Collier's Way - Frome to Radstock and Welton

Starting Point - Frome Station. Finishing Point - Site of Welton and Midsomer Norton Station. Distance - 11.3 Miles

Google Map

Radstock once sat on a Great Western line between Bristol and Frome as well as the Somerset and Dorset route to Bath Green Park. The area was rich in coal mining and the town also housed a couple of important wagon works. While the GWR route to Bristol closed before the Beeching cuts in 1959 and Somerset and Dorset closed in 1966, the Frome to Radstock section remained open to freight, serving the mining industry until 1973 and the Marcroft wagonworks until 1988. The route now forms part of the Colliers Way foot and cycle path. Unusually for a path along a former railway line, very little of the line was actually lifted and for most of the route the path runs alongside the single overgrown track that remains from its later days as a branch to serve the wagonworks. The sight of a track still in situ most of the way from Frome to Radstock has also lead to calls for the route to be re-opened for passenger service. More information about the route can be found on the North Somerset Railway website.

1950 Map

The path along the trackbed doesn't begin until just north of the village of Great Elm north west of Frome. The route from here until the junction north of Frome station is still in use by stone trains from Whatley Quarry. The link to Whatley Quarry was a relatively modern addition to the railway network added by British Railways. Previously access was by the Vallis Quarry Tramway which had been originally built as a narrow gauge line and was not up to handling the large volumes of stone carried in modern wagons. A slight detour from the roads taking us from Frome to Great Elm allowed us to check out some remnants of the Vallis Quarry Tramway on our way to the GWR route.

We followed the roads out of Frome to the roundabout on Vallis Road and Wallington Way, here a footpath known as the East Mendip Way and shown as Leys Road on the old map connects to Great Elm. The path descends quite steeply in to the Vallis Vale and follows the same route shown on the old map following the river north. After crossing the river on the footbridge shown on the old map and turning left the footbridge that once carried a branch of the tramway along the opposite side of the railway can be seen.

Below - Former tramway bridge in Vallis Quarry

Following the former tramway to Great Elm we occasionally see other remnants of the local stone industry such as the lime kilns shown on the old map.

Below - Old lime kiln in Vallis Quarry

Below - Concrete sleepers in Vallis Quarry

Below - Footbridge crossing the former Vallis Quarry Tramway.

Below - BR built line to Whatley Quarry crossing the earlier Vallis Quarry tramway.

The East Mendip Way joins Elm Lane at Great Elm, a short walk to where the Colliers Way along the Great Western trackbed can be joined.

1887 Map

The cycle track follows the foot of the embankment for a short stretch but steps have been provided up to the track level where the ballast was still covering the trackbed.

Below - Start of the Colliers Way

Below - Ballast still in place close to the junction with the Whatley Quarry branch.

As the line goes from embankment to cutting the path runs alongside the cutting to the south of the line, through the trees the rails can be seen still in place and quite overgrown.

Below - The path running alongside the overgrown railway line as it does for much of the journey.

1904 Map

Below - Conduit Bridge

1904 Map

Below - Jericho bridge

Between Jericho Bridge and the site of Mells Road Station there is evidence of the sidings that were situated there with pointwork amongst the overgrown track alongside the path. More remarkably there are the remains of a brake van still stood on one of the sidings.

Below - Old brake van near the site of Mells Road station.

 

The story behind the wagon is that it was used to move stone wagons between the nearby quarries and the Marcroft Wagon Works in Radstock. The local quarries had a number of second hand wagons that had previously been used on iron ore trains, these were large box shaped tipper wagons that were unloaded by turning them through 180 degrees. They had a special type of buckeye coupling between the wagons (though standard couplings on each end of the rake of wagons to couple to the loco) that allowed the wagons to be tipped without having to uncouple them from the train. This meant they had to use an adapted brake van with a buckeye coupling at one end and what was then the more normal three link coupling on the other if individual wagons or a small number of the wagons needed to go to the works.

Below - The buckeye coupling on the adapted wagon used to move tipper wagons to the works in Radstock.

The wagon seems to have just been abandoned when traffic to the works stopped in 1988. In fact it ended up owned by a preservation group that had been working to reopen the line as a heritage railway. Although stock from that scheme has moved to other heritage lines it would be difficult to remove the wagon from where it stands with the vegetation that has grown up around it.

Below - Also close to the site of Mells Road Station was a lineside hut.

As the path passes through the site of Mells Road station a concrete yard now occupies the land on the south (left) side of the railway and with it the site of the Newbury Railway that branched off here to local collieries and Vobster Quarry. There is nothing to be seen of the old station itself, though there is a Station House on Hatchet Hill, though this is not shown on the old maps presumably this was a station master's house.

