New Where Is This Ground

Many of you will know I love walking along old disused railway lines and I’m always on the lookout for new ones. I discovered a new one on Tuesday morning and what has surprised me is how after driving along the road where I found the old line twice a week for the last ten years, I have never noticed it before.

I had driven about three miles from a town and was forced to slow down on a bend due a tractor in front of me, as I was taking this bend so much slower, I looked around and saw a cutting in the edge of both sides. Therefore I imagine there must have been a level crossing or something else on this very bend when trains once ran along this route. I was able to follow the track bed for a few miles as it was only some 500 yards from the road, it then seemed to go more inland and further away from the road.

I worked out where the line was heading for, a village about another four or five miles further on. I decided that once I got to the village I would come off the main road going through it and see if I could find a place where the line might have come out. Not only did I find what I was looking for, I also found a delightful football pitch. Sadly it’s was very misty and I was unable to take any pictures so decided to do it today instead.

I do not know if its possible to walk from where I first discovered this old line to the village where I found the football pitch, maybe one day I will be able to find out, mind you I would not fancy walking it unless there was a way to get back to the beginning as I think it would just be too far for me to walk in a day.

The pitch is in what is best described as a big hole; my pictures to not really show just how deep the bank is that I was standing on to take the pictures. In fact I was standing on the old track bed, but these days where I was standing is covered in tarmac as it is now the village car park as the village hall is close by. I may be wrong but I got the feeling this pitch was only put there after the line was closed, maybe I can find an old map of the area when there was a station there, to see if there is any evidence of a football pitch nearby.

There are a large number of steps that take the players down to the pitch from the dressing rooms that are in the village hall. So who plays their football on this pitch?



You can see the old line coming out of the hedge

!00% correct Nick, but after spending some time using Google Earth tracking the line from above, I have changed my mind on a few things. If you look at this first picture you will see a road bridge, its at the end of this bridge ( Thorndon Cross) I saw what I thought was the old line crossing the road and the reason I thought there must have been a level crossing after the bridge.

I now think the line runs under the bridge and the pathway I saw just links up with the line a few hundred yards from the road. Using Google Earth again its possible to track the line to the Meldon Quarry that the line past on its way into Okehampton. I intend to try and park near the bridge on Tuesday and look over it to confirm my latest thoughts.



I also now think its very possible the football pitch was there when the line was in use, the station was a bit further on and I’m sure no station buildings would have been built anywhere near the pitch.

I did discovered that the Devon Wildlife Trust bought a section of the line n the other side of the station and after reading about it on their site, I have put this walk down as a want to do one day.



www.devonwildlifetrust.org/reserve/Halwill+Junction/



The road bridge, I thought the level crossing was on the other side of the bridge.











The pitch from above, the station was at the top of the picture

The layout of the junction: www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5846784

The station was the opposite side of Station High Road to the Junction Hotel, where those houses are

The first railway through there was built in 1879 - the middle line from Meldon Junction to Bude. The first branch was the line to the south, which ran to Padstow vis Launceston and Wadebridge (a long old route), while the third arrived from the north from Bideford and Torrington in 1925 (I believe it was the last major rail line to be built in Britain until HS1). All of the lines through the junction were closed within a year of each other in 1965-66

Thanks to a magnifying glass I reckon this could be Arnold Town's ground. Don't know much about them aside from Bristol Rovers playing Arnold in the FA Cup in the Year Dot.

The clue was the advert for Tony's Barbers which prompted the inevitable Google search.

Actually there's a Tony's Barbers in Teignmouth but it's certainly not the place in that town where I once had my hair cut on the way to Plainmoor. As soon as I mentioned Torquay United I was treated to a plethora of smart arse comments and quite rudely informed that I was a fool for bothering with such rubbish. You may say this was friendly barber's banter. I thought the bloke a complete knob and never returned.

But I digress and confess I have little knowledge of Arnold or any of its assorted football teams. My only visit to the town was on one of our "pub hopping" evenings when I was a student in Nottingham. The idea was that you got on the first bus, took it to the terminus and visited all the pubs you could find. Other than that I've been down the pit at Calverton. So there.

Arnold - who drew a crowd of 26 for a recent Notts Senior Cup tie (further proof of the loss of interest in many cup competitions) - occupy a similar place in the Grand Order of Things to Barnstaple Town. But, now that Wildebeeste has discovered the joys of the Sunday Independent, he'll probably appreciate that small clubs in Notts and Derbys enjoy rather less, er, high-powered media attention than their counterparts in Devon and Cornwall. And, at mention of Arnold, I can hear the Durham vowels of our mutual mate enquiring "have you not been to Arnold yet? You really must go". But I think not. Unless I am taken there.

That's well clever, Wildebeeste.

Not that I would have recognised it.

Work took me to the John Charles Centre of Sport in Leeds today. Alas no sighting of Jess. Home of Hunslet Hawks but I think we can find somewhere more traditional if we're going to watch any League this year.