Harbouring History Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury

Britain is a country that owes a great deal to its rail empire.

For 100 years, the railways dominated the development of this country,

the network that supported a global superpower.

But today, our island is home to 10,000 miles of disused lines...

..a silent network of embankments, platforms and viaducts.

For me, and many others,

they've become a perfect platform for exploring the country on foot.

Welcome to a sublimely sunny south coast of England!

Now, Weymouth is arguably England's original seaside resort.

It's where King George III used to take his summer breaks,

sparking a national obsession with the seaside holiday that's continued for over 200 years.

60 years after George III came here, so did the railway.

A line was created from Weymouth to a unique feature on the British coastline.

Today, I am hoping to find out why a tiny outcrop like the Isle of Portland

ever deserved its own railway,

and why Weymouth is more than just tourists.

Since 1857, people had been able

to reach Weymouth by train from London...

..but my route today first took shape in 1865,

when an extension line was built south from the town

across the causeway to Portland.

In 1902, the route was extended again,

by a quite separate rail company,

around the eastern cliffs of Portland to the village of Easton.

But as with so many branch lines,

the whole route fell victim to Dr Beeching's axe,

and Portland once more became a railway-free zone.

This is where the track running out of Weymouth Station used to be...

this car park!

The route will get more interesting, I promise!

But before I really get underway,

let's take an aerial look at the route I'll be taking.

From Weymouth Station, my walk heads south,

taking me through my first truly urban section of railway walk.

The Weymouth & Portland Railway cuts a clear path on an embankment

as it passes through backstreets and terraced housing

on its way to meet Portland Harbour.

Then there's a good 2.5 miles of coastal views

as the railway path hugs the harbour.

I'll take a direct route along the end of Chesil Beach,

the famous shingle bank that permanently connects

the Isle of Portland with the mainland.

This is where the Easton & Church Hope Railway once took over,

building a line around the eastern fringes of Portland,

through what would become Portland's naval base.

The old track made use of the flat coastal plateau

that overlooks the sea and Dorset's Jurassic coastline.

I'll follow the railway almost to its conclusion...

..before stepping off down to Portland's one and only beach at Church Ope Cove.

'Back in the centre of Weymouth though,

'the solitude of a Portland cove seems a lot more than seven miles away!

'But it's only a matter of yards before you reach what is now the Rodwell Trail,

'a favourite rat-run for Weymouth walkers and cyclists,

'but, of course, once the track bed of the Portland Branch line.'

So, no sooner am I on the Rodwell Trail trail,

I'm at my first station! As you can see, that was Westham Halt,

and Weymouth Station is just a few hundred yards that way.

But it is just the beginning!

'The trail sticks strictly to the path of the old railway line.

'It really is an ideal way to get across town and escape the cars,

'except where a dismantled bridge forces you back amongst the traffic.'

Before I get any further, I want to meet up with the man who recommended this railway walk to me.

In fact, if you give him half a chance, he'd recommend a railway walk in every corner of the country!

'Jeff Vinter is a south coast man himself,

'but, more importantly, he's a leading light of a nationwide group called Railway Ramblers.

'No prizes for guessing what their main interest is!

'But he has suggested we meet by a rather curious railway landmark.'

During the Second World War,

there was a great big naval base down at Portland,

a natural target for the German aircraft.

This is one of the gun emplacements put in to protect the whole area.

It was very much, during the black days of the Blitz, very much on the front line here.

When you look at the map, Jeff, of this route, it's like a spider's web of railways.

Especially when you get up on to the top of Portland.

The line that we are standing on here, and, indeed,

all the lines on Portland were motivated by the local industry.

That means Portland stone.

The passengers were very much an afterthought.

The important thing was to get the Portland stone out.

The most awkward thing is that when you get to the Fortuneswell,

there's been a bit of redevelopment of the railways,

so you need to then step off on to some of the old tramways.

