Radstock Museum’s Bygone Days presentation evenings return with a talk and film about the S&D Railway by Andrew Linham on Tuesday, 4th October at Radstock Museum, at 7.30 p.m.

Andrew, now a resident of Radstock, was born in Wells and lived in the Cheddar Valley, not far from the railway known as The Strawberry Line, which, as its name suggests, took large volumes of fresh strawberries by rail from Cheddar.

“My father was a keen cinematographer,” Andrew explains. “He encouraged me to use his 9.5 mm cine camera and in 1963, we acquired our first 8 mm cine camera, so he encouraged me to try and get some footage of the line, which ran at the bottom of our garden. In the summer of 1963, I filmed what I could of the Cheddar Valley Line, culminating with the last day of operation.

“With the experience gained, I turned my attention to the already threatened Somerset and Dorset railway. I tried to capture as many line side shots as I could, both on the initial Somerset Central line from Highbridge to Evercreech, as well as the main line from Bath to Bournemouth – it entailed a lot of driving.

“The film has been seen by a great many audiences and has subsequently been captured digitally, some of the film appeared on the recent BBC Michael Portillo railway programme.

“The evening will start with a powerpoint presentation giving a brief history of the line and showing how the railways grew in Somerset – this will be followed by my film of the Somerset and Dorset.”

For details, call: 01761 437722 or visit: www.radstockmuseum.co.uk