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways if you would like to come for a full visit at the East Anglian Railway Museum I would be very pleased to host you on a day when the trains are running 😊
AlanSA's original film comment from PeterM mentioned the Railbus seen here "79963 is alive and well at the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel and had its public debut . Repatriated from the North Norfolk Railway 7 years , it has undergone a significant programme of restoration". Worth a visit!
Another entertaining & informative video, always somehow poignant as we all feel we lost something good, now that we realise we should have kept them. Great job
Many thanks for an excellent film and hope that you did not get muddy on the location filming and wasn't Haverhill Station closed just after the Town was chosen as a overspill location for London ironically although i don't hold much chance over the line reopening although it would take the pressure off the road journey to Cambridge
When you come upon an area where the line was plowed under by a farmer, you can go to google earth and find a picture taken in early spring or late fall ( after harvest ) and you can make out the route of the line because the soil is discoloured by either filling in a cut, or by leveling an embankment.
Yes, very true - I made one film where the shape of the track (the metals and the sleepers) are still 'ghosted' into the growth of the wild grasses, so from above, the track still looks in place!
sadly everything must have an end... i would have loved to ride this line on a nice summer day... i do however like watching the cvr hertiage line is doing through the eyes of the youtube channel wardle restorations... he's really informative of what goes on on the line and his own restoration progress of his loco and rolling stock
Great video, thank you. I imagine that, at some point, Haverhill will get connected into the guided busway system around Cambridge. With all of the bio tech and other hi tech facilities just south of Cambridge it makes sense to link it. Rail, sadly, is not as flexible as the busway and more difficult to connect into the existing network.
A nice video that is particularly interesting to me, I’ve lived in Essex all my life and been passing through this area on and off for as long as I can remember. I usually look out and piece bits together as I pass through but there are many things here that are new. Work has seen me cross cross this line several times in the last week so many of the locations are fresh in my mind. I always feel a tinge of sadness though for the pride and workmanship that built the railway only for it to fade away. Thank you.
Another pleasent video from you. Chances for reopening - I think it is minmal, but who knows. Do you know is there any heritage railwaylines running trafic with railbusses? The line close to this area that I think has the best chances to be reopened is March to Wisbech. This is due trackbed still exist and that Wisbech is not a small unimportent place,
Agreed - no chance of reopening. I've learned that the East Anglian Railway Museum not only has a working railbus, but it is also the exact one that features in the archive footage!
Impressed that the railbus was the same Why I like them because they kept many rural lines opened for longer times compared if you only had steam Another line that I hope will reopen is a line from Cambridge to connect EWL from Oxford
i love your channel keep it up saving history in england great job i follow two american railroad channels wide world of trains and jawtooth big railroad fan thks be safe my friend
Leaving a comment, liking and sharing this film helps raise its profile - might you be able to help? Please do subscribe to this channel and The Alan Snowdon Archive, here: www.youtube.com/@AlanSnowdonArchive If you feel you can support my channel further, do consider buying me a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/rediscovering
Thanks RLR for featuring Alan's film; original is ua-cam.com/video/GhKpl9XZlV4/v-deo.html ...appreciate everyone's kind comments about my late father, yes his films will outlive us all on UA-cam and I'll add the many unseen & re-scanned films to his archive. I hope your wonderfully evocative storytelling here will serve as a reminder for us to treasure & travel the routes we still have, whilst finding feasible preservation projects. Looking forward to future channel collaboration, next stop... Hawkhurst?
@@AlanSnowdonArchive thanks Robin...and yes, Hawkhurst it is!
Ok done also could you make a video on the branch line from ormskirk to skelmersdale I'm hoping with funding to reopen a section of the line in the future and I'd love you to visit it as skelmersdale is the 2 largest UK town without a rail connection.
Can't help feeling, despite not being alive until the mid 70s, that we lost something very special when the rail networks were pruned.
Agreed - I was born in 1983 and feel much the same!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways Reality sadly meant that whilst it might have come early, it was in the end inevitable. The car, heavier trucks and buses were the death knell of the lesser used rail routes. On the topic of photos, I have one or two that might be of interest that will otherwise disappear. Any suggestions as where to send them?
