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 Page updated: 16/NOV/10.

BLEAKHOUSE ROAD STATION - A HISTORY OF THE GLASTONBURY & SOUTH SOMERSET RAILWAY

For long before man settled the flat and marshy lands to the south of the Mendip Hills, the chill wind from the sea has whistled in across the lonely and remote Somerset Levels. This low lying region was gradually reclaimed from the salt waters of the Bristol Channel over the years by a hardy folk who had to toil endlessly to eke out a precarious living from the land. The long periods of quiet solitude were punctuated by few notable events; King Alfred is reputed to have burnt the cakes at Burrowbridge and during the English Civil War a major battle was fought out on it’s soil at Langport.

In between these moments in history, however, the landscape has slumbered on in peaceful obscurity. Flood defences slowly started to appear and the countryside gradually acquired a network of drainage channels or rhynes. Even these were not enough to keep the waters completely at bay and today they are still prone to being overwhelmed during heavy winter rains, turning the Levels into a patchwork pattern of inland seas and lakes, punctuated only by trees and hedgerows.

Communications remained primitive right up until the 1830s. Various drove roads served the district but even by 1817 there were no turnpike roads to serve the communities of the area. A hint of Industrial Revolution came with the opening of the Glastonbury Canal in 1833.

The coming of the railways 
The dawn of the Railway Age barely touched the Levels in the 1840s as the Bristol & Exeter Railway probed it’s way towards the west, skirting along the western edge of the district through Highbridge and Bridgwater. The broad gauge empire seemed intent only on reaching Devon and initially left the Levels to slumber on. Eventually in 1852 the Act of Parliament authorising the Somerset Central Railway received Royal Assent and this broad gauge railway opened between Highbridge and Glastonbury to much public celebration on 17^th August 1854.

Extensions of the Somerset Central had opened to Burnham and Wells by 1859. By 1863 this minor local railway had been transformed into a significant through route linking the Bristol Channel and English Channel by virtue of it’s extension towards Bruton and eventual linking up with the Dorset Central Railway. By the time of the union with the Dorset Central the broad gauge across the Levels had been replaced with standard gauge. The railway map of the Somerset and Dorset was largely completed by the completion of the Bath Extension in 1874, which ironically rendered the former main line of the Somerset Central into the ‘branch’.

The Glastonbury & South Somerset Railway

With the exception of the opening of the Bridgwater Railway from Edington Junction in 1890, little further happened until 1897, when a public meeting was called by local businessmen who believed there was a demand for a direct railway service between the cathedral city of Wells and the growing market town of Taunton. 

Early intentions were for the construction of a direct connection off the independent Bridgwater to Edington Junction railway with the Great Western Railway at Bridgwater. An initial approach was made to the GWR but they quickly declined on the grounds that the junction would be awkward and costly to operate and that Bridgwater station would require extending, the costs of which would have to be borne by the GWR alone.  

The promoters also ran into difficulties with the S&DJR themselves, in that the latter company felt that there was insufficient capacity over the single line sections between Glastonbury and Edington Junction, and that they too would have to bear the entire cost of doubling the line.  

Despite the most obvious choice of route now closed to them, the optimistic promoters looked unabashed at alternative routes for their railway and their thoughts turned to the developing peat industry on the Somerset Levels. Although the peat beds to the north of the Polden Hills was already well served by the S&DJR, the isolated areas to the south had no existing railway connections.  

The independent G&SSR Company was formed with the intention of building a standard gauge branch line, linking Glastonbury with Taunton, the county town of Somerset. The Wells branch of the S&DJR would provide the link at the northern end. 

The surveyor and engineer Joshua Hogg was engaged by the company and a route was quickly mapped from a junction immediately to the west of the existing Glastonbury station, running in a south-westerly direction towards Taunton via the villages of Walton, Pedwell and Othery to a junction near the village of East Lyng with the GWR Taunton to Yeovil branch. Heavy engineering works would be required at the northern end to drive the route through the Polden Hills. 

The line was to be single with one passing place at Othery. Halts were planned for Walton, Pedwell and High Ham Road. Royal Assent to the Glastonbury and South Somerset Railway Act was given on 1^st March 1899.  

Further problems were encountered to the south of the Poldens when the landowner Lord Arkwright changed his mind and refused to sell the company the necessary land needed to route the line via the village of Othery.

The company had no choice but to divert the line further to the east, where the landowner E. A. Blenkinsop was more co-operative, so much so that he sold his land for less than it’s market value in exchange for shares in the new company.

New Owners

Following further financial difficulties and another temporary suspension of construction work by the long suffering Mr. Cuthbertson, the directors of the G&SSR found themselves facing the alternatives of bankruptcy or seeking support from one of the bigger railway companies in the area. Although the formation between Glastonbury and Bleakhouse Road was largely complete and a two-mile (but isolated) stretch of track laid, the line was totally unprepared to accept revenue earning traffic. 

Faced with no realistic alternative yet still determined to see their line completed, the directors approached the GWR again.  

Following protracted negotiations a deal was eventually struck whereby the GWR would complete the southern half of the line from the junction with their Taunton to Yeovil branch as far as the intermediate station of Bleakhouse Road. The S&DJR undertook to complete the northern half of the line.

The new railway was to operate as a joint line with the intention of both companies taking their share of the profits.