When you get up there, there are some wonderful views.

It leads you on to the Portland Plateau,

which is just riddled with old tramways, all to do with the stonework.

They are all over the place.

-So, a bit of hard work and a good view!

-You're telling, me! Yes!

And you would come to Weymouth as a family, wouldn't you?

Oh, yes. When I was little, all of our holidays were taken by train.

I can remember many of the lines here when they were still going.

You remember Beeching well!

I remember Beeching very well. I couldn't believe that so many lines were being closed.

The closures shut down a lot of places that we could go to.

In later years, my interest in these old railways has led me to discover all sorts of interesting places,

well off the beaten track, that I might never have otherwise have found.

Jeff, all of this is good news for me, so I'm going to get on my way.

-I hope you enjoy your walk!

-I will! I'll be thinking of you.

'So, it's already clear that Weymouth isn't just a celebrated seaside resort,

'there's a military and an industrial background.

'And, as usual, the railway was there to play a part in both.

'The embankment that provides so many views across the city

'soon gives way to a cutting and a tunnel

'just in time for the next halt on the line at Rodwell.'

This station is beautifully secluded.

You wouldn't know that the suburbs of Weymouth were all around you.

But one thing is for certain, this station was definitely for passengers only.

No freight access around here.

'The long platforms, however,

'are testament to the amount of passengers that would have piled on and off here every day,

'all heading to factories around Weymouth and Portland.

'And, in its day, Rodwell was considered one of the prettiest stations in the country.

'The stations come thick and fast in this section of my walk.

'When the line first opened, it ran without stopping right to the northern tip of Portland.

'But as industry and workforces grew, more and more passenger stops were added.'

This station was actually the last to open on the line in 1932,

which has only 33 years before the whole line closed for good.

Here is a clue in the undergrowth. Look, if you have a rummage,

that was the platform.

'Sandsfoot was a very simple structure...

'a single platform made entirely of wood.

'Its job was to serve the dense estates that grew up in this southern section of Weymouth.

'And at this point, there can't be many casual walkers

'who don't take a very short diversion.

'This is where the old railway line catches up with the coastline,

'which means visitors like me get their first sweeping view right across Portland Harbour.'

That is a tidy little view!

'With protection from the mainland, Chesil Beach and the Isle of Portland,

'this harbour is a vast natural bay and an ideal anchorage point.

'No surprise then that Henry VIII chose to build two of his famous coastal defences here,

'one across the bay at Portland and one right here - Sandsfoot Castle.

'But since then, in fact, whilst the railway was being built,

'the Victorians were busy taking things one stage further.

'A series of stone breakwaters now protects the bay,

'creating one of the world's largest man-made harbours.

'And this seems an appropriate place to meet a man with a real depth of knowledge about Portland Harbour.'

'David Carter is a lifelong diver who's explored sites and wrecks in the local waters.'

Am I right in saying, David,

that we're lucky to be walking on this trail?

-They nearly turned it into a road?

-That's right.

It was due to the pressure of the West Weymouth Conservation Society

that it was turned into a cycle walkway.

So it's preserved it as a nice green lung going through the town,

with outstanding views right down at the end here.

Now, Julia, we are going to take a detour off from the trail

up on to the embankment so we get a better view of the harbour.

And this is what it's all about!

To see this magnificent harbour on a perfectly still day!

Right, where shall I look first?

Start to the right and pan across Chesil Beach.

Then the remnants of the Navy buildings, the old accommodation blocks.

Which are not that attractive, to be honest.

Not attractive, but they're being converted into executive flats.

Des-res!

You should try and imagine what this was like in 1944,

when preparations for the invasion of France in the Second World War...

This was just full of servicemen ready to go.

Americans and Canadians, and there was a host of boats and an enormous number of these floating harbours,

which are the two we see over there, the Phoenix casings,

which are part of temporary harbours,

which were to be towed across to support the troops once they got there.