@@Swaggerlot various Facebook groups such as disused stations or disused railways would gladly receive them!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways Sadly I do not sink so low as to as visit its doors.
Superb video again.
As always a pleasure to watch.
The archive footage is remarkable.
👍🙂
Lovely film, well edited and illustrated with Alan Snowdon's wonderful archive, it is about as close as one can get now to actually travel this quiet rural line again. Thank you so much.
Many thanks indeed 🙏
I enjoyed that, knowing the areas seen to a fashion. I used to keep 2 preserved London Transport buses in an old aircraft hanger (which came from Biggin Hill) at Yeldham, on the Hunnable Industrial Estate, right next door to the old station. The line did play an important role in World War II as there were a few air force bases around Earls Colne and quite a lot of freight and military trains were run in support...... And the viaduct at Haverhill is known locally as Sturmer Arches, until your upload i never knew that wasn't its railway name!
Many thanks for your kind words and comment...what became of your buses?
@@RediscoveringLostRailways They are now on a farm in Sible Headingham and another with me in Wales......
The railbus in the film is one of 5 built by BR in the transitional period from steam to diesel in 1958-9. Built under contract by Wagen Machinenbau in Germany, they were all based at Cambridge for working the CVR from Havehill to Chappel and Wakes Colne, the Bartlow Saffron Walden Audley End section or Haverhill to Marks Tey via Sudbury. They also worked the Maldon to Witham line, and were all based at Cambridge Depot. 4 of them survived into preservation - 2 being at the Keighly and Worth Valley in Yorkshire, and the other 2 went to the North Norfolk Railway. 79963, was repatriated to Essex at the East Anglian Railway Museum several years ago and after extensive restoration, is experienced on a regular basis on the Museum's short line in the confines of Wakes Colne Station goods yard. 79963 also featured in one of Alan's films on the Saffron Walden line. It's claim to fame - if it can be called that - is that it was the last train to operate that line in September 1964. We had a copy of a photo from a local newspaper of the time on display in the shed where we were working on it, which showed the driver illuminated by the camera flash gun in his cab ready to take the empty train back to Cambridge after the last run with the assembled townsfolk on the platform. A visitor came into the shed where we were working on it, took one look at the photo and pronounced that he knew the driver.
It was his Father!
Sweet memories. Thanks, there's more to these old films than you think!
Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories and knowledge of these trains!
Brilliant and informative. Leaves one with a touch of sadness but I guess time moves on, unfortunately not always our minds.
Many thanks indeed!
Excellent. Around 20 years back I used to often stop on my driving job at Castle Heddingham to avail myself of the cafe within a converted railway carriage.
Glad you enjoyed it!
It was great to see the Hamlet road viaduct in Haverhill, now in my 70's i recall riding my bicycle along the parapet as a 10yr old and getting caught by a local bobby, one clip around the ear.
Wonderful memories, thanks for sharing!
A nice film. Unfortunately I don't see much chance for this line to reopen but the Colne Valley Railway have done a excellent job of bringing something back to life.
Thank you. And agreed on all counts!
The Preserved CVR has problems with two landowners but are beavering away to reinstate as much of the CVHR as possible.
As ever a nostalgic venture into the sadly now past life that was British Railways. Beautifully crafted and presented that leaves you longing for more.
Thank you ever so much 👍
Tremendous video as always. But always makes me sad seeing this lost railways especially ones that are relatively local like this one. At a time when we've got too many cars on the road, a bus service which is unreliable outside of the big cities most of which already have a decent public transport and for those that cannot drive. Railways let us explore the world and there are many local places that are inaccessible now without a car. It's a damn shame. It is promising that some lines are reopening but unfortunately not enough and in a few recent cases only partial routes have reopened.
I would venture that many on here share your thoughts and opinions. Thanks for your comment, much appreciated.
