A talk with film footage along the route of the Somerset and Dorset Railway will be held at the Somer Centre, Midsomer Norton on Tuesday, 7th February to raise funds for Radstock Museum.
The Somerset and Dorset main line went from Bath (Green Park Station) to Bournemouth, stopping at many of our local towns and villages along the way, including Midford, Wellow, Shoscombe and Single Hill, Radstock North, Midsomer Norton South, Chilcompton and Binegar. Freight included coal from the Somerset Coalfield and there was, of course, a passenger service.
This is a repeat of the popular talk last year, when Radstock Musuem sadly had to turn away around fifty people due to over-capacity. This time the venue is the Somer Centre in Midsomer Norton, which has a capacity of 150 people seated and so organisers hope that those who were disappointed last time will be able to attend. There is no need to book.
Andrew Linham, who will be giving the talk and showing his own film footage, recently used for the Michael Portillo programme, ‘Living in ‘66: All change for the West’, explains how it all came about. “My father was a keen cinematographer,” he said. “He encouraged me to use his 9.5 mm cine camera and in 1963 we acquired our first 8mm cine camera, where I tried to 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, though it entailed a lot of driving.”
The film has been seen by a great many audiences and has subsequently been captured digitally. The talk begins at 7.30 p.m.