The LNER Encyclopedia

A friend of mine is looking for a copy of a poem (for personal reasons) but is having trouble finding it, even using Google etc. Does the below ring any bells with anyone? If so, a copy or link would be good, it's rather important to them.

"The poem that they want is the one by John Betjemen about Beeching's railway closures.
The problem is that neither they nor, I can remember the title or find the poem on Google or Ask Jeeves etc.

From my memory, which is not what it was, I seem to remember the lines,
Do not think they won't take it hard,
In Somerton?, Evercreech? or Chard
or something like that".

Thanks for any help you can give.

Are you thinking of 'The Slow Train' by Flanders and Swann?

Miller's Dale for Tideswell ...
Kirby Muxloe ...
Mow Cop and Scholar Green ...

No more will I go to Blandford Forum and Mortehoe
On the slow train from Midsomer Norton and Mumby Road.
No churns, no porter, no cat on a seat
At Chorlton-cum-Hardy or Chester-le-Street.
We won't be meeting again
On the Slow Train.

I'll travel no more from Littleton Badsey to Openshaw.
At Long Stanton I'll stand well clear of the doors no more.
No whitewashed pebbles, no Up and no Down
From Formby Four Crosses to Dunstable Town.
I won't be going again
On the Slow Train.

On the Main Line and the Goods Siding
The grass grows high
At Dog Dyke, Tumby Woodside
And Trouble House Halt.

The Sleepers sleep at Audlem and Ambergate.
No passenger waits on Chittening platform or Cheslyn Hay.
No one departs, no one arrives
From Selby to Goole, from St Erth to St Ives.
They've all passed out of our lives
On the Slow Train, on the Slow Train.

Cockermouth for Buttermere ... on the Slow Train,
Armley Moor Arram ...
Pye Hill and Somercotes ... on the Slow Train,
Windmill End.

Autocar Publicity wrote:A friend of mine is looking for a copy of a poem (for personal reasons) but is having trouble finding it, even using Google etc. Does the below ring any bells with anyone? If so, a copy or link would be good, it's rather important to them.

"The poem that they want is the one by John Betjemen about Beeching's railway closures.
The problem is that neither they nor, I can remember the title or find the poem on Google or Ask Jeeves etc.

From my memory, which is not what it was, I seem to remember the lines,
Do not think they won't take it hard,
In Somerton?, Evercreech? or Chard
or something like that".

Thanks for any help you can give.

Yes those words do ring a large bell in my head, and I automatically associate them with a b&w film of JB riding the train to Highbridge. These snatches of memory are very frustrating because they are like old photos with no details.

I wonder if the words are not actually part of an official poem, but just Betjeman's spoken soundtrack to the film he made for the BBC?

Yes. It could be Betjeman 'waxing lyrical' in his Branch Line film about Evercreech. You can find it here: http://www.videosurf.com/videos/John+Betjeman

I don't think it's a poem.

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Micky wrote:Ah yes Betjemen, the only one of his that i like is the one with the line-

... coal train Cricklewood bound. Other then those few words i can't recall the rest but it sure was a good railway poem.

Parliament Hill Fields - John Betjeman.

"Rumbling under blackened girders, Midland, bound for Cricklewood,
Puffed its sulphur to the sunset where that Land of Laundries stood.

Rumble under, thunder over, train and tram alternate go,
Shake the floor and smudge the ledger, Charrington, Sells, Dale and Co,
Nuts and nuggets in the window, trucks along the lines below.

When the Bon Marché was shuttered, when the feet were hot and tired,
Outside Charrington's we waited, by the "STOP HERE IF REQUIRED";
Launched aboard the shopping basket, sat precipitately down,
Rocked past Zwanziger the Baker's, and the terrace blackish brown,
And the Anglo, Anglo-Norman Parish Church of Kentish Town,
Till the tram went over thirty, sighting terminus again,
Past municipal lawn tennis and the bobble-hanging plane.
Soft the light suburban evening caught our ashlar-speckled spire,
Eighteen-sixty Early English, as the mighty elms retire
Either side of Brookfield Mansions flashing fine French-window fire.

Oh the after tram-ride quiet, when we heard, a mile beyond,
Silver music from the bandstand, barking dogs by Highgate Pond.
Up the hill where stucco houses in Virginia creeper drown;
And my childish wave of pity, seeing children carrying down
Sheaves of drooping dandelions to the courts of Kentish Town."

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Thankyou for all the replies so far, I've sent the link to this thread, so fingers crossed one of these is what they are looking for. I think the verses we're after are at the start of a TV series Betjemen did. It might refer to the closure of the S and D.

I'll let you know, in the meantime, any extra ideas welcome...

Edited once to add some detail.

Re-Betjeman: I looked at the 1962 film today, broadcast March 1963, from Evercreech to Highbridge and Burnham. Plenty of verse, rhyming and blank, but not the lines you require.

John

This site has the text of about 50 of his poems, but none seem to fit the bill. I think that it's from 'Atlantic Coast Express' produced by the BBC, but is that the one that John has just checked out?

ISTR two programs on tv a long time ago where Sir John talks about the S&DR these were originally BTF movies.

Thanks for all your suggestions, I've been in touch and he thinks that the poem/quote that was vaguely remembered is the preamble JB did for a programme in the early 60s about the impending closure of the Somerset and Dorset Railway, rather than a published poem. After reading a lot of poetry and looking at links, he's found the words to 'The Slow Train,' by Flanders and Swan, to be most appropriate.

Thankyou again for all your help, much appreciated by both of us.

Some interesting material, I'll revisit it myself someday when I've time to appreciate it properly. I've always tended towards the limerick end of poetry when writing pieces myself, but there are some lines in there with real atmosphere. Perhaps I need to spend a night on Cadair Idris...?

Autocar Publicity wrote:Perhaps I need to spend a night on Cadair Idris...?

Do they still make that? I remember 'I drink Idris when I'se dry - Idris is the drink to buy...' - is it better or worse than that rust-coloured stuff, made from the peat (and other) stuff in the Highland meltwater?

Miaow!

I was thinking of the rocky stuff (and the old legend), not the stuff you have on the rocks... But I have to say I prefer Irish Whiskey to Scottish, though I don't think I've ever had Welsh Whisky. A lamentable gap in my education and one which I hope to address in the hopefully not too distant future. Any suggestions welcome... Cheers!

I think you can get it, AP, just not in any legal fashion, though. Those boyos have to do something while the dogs are rounding up the sheep.