As construction of the southern half of the line progressed, the GWR were also building their new main line cut-off from Castle Cary to Cogload Junction. It was decided that the junction with the G&SSR would now be more conveniently situated at Althelney rather than Lyng, although all passenger services would run via Durston and Lyng Halt.

The line was eventually completed in June 1901 and opened to passenger and goods traffic on 4^th August, with civic celebrations in Glastonbury and Taunton.

The South Polden Light Railway 

In 1911 as a result of the opening of the new line, a standard gauge light railway was constructed across the southern peat moor. The South Polden Light Railway was a fully independent concern and was built by an assortment of local peat producers and farmers including the ever optimistic Mr. Blenkinsop, with the intention of tapping into the growing peat market in the area. 

The SPLR ran from Bleakhouse Road across the levels south of the Polden Hills to a number of peak works near Westonzoyland and Burrowbridge. At the height of production during the 1920’s it in turn was fed by several narrow gauge tramways. An occasional passenger service ran from Bleakhouse Road to Burrowbridge between the wars, but fell victim to road competition in 1935. 
Goods traffic continued throughout the war years and beyond, aided in no small measure by the opening in 1938 of an Army Stores Depot at Burrowbridge (see below). Trains ran twice daily, with most services conveying some wagons for the Military, as well as peat traffic and local agricultural produce.  

Local inwards traffic typically consisted of empty box vans inwards for loading at the various peat works, domestic coal for local usage and various miscellaneous items as required. 

Outwards traffic would consist of box vans loaded with peat produces, empty coal wagons and agricultural produce. 

With the exception of the peat and the requirements of the military, most other traffic had disappeared by the early 1950s. The peat works at Burrowbridge and Sedge Vole closed in 1952 and 1954 respectively, leaving just that at Westonzoyland still functioning and supplying a source of revenue to the light railway proper, although this together with the works of the Bleak Moor Peat & Sedge Company at Bleakhouse Road itself remained operational right up to the final closure of the S&D and the SPLR in March 1966. 

Site of Ham Lane level crossing in November 1998. The crossing keeper's cottage has long since been demolished, neither is there any trace of the narrow gauge peat tramway which also used to cross the lane a few yards behind the author's car.

Nationalisation and Decline

The ‘main line’ between Athelney and Glastonbury slumbered on during the inter-war years, being financially propped up by it’s parent companies. Passenger traffic never developed to the levels originally anticipated and soon settled down to seven daily return trips between Taunton and Wells. In line with the agreement drawn up between the S&DJR and GWR in 1899, all trains were worked through to Taunton by S&D motive power. In turn, the GWR maintained the permanent way between Glastonbury Junction and Athelney.

Nationalisation followed in 1948, with the whole line from a point just south of the junction at Glastonbury passing to the Western Region of British Railways. The W.R. was quick to see the hopeless financial case for keeping the whole line open and the section south from Bleakhouse Road to Athelney was closed to passengers in January 1951 and to freight four months later.

This defunct southern section was dismantled shortly after final closure and the remaining line north to Glastonbury transferred to the Southern Region, at which point it effectively became another ‘twig’ off the Evercreech Junction to Burnham branch of the S&D.  

The peat works in the 1950s (Photo courtesy M. Welch Collection)

Ham Lane crossing in the 1950s (Photo courtesy of M. Welch Collection)

Against all the odds the branch to Bleakhouse Road remained open to passenger and freight traffic until the final closure of the S&D in March 1966. The passenger service remained at a constant 7 return passenger trips each weekday from Glastonbury. There was no service on winter Sundays, but two return trips ran during the Summer timetable. The branch passenger workings shared stock diagrams with the Highbridge branch. The branch passenger train was always stabled at Glastonbury overnight. There were no loco servicing facilities at Bleakhouse Road except for a water column.

The main reason for the line’s survival was the transfer of peat and military traffic from the light railway to the ‘main line’ at Bleakhouse Road and sundry wagonload traffic for the surrounding agricultural district.

All wagonload traffic except for domestic coal ceased to be handled at Bleakhouse Road (BR) Goods Yard from 8^th May 1965 and the passenger service was reduced to five return services a day, with no services leaving Glastonbury after 6.04pm. The remaining summer Sunday passenger service was withdrawn at the same time. 

The final service trains ran on Friday 5^th March 1966, with just one return ‘special’ traversing the branch from Glastonbury on Saturday 6^th. This consisted of 5 bogie coaches and was double-headed by Ivatt tank engines 41283 and 41296. This train was far too long to run round at Bleakhouse Road, so on arrival at the home signal, locomotive 41283 was detached and ran onto the connecting spur to the light railway. The main train then continued into the station, whereupon No. 41283 was re-attached to the Glastonbury end. The return trip had then been specially authorized to return in this formation. The Ivatts were re-joined at Glastonbury and continued the railtour in conventional double-headed mode to Highbridge. 

The track and station mouldered on for a further 12 months until the track lifting contractors started to dismantle the branch in April 1967. Most of the track was removed using road cranes and lorries, although a ‘Hymek’ appeared with a couple of empty vans in June 1966 to remove station furniture and other items from Bleakhouse Road station. 

It is rumoured that a further trip was made over the branch in November 1966 to enable the scrap contractor to survey the line. It is believed that a class 63XX diesel may have been used on this occasion, although it has not been possible to verify this story. 

The light railway closed at the same time as the S&D, although the narrow gauge tramway feeding the Bleak Moor peat works survived into the early 1970’s, when the peat works itself closed. 

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