Always a mixture of sadness and anger at the amount we have lost, and the short-sightedness of those who are only interested in destruction and feathering their own nest. Your explorations are always excellent, and lead to further research. Love the use of vintage footage, and pleased to hear you'll be using Alan Snowdon's archive in future too. (btw the link to his page is broken). Thank you for a Sunday treat!
Really glad you enjoyed this installment and thank for the heads up about the broken link, which is now fixed!
I worked briefly with a guy 30 years ago that volunteered at the heritage railway/museum there. He had a new girlfriend whose father was, shall we say, 'old school'. For the first few weeks he managed to convince his potential father-in-law of his virtue by telling him that he 'went to Chappel every Sunday'. 🙂 True story.
That is a very fine anecdote! Superb!
Thank you for another fascinating and interesting video. If only in the Beeching days they could have foreseen the state of Britain's road infrastructure today; if so, many of these lines would still be operational.
Wouldn't that be great! I've got my shortlist of lines I would have loved to have travelled on!
Although I moved to Haverhill in 1963, I don't remember passenger trains coming up this line. I do, however, remember goods trains coming out of Haverhill station over the viaduct that we used to call Sturmer Arches and then reversing into Haverhill South goods yard. In those days there was nothing to tell people that it used to be a passenger station. When I moved away in 1970, there was little to show for the Colne Valley line but a lot of the Stour Valley line. I remember those railbuses very well as they used to run between Haverhill and Audley End, with DMUs running from Cambridge to Sudbury and beyond. Sadly, the frequency and timing of Cambridge trains wasn't enough to maintain much usage and a lot of people used the buses instead. Getting to and from Sudbury from Haverhill wasn't easy.
Many thanks for your thoughts and revealing memories, which really bring the scene alive
Alan's channel is a fantastic collection of a lost Britain in everyday films, highly recommended.
Agreed, wholeheartedly
What a fantastic film! Thank you very much indeed.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Brilliant, what a loss the railway to Haverhill was, it was earmarked as another London overspill town and could have been as large as Harlow but with a rail link to London already there.
Yes, it urgently needs a public transport connection with Cambridge, beyond a simple bus link
Forgot to add that it would be interesting to know the number of the railbus in the film as we have l of the five in working order at the East Anglian railway museum
What a charming channel. Thank you for posting.
Very kind of you to say so, thank you
Very good. It is a great pity so much of the nations rail infrastructure was destroyed in the 1960's. Many of the closed routes would be very useful today...
Yes, you are right!
Another superb lost railway documentary with your usual gentle informative commentary and soundtrack - always a delight to watch: thank you. If only the rail planners of the 1960s had had crystal ball foresight to imagine how towns and villages would develop by the turn of the millennium and beyond, we may have seen more protected trackbeds waiting for those all-important reopening feasibility studies!
Many thanks! So glad you enjoyed the film!
Really nicely presented video, thank you. Essex does not have a particularly good reputation for looking after its heritage so it's heartening to see so much surviving on that side of the border. I hope your video inspires Essex residents to get together to protect what's left, and you never know the Stour Valley and Colne Valley railways might one day meet. Over the border, Haverhill definitely needs to be reconnected to the present day rail network. I hope the wait will not be too long.
Thank you ever so much - and yes, Haverhill urgently needs a connection to Cambridge, one way or another!
The station canopy at Colne Valley Railway is the one from Glemsford Station. Haverhill is my favourite station on the Stour Valley/Colne Valley route, I'd love to model the two stations in Haverhill along with the Sturmer arches. That'd make a great layout.
Thanks for the info!
Outstanding film. Thank you very much.
Many thanks indeed!
What a nice way to start a Sunday morning…….. excellent!
I'm glad you think so, thank you!
Great editing and presentation. Although it's unfortunate that more of the railway isn't preserved, the White Colne station building looks great in its current role and the painstaking relocation of Sible and Castle Hedingham is really admirable.
Yes, you are right and thank you for your kind words!
The opening scene made me sad - Alan Snowden whose archive footage you use recently passed away. A great man that spent much time in the 1960’s filming fast disappearing scenes (as you said).