'But there's one harbour landmark that is particularly close to David's heart.

'But, in truth, it isn't actually a landmark at all.

'Beneath the waves that crash into the harbour's breakwater lies the wreck of HMS Hood,

'a battleship that was deliberately sunk in 1914 to blockade the harbour's south entrance.

'This is where the Hood still rests to this day,

'protecting Weymouth and Portland from U-boats and torpedo attacks from the Channel.

'For David and his fellow divers, it's arguably the harbour's leading attraction.'

Well, in those days, you could go and it was the complete battleship.

You just swam down the outside and you could go and look through the portholes to look inside.

Fascinating!

But, sadly now, time has taken its toll and it has started to collapse.

It's now considered too dangerous to be able to dive on.

The dreaded Health and Safety!

But there are still lots of other nice dive sites here.

There are submarines, old East Indiamen, 18th-century barges.

So we don't do good tropical fish in this country when it comes to diving,

-but we do good wrecks, don't we?

-We do good wrecks, indeed!

If you pass on by, finally, you get round to Sandsfoot Castle again,

-which is where we started our walk.

-Yeah.

-Very nice, too. What a good good little arc that is!

-Beautiful!

'When you think about places of key naval significance on the south coast,

'it always seems to be Portsmouth and Plymouth that spring to mind,

'but Portland has been of strategic and technological significance for centuries.

'The presence of the anti-aircraft gun at the beginning of my walk

'suddenly now seems particularly appropriate.'

This is actually the home of the torpedo.

This is where Robert Whitehead made his factory in 1891.

He was the inventor of the torpedo.

'A century ago, this modern housing estate was one of the key industrial sites along the railway line

'and one which had an impact around the world.

'Lancastrian engineer Robert Whitehead was the pioneer of explosives

'that could be detonated both remotely and underwater.

'His factory took over eight acres and had its own pier

'stretching out into the harbour, where testing took place.'

-OK, we need to go just round to the left here to see the very last...

-To see the bollard!

No, not the bollard, but the last remaining piece of the torpedo factory. This is the stone.

So, Mr Whitehead was responsible for the deadly torpedo.

Whilst it was a very great engineering achievement,

nevertheless, it left a very sad sort of legacy,

of millions of tons of shipping that was sunk by torpedoes

and a terrible loss of life.

It is such a historic part of the town.

This actually is called Whitehead Drive,

so his name is recorded for posterity.

'Whitehead's torpedo factory lies at the end of the Rodwell Trail,

'right on the southern tip of the Dorset mainland.

'From here I step onto that section of the walk

'that will always be the highlight for aspiring geography teachers.'

The railway ran along a narrow spit of land,

slowly formed as more and more silt, mud and shingle were deposited here by the currents,

eventually connecting the Isle of Portland with the mainland.

In the background is Chesil Beach,

stretching out with its salty lagoon, known as the Fleet.

This was where Barnes Wallis' revolutionary bouncing bomb was tested during World War II.

A strange contrast to the Fleet's protected status now as a unique habitat for wading birds.

But at the Portland end of the beach

is one of the most vibrant spots anywhere on the south coast.

40 years after the railway tracks were ripped up,

this area is now filled with the National Sailing Academy,

host of the 2012 Olympic Sailing Regatta.

It's soon to be adjoined by a brand spanking new marina,

and is overlooked by the redeveloped naval apartments.

Now, as Jeff predicted, the walk become slightly more complicated here...not too tricky, though.

The old railway track follows the east coast of Portland.

We can't go that way because it is private land at the old Royal Naval base.

So, what we're going to do is follow this old tramway track

and go up Merchant's Incline and make our way on to Portland proper that way.

And there is a hill to climb! Whoo!

'The climb up the tramway feels like the start of a new chapter.

'The urban backstreets are gone, so, too, the vast history of the harbour.

'Now it's all about this unusual tied island.'

