Rother Valley Railway

Ah yes ‘that one’ in north Devon, a real war of attrition! it has its own flavour in my mind too which I hope they do their best to maintain the visual feeling and disturb as little as possible, the uniqueness of the landscape on the L&B for me is at its best between chelfham and Bratton fleming and particularly distilled at bratton fleming in the cutting (where the private railway was/is), cascading culverted streams and huge ferns, lichen and moss, the trackbed enveloped by a a tunnel like canopy of trees, very Jurassic. Far more care is to be taken with trackbed restoration in areas like that, nature seems much more delicate and ‘closed in’ , maintaining that aspect of nature ‘hugging’ the trains as it traverses the wooden valley sides of north Devon before the dramatic effect of bursting out into open country on those valley tops and near enough a century without trains has created a delicate and beautiful ecosystem. Apologies for the off topic musing.

 

Harold, You may be able to shed some light here but I seem to recollect that the Salehurst Halt pub was leased from the Hoad family and that was the reason why the pub lessees were so strongly against the extension, but then again I might just have got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

Regardless of this, once Salehurst Halt is rebuilt (shouldn't take much to do that either I wouldn't think) then I'm sure there will be a regular trickle from the railway to the pub, particularly of a Sunday lunchtime for the traditional roast and two or three pints of Harvey's BB. (Aside: Did you know that the Hoads supply hops for Harvey's beers? So, not all bad then!)

 

Reopening the former halts at Salehurst and Junction Road is not proposed.

 

That's the plan, but as ever, if there was a demand for the halt at Salehurst to be reopened from locals, and others, the railway would be foolish to refuse to consider it, But it might be several years after reopening before it might be deemed enough time has elapsed before such an idea could be entertained.

 

I thought I saw plans that showed Salehurst Halt was to be reinstated but Junction Road Halt wasn’t.

 

I'm sure I've seen the same.

 

My son lives in Robertsbridge - so I will ask him if he knows. He's been brought up properly so supports the railway. I understand he had a 'conversation' with one of the landowners at a Public Meeting a couple of year back.

 

I 'm sure I have - when I did a trackbed walk before lockdown - I'm sure our guide mentioned it.

 

Hope you’re right

 

It seems extraordinary that what with many pubs struggling and many closing there is one that is resolutely opposed to a tourist railway nearby, and a stop 2 minutes from its front door.
I've had a meal there and it dawned me that these people were actually against the return of the railway! Whaat?
I kept my mouth shut...

 

The Ostrich Pub/Station Hotel opposite Robertbridge Station is very good, and a supporter of the Rother Valley Railway.
I hope that this will be reciprocated by supporters of the railway.

 

Shades of "The Slaughtered Lamb"?

 

Which strongly suggests they are supporting someone's 'axe grinding' does it not? (Otherwise why would you cut off your nose to spite your face?)

 

At the time of the campaign by the objectors, to stop the extension, there was several instances of near identical letters sent to the hearing, from objectors that on the face of it were paste and copy, , so there was certainly an attempt to gather or coerce support, from people locally, Which would tend to back up a former local residents claim that there was pressure brought on people to support the objection, from with in the community, even if it might have not been in their own best interest to do so.

 

I understand that bikers heading off to the May Bank Holiday 'meet' in Hastings were stopped near the roundabout and were asked to complete a pre-printed objection form. I have just attempted to access the Gateley Hamer website to locate these but it seems the pages have been deleted - I assume because the decision has been announced. If I remember correctly they all had the same address [in Salehurst] and amounted to a very high proportion of the 900+ objections.

 

And of course, because of it would have been ignored by the inspector not the brightest of ideas if you ask me, to have a large bulk objection with the same address, unless you have 50 plus bikers living at your home how many bikers can you get in a cow shed

 

I think it may have been in the region of 300 to 400 maybe more! I suppose you can say we've got all these objectors in the village.

 

I am half expecting if I were to walk in there to find tubbs waiting to serve me, " this is a local pub, for local people, we don't want your type here" now go before we eat you

 

I haven't visited for while. I have been in Pubs like that.

 

Or worse, they get you drunk, say stay the night, and next day you wake up to find you've married one of the local daughters,