No reason to be sad; his legacy will be his photography, something that will outlive all of us.
Yes, I have been in touch with his son who has very kindly granted me permission to use this footage and yet more for future films.
Yes, just so!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways
Alans wife who did a lot of the commentary sounds a lovely woman as well.
@@RediscoveringLostRailways People don't last forever, but memories and records do.
What an astonishing piece, supplemented by the wonderful archive footage; Another walk added to my ever-growing bucket list 😊
Glad you enjoyed it - many thanks indeed!
Even in LNER and BR days the the CVHR was run in a semi independent manner as were other lines that had a long history of Independent Ownership the closure warning signs first appeared in the early 1950's but the use of Demu's in 57/58 gave some hope but the rise of car ownership and use there was even a plan to cut the middle section leaving two shortish stub lines at either end but only the Sudbury Branch was enacted but the East Anglia Railway Museum is a brilliant day out for all railway buffs of all ages,Finally thank you for another fine video a little short perhaps to gain the full flavour of a once common cross country line RLR.
Many thanks for your comment and thoughts, much appreciated
A huge thank you to all volunteers who carry out such wonderful work 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Agreed
It's so heart warming to see old buildings repurposed as community centres and cafes etc.
Yes, couldn't agree more! A village hall seems like such a worthwhile transformation!
Yes. Watching then-and-now railway films, I get terribly nostalgic. The bright spots are whatever has been preserved.
Beautiful video 👌🏼😀
Thank you very much!
Thank you very much for more enjoyable sadness.
Many thanks indeed!
Being local to the old railway I really enjoyed the watch. Loved you did it the other way round for this updated version. Great work so much could be recovered from nature to reinstall the line sadly some buildings sit in the way. Great blog though. Well done.
Many thanks indeed - yes, i went the other way this time so that I could marry my footage up with the archive material and I'm glad I did!
Beautiful video, super well crafted, I truely enjoyed it. A gilpse from the past in the old english countryside. I built a fascination with trains since I was a lad living near to the train tacks in my hometown, I see them pass everyday and I still believe the future is trains again.
Thank you very much! Wonderful how those memories have stuck with you.
Amazing to see historic footage interwoven with views of what remains today. Truly an unbeatable combination! I still miss the nostalgic music of the English pastoral movement though...
So glad you enjoyed it...and don't worry, I understand your feelings on the music!
Once again a thank you for an excellent film, with wonderful lyrical narration. Definitely as a commercial transport undertaking, it is a line lost to history - as soon as mangle wurzels creased to be transported by rail from the fields, it had no economic future.
Thank you very much indeed for your kind words and comment!
Wonderful archive footage to compensate for the little that remains of this long lost railway. As you say, hope springs eternal and at some time in the future, the sizeable town of Haverhill may, just possibly, get its railway back. Thank you.
My pleasure, thank you!
Cracking video! My Aunt moved to Haverhill in 1965. My Mum said she caught the train to there but that would have been from Saffron Walden I think. I went there quite a few times but the line was shut and it was a bus from Audley End. I did manage to walk a bit of line from Haverhill towards Linton, maybe in 1968? The track was still there. My Uncle ran his car battery business from the yard at Haverhill, maybe the goods shed. The Colne Valley part of the track at Haverhill used to pass Hamlet Croft, site of Haverhill Rovers FC, also now gone.
Wonderful memories, thank you for sharing them!
Brillant as per usual… greeting from Thailand 🇹🇭
Thank you ever so much - greetings from England!
In the early 1990s I worked on the BR bridge department. We inspected bridges on this line still owned by BR. We were at one structure one day when a woman on a horse came by and asked us what we were doing. We got chatting and I asked her if she would like the railway back. 'Oh no , we have cars now' she replied. The only time I experienced someone not wanting a railway line reopened
Great story! Thanks for sharing 👍
Looking at roads today bet she ate those words 😆
Alan Snowdon - what a smart man he was to take this footage.. l am really enjoying your videos thanks for all your hard work..