Local author Thomas Hardy once described Portland as the Gibraltar of Wessex.

And on a hot day like today, well, I'll leave it to you to decide!

In preparing for this walk,

there was one person that everybody said I should talk to.

He's a true son of Portland and a leading local historian.

So he should definitely know a thing or two!

-Hello, Stuart!

-Hello!

-Nice to see you.

-Good to see you.

I like that, a steep walk! It's good, isn't it?

-Steep, isn't it?

-A bit of exercise, that's good!

Because, you know, these railway walks are quite flat! Funny that!

Not this one!

Of course, from here we have a fantastic view of the route that I've followed.

Yes, from here you can see the route of the 1865 railway from Weymouth,

going along the back of Chesil Beach there,

which originally terminated at Victoria Square.

But the line we are on here pre-dates that by some margin.

It was in 1826 that a group of merchants got together

and decided to build a tramway to take the stone

from the quarries on the top of the island,

down to this area here, which is now Portland Harbour.

Stone was very, very important to Portland, it was a massive industry.

Stone was a major industry of Portland, and for the country.

Portland stone is probably the most famous in the world.

But the stone had to be got away from the islands.

How did they manage that, from an engineering point of view?

Well, the stone was brought to this point by horses.

It was never a steam railway, it was always horse-drawn.

Right down at the bottom, the empty trucks were hooked up.

Then, of course, you had the system of the weighted trucks pulling the empty ones back up.

We are talking about large slabs of stone, aren't we?

Up to 10 tonnes, on these very crude, simple stone trucks.

Imagine that hurtling down on a chain system.

-It doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

-No! The noise alone!

-Shall we continue up the hill, Stuart? You can show more.

-Right.

-Have we got another steep bit to go?

-There is a bit up there.

-Yes!

It's a compact little town.

Yes, I was born and brought up here, in this area.

We haven't lived here all our lives, but nearly.

It's a superb ready-made adventure playground for youngsters to grow up in.

I can remember these very, very steep slopes.

It is horrendous to think of it now,

but we used to slide on cardboard down from the top, and end up in a blackberry bush!

It was great fun. But to explore all the Victorian fortresses

and the gun emplacements and things like this.

-Yeah, as you say, a real playground!

-Yeah.

'As we round the headland above the village of Fortuneswell,

'it becomes clear just what a network of tramways

'there were around the upper slopes of Portland.

'But to get to quarries at the very top of the island, a second incline system had to be built.

'This one that had to pass under existing roads and other tramways.

'From my point of view, at least, it seems steeper than the first.

'It's certainly been left surprisingly untouched,

'with sections of the old stone track bed clearly visible in places.'

Cannot help thinking about those horses.

Well, fortunately, they didn't have to haul down or up this particular route

because gravity did the work here. This was the incline operated by gravity.

We made it to the top all right!

We are now on the track bed of the old tramway

which led from the top of that incline,

or to the top of that incline, where the stone from this old quarry, here, would have been taken.

As you can see, the landscape has been totally transformed by nature.

It's reclaimed ground again.

-The landscape is still evolving and changing, as you will see around the next corner.

-Ah.

-This is what it's all about today, Stuart. Money.

-Very much so.

Yes. This is an active quarry.

This shows the scale of the industry which has been Portland's bread and butter for countless centuries.

Going right back to Roman times.

Of course, Portland stone has been used for very many famous buildings.

St Paul's Cathedral, obviously, comes to mind.

-Buckingham Palace...

-Buckingham Palace.

The whole of Regent Street. Bank of England. You name it.

It is the ideal building stone for the capital

and anywhere that wants a prestigious sort of facade to their building.

'The stone in this quarry, however, is destined for somewhere far more local.

'It's being used to build the stone jetties of the new Olympic marina.

'150 years ago, stone was used to build the breakwaters that kept foreign enemies at bay.

'Today, it will be catering for the foremost foreign sport stars.