Below - What appears to be a length of old broad gauge rail (this line was first built to broad gauge) once in use as a fence post. The other side of the fence would have been the access road to the goods shed from Hatchet Hill.

Below - The steep stone lined cutting west of Mells Road station with the bridge carrying Hatchet Hill from which the station would be accessed.

Below - The next bridge over the railway close to Batch Farm.

1904 Map

Below - Bridge carrying the railway over the B3139

Below - Bridge carrying the footpath to Kilmersdon over the railway.

The line passes the village Kilmersdon, though remarkably there was no station here despite the reasonable sized village that can be seen on the left, there was certainly more here than at Mells Road.

1903 Map

The line curves north and follows a fairly straight course towards Radstock.

1886 Map

Approaching Radstock a couple of connecting colliery lines can be seen on the old map, in the woods on either side of the line at this point seem to follow the course of these lines. The Radstock Wagon Works shown on the old map is the works that became part of wagon maker Marcroft that had sites around the country and was the final source of rail traffic on this route. Modern housing has been built around the railway as it reaches Radstock and Radstock has expanded outward. A few sights of the sidings that stood here can be seen.

Below - Old yard lamp on the approach to Radstock.

Below - The engine shed, often referred to as the Brunel Shed as it dates back to broad gauge days. It is being restored for community use.

Below - Another yard lamp as the trackbed of lines in to Ludlow's Colliery disappears in to the trees.

Below - Some of the buildings of Ludlow's Colliery survive, with rails still in place. 

Where the line passed through the middle of Radstock has been largely built on. Great Western Court occupies the former station site. There were two stations in Radstock, one for the GWR and one for the S&D and these were just yards apart. 

Below - Picture of the two stations in Radstock from the Radstock to Frome Railway Trust website, the Somerset and Dorset station is on the left and the Great Western station on the right. 

Beyond Radstock the footpath and cycle route continues as the Norton - Radstock Greenway. Where this route leaves the A367 is actually the former S&D route, at the level crossing in the centre of the above shot to be precise. A chord was built from the S&D to the GWR route here where the two ran so close together when the S&D closed so that a colliery east of Radstock would still be rail connected after the S&D closed. The path descends to the GWR route which is occupied by a children's play park and a car park. It then follows the GWR route to Midsomer Norton.

1886 Map

Below - The "Five Arches" bridge where the Somerset & Dorset line crossed over the top of the GWR route.

Below - West of the Five Arches there is still a signal post in place.

The two communities of Welton and Midsomer Norton have become quite merged now but the old map shows that they were separate villages. The GWR station was known as Welton and the S&D station was known as Midsomer Norton, however the GWR renamed Welton as Welton and Midsomer Norton and eventually Midsomer Norton and Welton. The S&D also renamed their station Midsomer Norton and Welton, it's easy to see how that could have been confusing. After nationalisation the S&D station was named Midsomer Norton South.

Today the path crosses a modern bridge over Station Road, there is nothing to be seen of the old Welton station on the west side of that bridge. 

The Norton - Radstock Greenway continues to Northmead Road, west of here after a short section of embankment the trackbed has been ploughed in to the farmers fields. We walked across Midsomer Norton to the former Somerset & Dorset station and the start of another railway walk.

Bradford Canal

Starting Point - Shipley station. Finishing Point - Bradford Forster Square station

It is hardly surprising that the city of Bradford, famous for its mills, would be connected to the canal network. Though the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is still navigable a few miles away in Shipley, little remains of the Bradford Canal that connected to it there.

Below -  The former junction between the Bradford Canal and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Shipley, just a short stub of the canal at the junction remains on the left of the picture.

Google Map

1893 Map

I started my walk at Shipley station, a station that retains many of its original buildings. The station is on a triangular junction and originally platforms were only provided on the routes to and from Bradford. One platform was added on the through line in 1979 requiring Skipton to Leeds trains to cross over to call until a second platform on the through line was provided in 1992.

The surviving Shipley station was the Midland Railway station, originally another station was provided for Great Northern Railway trains on their line from Bradford via Idle. The buildings of the former Shipley & Windhill station survive on Leeds Road (previously known as Bridge Road at this point) just east of the existing station. In recent years there have been proposals to demolish the former station to build apartments, the station isn't listed and inconvenient listed buildings in the Bradford area tend to burn down anyway so the future doesn't look good for the former station.

Below -  The former Shipley & Windhill station. 

Just east of the former Shipley Windhill station the road crossed over the canal on a bridge.

Below - View to the north from the filled in bridge, the ramp that lead down to the towing path can be seen with the site of the canal now occupied by the car park. On the right the former pumping station for the canal can be seen.