Thanks for watching - and yes, Mr Snowdon had remarkable foresight, for which I'm very grateful!
Fantastic, and Thank You!
Thank you too!
Another excellent video and well worth the wait. Thank-you for the effort involved in producing this top notch film.
So glad you enjoyed the film!
hi there, great video.sad its past in to history, luckily i can remember railways in the early 60s living in sussex at the time, another line you might like is the Harrow and Stanmore railway where you can walk on parts of it, sort of reminds me of the Railway Children [1971]
Many thanks for the tip!
The station is actually Chappel and Wakes Colne. You can see the name Chappel on the signal box. Due to the parishes being made up of various parcels of church land, the main station building is in Wakes Colne parish but some of the goods yard is in Chappel parish!
The station is called Chappel Station in the original 1855 act of Parliament authorising the line. Sorry to be a pedant 😊
You beat me to it Bruce,
cheers, Seb 😅
Thank you both for clarifying!
Superb vid........more please.
More to come! Do subscribe if you've not already done so and enjoy my other films in the series!
Yes! I did enjoy that film very much. Thank you. I actually remember Halstead station, still intact, as we went over the crossing in my step dad's car, coming back from a visit to Norfolk! I thought, how wonderfully integrated into the town!
Glad you enjoyed it - and wonderful memories!
Usual consummate narrative, with wonderful footage.
Many thanks indeed!
Once again, thank you for a lovely video.
And thank YOU for your ongoing support!
Hi , Nice one remember it well, ( all in the name of progress 😅, ) makes me very sad, ( the country going to pot😮) many thanks ,(as i wipe the tears away) All the best Brian 😭
Many thanks for your kind words and comment
Thank you for trip back in time. An eye opening trip. See you on the next! 🇬🇧🙂👍🇺🇸
Glad you enjoyed it! See you next time!
Great stuff as usual, this time from my home country of Essex, from which I have long been exiled. I had a Grandmother who lived in Cressing and have vague memories of train journeys in the area, so it's likely I actually traveled on the line you feature.Thank you, Mike.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful memories and for your kind words about my film!
I always look forward to receiving notification of a new video from you, knowing I'll never be disappointed in its content - and once again, this has proven to be the case. I wonder if you could cover the long-closed Stamford to Wansford line at some point in your inimitable style, please? Before long, the surviving Wansford Road station (just by the A47 where it passes over the A1) is due to be dismantled and moved into Peterborough, to form a 'new' building on the Nene Valley Railway. The track bed is fairly easy to follow and some infrastructure remains including at least one complete bridge at Southorpe, the station at Barnack and abutments carrying the line over a road and the railway line at Uffington level crossing. Other lines from Stamford can also be followed, including the line to Essendine but this latter is slowly disappearing under development.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this film and my others. I was only taking my son for a ride on the Nene Valley line the other day, so that coupled with your remarks here has piqued my interest...I'll do some research, thanks for the tip!
Thank you!
You're welcome!
Thank you as always.
My pleasure!
Wonderful!
Many thanks!
I still work in Haverhill amongst other's. Nice place and great video.
Thank you very much!
Thankyou for another great film. I always look forward to new content from you.
So nice of you to say so, thank you!
welcome back , so glad for this video so for that i thank you, from scotland with love
Thank you, very kind, much appreciated!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways you are very welcome
Superb film, as always. I once thought a route from Cambridge to Colchester via Haverhill would have been a sensible retention by BR, until I looked at the timetables. It was a very leisurely railway!
That i did not know - hoisted by their own petard, perhaps!
That was a nostalgic journey for me. My Grandmother lived near Chappel & Wakes Colne Station and I spent holidays there as a child. I was a frequent visitor to both the station and the signal box and I was allowed, as an unaccompanied child ,to use the railcar along the Colne Valley line, often returning from Cambridge via Sudbury on the Stour Valley line. This film brought back those days. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories - I'm glad you enjoyed the film!
