IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Station Road, WELLS, BA5 1EY

Now incorporated as part of a modern industrial estate.

Just south of Westbury-sub-Mendip is a railway bridge that used to be right beside the old station. The line closed many years ago and the station is now a small business park, but the bridge that carries Station Road remains. A benchmark can be seen in the whitened area in the middle. See Image] for a wider view and http://www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm79252 for the entry in the Benchmark Database.

Westbury-sub-Mendip's railway station opened in April 1870 as part of the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line. It was originally a broad gauge line but soon converted to narrow. The line was known as the Strawberry Line, due to the large amount of the popular fruit that was (and continues to be) grown here. Westbury's station was actually referred to as Lodge Hill (a local hill just south of the line) so as not to confuse it with others of the same name. The line closed completely in 1969. See Image] for a benchmark in the middle of the bridge.

A footpath in among the suburban houses, leading only to a short walk around the road.

And the path will take you to a sewage works, among other delights. Nailed onto the wooden post is another, smaller, sign from Somerset County Council. It warns that, under the Highways Act, 1980, S.131, (2,3), it is an offence to remove this signpost - subject to a maximum fine of £1000. The farm gate beside the kissing gate is open, just to make it even more unnecessary.

Looking east from the bridge over Station Road, the line of the old Cheddar Valley railway can still be seen. Once it would have carried the many punnets of strawberries grown in the area, but no longer.

View west, towards Yatton, where it seems all traces of the station and the ex-GWR Yatton - Cheddar - Wells - Witham line have been obliterated and built over with new ?farm sheds since the station and line closed to passengers 9/9/63, although remaining for goods Yatton - Cheddar until 1/10/64. [I think I must have angled this picture for effect!].

A day of freezing fog and minimal winds have brought some dense fog to cover the low levels of the old county. Once the county's lower parts would have been under water, or at least marshy and would have perhaps looked not unlike this.