A recent feature in the New Blackmore Vale about the North Dorset Railway at Shillingstone and the Somerset and Dorset railway line running from Bath to Bournemouth stirs up memories of the station at Stalbridge, two stops further on, writes Hilary Townsend from Stalbridge.

The line was indeed revered and cherished and many Stalbridge memories of kindness survive. If the train was going to Bath and someone just missed it, it was signalled back into the station so that they could catch it.

Children going to school at Gillingham on a bitterly cold morning were welcomed into the station staff’s room and the bright fire to wait until the train arrived.

The variety of goods carried by train on the line was astonishing. Goods trains brought coal from Radstock, cattle were sent to the local markets with their drovers becoming well-known personalities on the passenger trains and crates of day-old chicks and carrier pigeons were assembled at Stalbridge station to start their journeys.

The outbreak of war in 1939 meant greatly reduced lights on the trains, strips of anti- shatter tape on all the windows and of course a greatly expanded travelling public. Military and evacuated personnel thronged the line from the start and later American soldiers came, sometimes keenly questioning the schoolchildren about what education was like in this country.

In 1940 the evacuation of Dunkirk caused serious delays on the S&D. Train loads of exhausted soldiers rescued from the beaches were brought into Templecombe station in locked trains, then quickly sent off again to transit camps. Speed was important here because the soldiers had escaped from Dunkirk then risked being bombed if a troop train was spotted from the air. Sometimes no passenger train came to take the schoolchildren home from Gillingham to Stalbridge until 7pm.

When it did, a marvellous guard named Walter Prior invited the schoolchildren into his guard’s van and encouraged them to cope with their hunger by singing songs.
Templecombe station was bombed ruthlessly one weekend and many of the staff were killed. If the Stalbridge schoolchildren wondered if they could not get to school on Monday because of the damage, they were wrong.

The trains were running from Stalbridge to Gillingham as usual and the damage caused at Templecombe station had been cleared up as much as possible.

The old Somerset and Dorset Railway line was memorable and remarkable in so many ways.
Its memory lives on and it is not surprising that it is greatly revered still.

Support Us

Thank you all so, so much for the love and appreciation you’ve shown us since we launched the New Blackmore Vale.

Please show your support and add a review on our Facebook page or on Google.