Yet another fantastic journey along another closed line. Your films are so enjoyable. Thank you for allowing us to see what we have lost
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very interesting,I was born in Halstead in the year it closed to passenger traffic , I do have vague memories of being taken to see the trains, I guess that would have been the freight traffic. I think there was a bus station around there, but as I was only when we moved away I may be wrong!
Thank you for sharing your memories!
Thanks for another interesting video, I’m not familiar with the area, but I’m sure the line is missed by a few locals in the area who remember it, there’s some relics left and it’s good to see there is a preservation society running trains on a part of the line.
The rest of the lines condition tells of a story of a lot of disused lines, covered over, built over, obliterated.
Thanks for your time and hard work.👍
My pleasure 🙏
I know the area, this really is excellent
Many thanks indeed 🙏
Well researched and produced. Greetings from an Australian rail fan.
Many thanks for your ongoing support!
Superb video again!
As always a pleasure to watch.
The archive footage is remarkable.
👍🙂
Thank you ever so much - I'm so grateful to have been granted permission to use the archive footage!
Excellent.
Thank you!
A great video as ever, thank you.
You missed the bit between White Colne and Earls Colne which is mostly a public footpath with a few artefacts remaining, an especially interesting part being the narrow gauge rails supporting the footsteps back up onto the trackbed just after the former station.
Thank you...yes, I should have covered that bit, I can't think why I didn't!
Another brilliant little documentary. I always look forward to when another episode appears. Where next I wonder?
Thank you so much. My next film is going to be a real passion project - the Southwold Railway - it will be filmed in May!
Shall be looking forward to it 👍🚂
Thanks for such an interesting retrospective view of a lovely little country railway. Although it’s sad to consider how completely it has been swept away, it’s also encouraging to see that some of it has been preserved. I wonder if the unidentified BTH Class 15 pictured at Haverhill is the one that survives to this day.
My very great pleasure, thank you!
Thank you for sharing this piece of history.Elegantly narrated as well,glad some of the line has been saved to this day,was a really interesting story 👍👌
Glad you enjoyed it, many thanks indeed!
No worries,it's really interesting my friend 👍👌
Fabulous - Thank you
My pleasure, thank you!
Thank you for another wonderful journey
Thank you too!
Another excellent film. Every time I watch one of your films I am further angered and depressed by what has been thrown away and destroyed. All the work and effort that went into building these lines - which would be so useful these days of dominance by cars and fear of climate change - wasted completely. Not even the right of way maintained. And now the cost of reinstating even a fraction of these lines would be so much as to be 'prohibitive' (unlike new and 'improved' roads, which are just 'necessary'). But I guess when my generation passes - the last to remember regular travel by steam and the vast network of local lines axed by Beeching - few will care, and life will go on.
It is a shame that so much has been lost - another casualty is the character of these lines and buildings.
Another one of your brilliant documentaries of which I enjoyed yet again!
Many thanks 👍
Glad you like them!
Congratulations on another excellent example of a well researched, well narrated and well filmed program my freind.
☕👍
Many thanks! So very kind of you!
Have you thought about doing holt to Melton constable next?
Yes...considering making a film about the whole M&GN jt railway...
Great video as always so great shots from the rail bus. It was that wet when I walked it a few years ago as well!
Yes, I feel that I recreated the same wet and windy journey too!
Good film about a lost line. Fascinating!
Many thanks indeed, glad you enjoyed it!
Another beautiful and well researched film, a joy to watch. Railway poetry. Thank you.
You're very kind, I'm so glad you enjoyed this film, thank you for your comment
Great video, informative and entertaining, thank you.
Thank you. And yours is the first comment!
Excellent footage and historic viewing. Always good looking at old archives.
Very kind of you to say so!
@RediscoveringLostRailways have seen most of your videos and very well narrated and put together
Another cracking video of a long lost line ,with superb archive film esp' showing the deep blue of station totems and boards ,as for re-opening , ok on paper but would it make money ? so i think not i am afraid.
I covet Eastern Region totems...if I was around when these lines were closed, I would certainly have gone and 'borrowed' them for safe keeping...thanks so much for your ongoing support!