'But of course, the Victorians were obsessed with national security.

'And the summit of Portland itself is given over to defence.

'The High Angle Battery is where shells would have been lobbed up and over

'onto the deck of any vessel that threatened the fleet moored inside the harbour.

'The crowning feature, though, is the great Verne Citadel,

'a structure so secure it now serves as a prison.'

It was built as a massive fortress.

It could have held up to 2,000 men in time of war.

They took the whole of the hilltop here and reshaped it.

A lot of what you can see, what you can't see, in fact, is underground, and underneath these embankments

are huge earth mouldings, which have reshaped this hilltop.

Who would have done the work, who would have carried it out?

It was essentially by convict labour.

The prisoners were brought here to dig the stone for the breakwater.

So, convicts did a lot of the hard work?

-Yes.

-And convicts, now, are within these walls.

That's an ironic thing, yes.

It wasn't built... The convicts were building it as a military fortress.

It's certainly keeping them in now!

They were on their way to Australia. But now, yes, it's keeping them in. Very effectively, too.

So, with all this quarrying, the guns, the citadel,

we've forgotten about the railway!

Well, let's head to the east cliffs. There's a lovely vantage point there

where you can see where the railway is.

'From the air, the scale of the Victorian citadel becomes clear.

'You can also see how it sits a good 400ft above the path of the old railway.

'The Easton & Church Hope wound its way around the northern tip of the island,

'eventually emerging for a straight run down the east side of Portland.'

A cracking view of the Jurassic coastline as well.

A magnificent panorama of Weymouth Bay,

and their view of the site of the 2012 Olympics sailing events.

Not many tourists know about this area.

It is a superb vantage point, as I say.

'So, it's time to rejoin the railway line.

'A walk which involves some rapid descent,

'and takes you past a local feature known as Nicodemus Knob,

'an artificial limestone stack that quarry workers left behind,

'proving just how much of Portland has been dug up and moved elsewhere.'

Finally, back on the railway track.

We can really see from here how Portland's cliffs have been

shoved back over the centuries by all the quarrying.

'For a walk that has been so utterly carved out by man,

'the east coast of Portland is a surprisingly beautiful place.

'You can only imagine the industry that must have been here when Christopher Wren

'came to choose the finest stone for St Paul's Cathedral.'

This used to be one of the most beautiful and dramatic parts of the railway.

There was a bridge that ran over the top.

About 40 years ago, a Portland stone company came along,

bought up this stretch of land and, essentially, filled it in

so they could get their lorries up and down.

All in the name of industry.

This is where I'm going to part company with the railway track and head this way, round to the cove.

'For a railway that was such a challenge to build and maintain,

'it seems sad that it lasted such a short period of time.

'Fully opened in 1902, the Portland section of my railway

'ceased carrying passengers just 50 years later,

'and was completely closed in 1965.

'So, while the Easton & Church Hope curved inland to its terminus at Easton,

'I thought I'd pay a visit to the Church Ope bit.

'A secluded bay, and one of the few places on Portland

'that has remained untouched by the continuous production of stone.'

Believe it or not, this is the only place on Portland

where walkers can actually get right down to the shoreline.

Gaggles of visitors used to flock here in their bathers

to take advantage of the island's one and only beach.

As you can see, it's hardly enormous,

but there are signs of life.

'These photos really show the cove put to good use.

'The folk of 1920s and '30s Britain seemed unfazed

'that they were just yards from quarries, naval ships and torpedoes.

'There was even a paddle-steamer that would haul itself onto the rocks and shingle,

'far enough for visitors to walk a short plank onto the beach.'

So, my walk has ended as it began,

at a spot favoured by holidaymakers.

Along the way all the flavours have been very different.

There's been military, industry, Portland stone.

All served by that railway line that was.

But with the Olympics on the way, and all the shiny new stuff that that entails,

you can imagine that the golden age of British tourism will return here very soon.

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