On the other side of the former bridge the canal has been filled to road level and landscaped over. Turning off Leeds Road on to Dock Lane leads to a couple of buildings related to the canal and the former junction with the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

The canal was opened in 1774, the same year as the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. It climbed significantly from the Aire Valley to reach Bradford with 10 locks in its 3.5 mile route. Where as canals in open countryside might have had reservoirs to keep the water levels topped up, the summit of this canal was in an industrialised city and the canal had a problem with running dry. It also had problems with sewerage with several mills and factories polluting it with contaminated water that had been used in whatever industrial processes. In 1866 it was condemned as a public health hazard and closed for four years while upgrades to the water supply were made.

Below - The former pumping house. The building is marked with the 1872 date, a couple of years after the situation had been improved enough to reopen the canal.

 

Below - The former junction with the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

Below - Bridge across the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at the former junction.

Below - Junction Mills seen across the stub of the Bradford Canal

Below - Filled in bridge under the railway.

Across the road from the former Shipley & Windhill Station a path roughly follows the route of the canal much of the way towards Bradford, though the path tends to be to the west of the former canal.

1893 Map

Below - Bridge under Briggate, another lock was situated here with a pumping station on the left.

Below - The other side of the bridge that carried Briggate over the canal.

Below - One of the mill streams fed from Bradford Beck that would once have powered one of the many mills along the route.

1893 Map

For a while the canal has been landscaped over and the path runs to the west of where it once was. There is a no sign of a bridge at Poplar Road but looking through old maps it seems this road was built around the time the canal closed so it was probably built over the canal. Poplar Crescent was built along the course of the canal, houses are built on one side but on the west side of the road the embankment of the former canal falls away quite steeply and that side hasn't been built on. 

Below - At Gaisby Lane the former canal bridge survives, though is filled in.

Below - Modern houses and their gardens can be seen encroaching onto the former canal south of Gaisby Lane on the right.

The path that vaguely follows the route of the canal runs along the opposite side of the King George V Playing Field, though it was possible to walk through the field closer to the course of the canal. Where the canal passed under Stanley Road the bridge is still in situ tucked away in the trees in the corner of the field, though fenced off at one side and filled in on the other. Poking around in the leaves with my feet, there seemed to be stone slabs in situ that were possibly the edge of the canal towpath.

Below - The bridge under Stanley Road.

Below - The Stanley Road bridge from above.

Below - Close to the Stanley Road bridge was this structure I was intrigued by, looking at later old maps reveal it to be an air vent for a tunnel to Esholt Sewage Works, something that must have been a massive engineering project.

With the completion of this tunnel the sewage works situated between the canal and Canal Road (where the playing fields are now) closed, though this would seem to be around the time the canal closed. Sewage had been a problem throughout the canal's history resulting in upgrades to the local sewage systems.

South of Stanley Road the course of the canal is now largely in industrial uses with just a few surviving remnants to show the canal was there. A large timber yard occupies the former canal for some distance.

Below - Retaining wall behind the houses on Canal Road. At the top of the wall was the towpath on this side and the canal, the timber yard now occupies the site.

1922 Map

Below - Queen's Road crossed Canal Road and the canal on a three arch viaduct, the canal ran under the arch on the right.

Below - At the time of my visit a couple of gasometers remained of the Valley Road Gas Works, though these were in the process of being demolished. The works is seen from King's Road looking north, the canal passed the works on the right.

Below - The bridge that carried King's Road (previously Tordoff Road) over the canal.

The rest of the canal is now lost under redevelopment and the widening of Canal Road, the junction with Shipley Airedale Road occupying the site of the wharfs.

Below - Conditioning House. Behind me were once the canal wharfs and warehouses.

Below - The frontage of Conditioning House on Cape Street.

Below - The canal warehouses and wharf were once on the right of the picture, beyond the trees the junction from Canal Road to Shipley Airedale Road now occupies the site.

Below - The former Midland Mills, currently derelict and awaiting either redeveloped or arson as is often the case around Bradford.

From here it was a short walk to Bradford Forster Square for a train home. The station also featured in a walk I did earlier featuring Railways around Bradford. 

1852 Map

The canal did continue closer to the centre of Bradford as the earlier map above shows, originally running between Canal Road and Bolton Road almost to Forster Square. This area has seen a lot of redevelopment since the canal was truncated in 1867 when the canal was modernised. A couple of rows of warehouses between Canal Road and Bolton Road have a gap between where the canal once ran but these post-date the filling of the canal.

On the railway related walk I did around Bradford I mentioned Hammerton Street which was once the course of a waggonway from mines in the Bowling area. Coal and iron goods from Bowling Iron Works were transshipped from the waggonway to the canal, though would have had to be carted along Leeds Road about 200 yards. Though Hammerton Street follows the course of the old waggonway there is no indication today that it was once a waggonway.

More information about the history of the canal can be found on the Wikipedia article.