Simon English
England Revisited

On a concrete post by broken bridge on old railway line near Staveley, north east of Knaresborough.

On the same concrete post on the old bridge as I used in 1971. Back then the rails and sleepers had already been removed and I assume at this stage that the bridge span had been removed too, but in my old photographs one cannot see if it is there or not. This was on the Knaresbrough to Boroughbridge branch line which ceased carrying passengers in 1950 but continued with freight until 1965.

By 1971 the ballast had become overgrown with grass, indeed then I had walked a mile along the permanent way. This would be impassable now. The small trees, ash willow and thorn that then were growing on the embankment have now grown so tall and straggly that the branches lie across the old track and the leaves shade out the ground so that the grasses, vetch, clover and mares tail of the past now longer grow here. In places saplings have got into the stone capping over the brickwork and will in time break it up. There has been a bit of tree felling on top but I should imagine that this was a branch that lay over the bridge and snagged farm traffic.

The concrete post and its pair must have once carried the wire fence that guarded track men from the drop to the narrow farm track. The removal of the bridge now allows a tractor with its forks up and a full trailer of hay to pass through but too narrow for modern combine harvesters. This must have some affect on the farming here. The ground is thick black loam cut through with drainage ditches. When the railway was built the raised section here must have been laid over marsh land. What then would have been a ridge through the flat land is now a long thin wood with trees twice the height of the original banks.
Points 20 & 19