Thank you, nicely presented film. As an edit suggestion if I may - at the beginning you refer to Wakes Colne Station. Historically it has either been Chappel Station or later renamed Chappel and Wakes Colne Station.
I believe the railbus in the Alan Snowdon film is preserved and running at the East Anglian Railway Museum
Thanks for the welcome suggestion and for clarifying, much appreciated. I did not know that the one at the museum is the exact one in the film - fantastic!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways if you would like to come for a full visit at the East Anglian Railway Museum I would be very pleased to host you on a day when the trains are running 😊
AlanSA's original film comment from PeterM mentioned the Railbus seen here "79963 is alive and well at the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel and had its public debut . Repatriated from the North Norfolk Railway 7 years , it has undergone a significant programme of restoration". Worth a visit!
Another entertaining & informative video, always somehow poignant as we all feel we lost something good, now that we realise we should have kept them. Great job
Many thanks indeed 🙏
This is beautiful and yet so quietly sad. So much heritage lost
Many thanks indeed 🙏
Another amazing video, so well researched and delivered. Thank you, you set the standard that many of us aspire to.
Wow, thank you! Much appreciated 🙏
Many thanks for an excellent film and hope that you did not get muddy on the location filming and wasn't Haverhill Station closed just after the Town was chosen as a overspill location for London ironically although i don't hold much chance over the line reopening although it would take the pressure off the road journey to Cambridge
Thank you! Yes, at the very least a connection between Haverhill and Cambridge would be well used!
So sad to see the lines now long closed ....trains are much more green than a motor car..
Many thanks for your thoughts
When you come upon an area where the line was plowed under by a farmer, you can go to google earth and find a picture taken in early spring or late fall ( after harvest ) and you can make out the route of the line because the soil is discoloured by either filling in a cut, or by leveling an embankment.
Yes, very true - I made one film where the shape of the track (the metals and the sleepers) are still 'ghosted' into the growth of the wild grasses, so from above, the track still looks in place!
Excellent as always well done
Thank you! Cheers!
Brilliant video
Thank you!
sadly everything must have an end... i would have loved to ride this line on a nice summer day... i do however like watching the cvr hertiage line is doing through the eyes of the youtube channel wardle restorations... he's really informative of what goes on on the line and his own restoration progress of his loco and rolling stock
Many thanks for your kind words and comment!
Great video, thank you. I imagine that, at some point, Haverhill will get connected into the guided busway system around Cambridge. With all of the bio tech and other hi tech facilities just south of Cambridge it makes sense to link it. Rail, sadly, is not as flexible as the busway and more difficult to connect into the existing network.
It would be great if some connection would be made - I'm inclined to agree that heavy rail is unlikely to be a contender.
Thank you it has taken a long time but I'm sure its worth a whach and enjoyment thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
Your welcome question can you do a vedeo on the unused parts of the former metropolitan railway including croxley tip yard please thanks
A nice video that is particularly interesting to me, I’ve lived in Essex all my life and been passing through this area on and off for as long as I can remember. I usually look out and piece bits together as I pass through but there are many things here that are new.
Work has seen me cross cross this line several times in the last week so many of the locations are fresh in my mind.
I always feel a tinge of sadness though for the pride and workmanship that built the railway only for it to fade away.
Thank you.
Another pleasent video from you.
Chances for reopening - I think it is minmal, but who knows.
Do you know is there any heritage railwaylines running trafic with railbusses?
The line close to this area that I think has the best chances to be reopened is March to Wisbech. This is due trackbed still exist and that Wisbech is not a small unimportent place,
Agreed - no chance of reopening. I've learned that the East Anglian Railway Museum not only has a working railbus, but it is also the exact one that features in the archive footage!
Impressed that the railbus was the same
Why I like them because they kept many rural lines opened for longer times compared if you only had steam
Another line that I hope will reopen is a line from Cambridge to connect EWL from Oxford
i love your channel keep it up saving history in england great job i follow two american railroad channels wide world of trains and jawtooth big railroad fan thks be safe my friend
Thank you very much!
amazing overlook!
Glad you found it!