My second Old Country walk takes me railway walking, to trace two historic routes which have slipped into history, starting with the last mainline to be built in the 19th century, the already lamented Great Central (1899-1969), which now carries a multi use trail from Glen Parva to the city of Leicester, straightforwardly joined from the estate on Needham Avenue, where I am dropped off at 9.30am. The straight and wide formation runs almost arrow straight along the Soar valley and by Aylestone meadows, allowing for easy progress as it forms embankments and cuttings at the edge of the fold plain, with open space to the west and the backs of Lutterworth Road's estates to the east and it's a familiar sort of landscape, already encountered from the canal below last year. A detour or two from the trackbed is in order, to get views of the substantial underbridges at Marsden Lane and Braunstone Lane East, as well as to get a look at the ancient Medieval packhorse bridge across the flood plain, one which I'd have difficulty visiting otherwise. The surprise feature is the four arched viaduct over the River Biam, a minor branch of the Soar, and it's a gorgeous structure that had failed to gain my attention in all my years as a Leicester lad, and beyond here the path winds around the formation, sat atop the unfilled cuttings and scooting around the various overbridges at the back of Rowley Fields. The city is met full on beyond the Leicester - Burton line, the terraces of Westcotes forming a rampart to one side, whilst the flat lands of Bede Island have been rapidly consumed by contemporary development, and I'm sad that the long overbridge on Upperton Road has gone, but at least two GCR buildings have endured as shops, and the bridges over the Old Soar have remained at the throat of the old Leicester goods yard. Folks in the student accommodation and users of Bede Park would find it hard to believe that piles of locomotives and carriages used to cover this site some 25+ years ago when Vic Berry's scrapyard occupied this site, and another relic to mourn is the bowstring bridge over Western Boulevard, demolished within the last decade, with the path hopefully leading up onto the remaining elevated formation with nowhere further to go.
Before we hit the next railway, a detour is necessary to take a look at the former Great Central station, regularly glimpsed but never properly examined in my local days, and largely circumnavigateable once paths have been made around the beautifully made over Pex Building and across the historic West Bridge via St Augustine road. I's a disappointment that the GCR's West Bridge viaduct passed within my lifetime, without me ever having knowingly seen it, as did various other sections, but the station remains surprisingly intact, though residential redevelopment is rapidly claiming the post industrial riverside, so this will be the last viable opportunity to walk below the many arches in blue engineering bricks along Blackfriars and Jarvis Street, which house many small garages and motor shops, bisected by All Saints road, slicing its way below the station platform. Around the top of the station at Soar lane, and back down along Great Central Street, where a large section of the main frontage endures, with garages occupying the main entrance hall, with the parcels entrance sill bearing signage and a short detour can taken up to track level above the many arches to reveal the extent of the site, no platforms remain but the parcels office still stands proud among the many industrial units. If regeneration does come this way, it looks like the will be plenty to preserve, and that's a thought to warm the heart as I move on around St Nicholas Circle, past the eponymous ancient church, and the even more ancient Jewry Wall and the Roman baths of Ratae, and on down across the Soar at Bow Bridge, where Richard III's bones had long been believed to have been dumped (when they have actually been rediscovered at Greyfriars and reinterred at Leicester Cathedral this very week).
Our next railway walk commences at the site of the city's first railway station, the terminus of the Leicester & Swannington railway, completed in 1832 to bring coal to the city, and West Bridge station never grew to much in its lifespan, losing its passenger service in 1928 and passing into history in 1966, with only a rudimentary platform and a semaphore arm remaining on its site. The formation of the original single line now carries a path westwards, along the edge of The Rally parkland, and behind the terraces of Western Park, passing over Fosse Road North, and onwards along a quiet tree lined path behind the allotments along Groby Road. The disappearance of the formation forces me onto Stokes Drive and around the various lanes of New Parks, where the line ran beneath our feet through Glenfield tunnel, the first long railway tunnel of note, which has many vents to be found among the streets and cul de sacs on both sides of New Parks Way. Groby Road is met for a stretch, before finding the footpath behind the suburbs of Glenfield, descending to see the western portal of the tunnel, hidden in a leafy glade. Gates prevent access to Stephenson Court, the site of Glenfield station, so a detour is needed to get around to the Station inn, and to get on the formation again, as it makes its way via the Ivanhoe trail on the way to Ratby. A nice couple of sections endure here, initially up to an industrial estate that pushes the path to the banks of Rothley Brook and under the A46 before regaining the trackbed, under the M1 and on to the Station inn at Ratby, where industrial use has claimed that station site. It would be good to stop here, but I choose to continue to shadow the old railway along Desford Lane for a couple of miles, where many obscure the former junction that superseded the West Bridge line, only getting to railway once again at Desford station, where the L&S line endures to the northwest as part of the Leicester - Burton line. Again it would be wise to break at the Lancaster Arms, but I chose to conclude in Desford village, up a lot of hill after so much level going, to meet my Parents in the yard of the Blue Bell at 2.50pm, where no beverages will be taken, despite the blooming Spring weather.
5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 1516.3 miles
2015 Cumulative Total: 114.1 miles
Up Country Total: 1389.9 miles
Solo Total: 1289.3 miles
 |
| The Great Central Way, Glen Parva. |
 |
| The Great Central Way, Aylestone Meadows. |
 |
| Aylestone Packhorse bridge, only really visible in winter and early spring when not shrouded in foliage. |
 |
| Biam Viaduct, how could such an impressive structure have escaped my notice for so long? |
 |
| The Leicester - Burton Line, which superceded the West Bridge alignment of the Leicester & Swannington railway. |
 |
| Old Soar Bridges, Bede Island, with the surviving GCR engine shed in the background. |
 |
| The Bridge formation leading to the missing bowstring bridge, its absence is too depressing to illustrate. |
 |
| Leicester Central Station, Jarvis Street. |
 |
| Leicester Central Station, Great Central Street |
 |
| Leicester Central Station, Trackbed level. |
 |
| Leicester West Bridge station, I doubt any of the fixtures here are period authentic or original. |
 |
| Fosse Road North bridge. |
 |
| Leicester & Swannington formation, Western Park |
 |
| Glenfield tunnel vent, New Parks Way. As one of the first long railway tunnels, the engineers must have worried excessively about ventilation, as it has at least 5 vents for it length of just over a mile. |
 |
| Glenfield Tunnel, west portal. Someone tell Leicester City Council to get the eastern portal excavated and a cyclepath put through it, as this is a tunnel too significant to have lain fallow for so long! |
 |
| Leicester & Swannington formation, crossing Rothley brook. |
 |
| Leicester & Swannington formation, under the M1 near Ratby, the motorway's construction actually predated the railway's closure! |
 |
| Desford station, Midland Railway vintage, on the Leicester - Burton line, from where the original L&S alignment endures all the way to Coalville. |
No comments:
Post a Comment