Great Western Coffee Shop

A post elsewhere on the Coffee Shop took me back prior to 2005 - and indeed to the final years of the last Millennium, living in Easterton - close to the GW main line from London to Plymouth, rendered near-useless as there weren't and still aren't any stations for many miles to the east or many miles to the west.


Pond Farm is to the South East of Market Lavington, and is in the Parish of Easterton.

I moved to Easterton ("East Lavington") 1982 with my (then) wife and son Chris, 2 years old.  My daughter Kim was born to the house in 1985. Separated, divorced, remarried ... I lived there until 1999.

To the north of Salisbury Plain, the Berks and Hants railway passes by on its East - West journey through the Vale of Pewsey on its way from London to Plymouth. The B3098 also passes along The Vale, providing access to populations at places such as Patney, Chirton, The Lavingtons, Edington and Bratton which lost their local train services in April 1966.  South of the B3098, the land rises steeply onto The Plain; readers may be familiar with the Westbury White Horse further to the west on this same escarpment.

Parishes along that northern flank each take in their village area on or near the B3098, and an extended area south up the escarpment and onto the plain. Pond farm - close to the bottom right of these maps - is towards the extreme of that extension of Easterton - it's marked on the old map from around 120 years ago.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/pondfarm2dates.jpg)

Stories of Imber, taken over by the Government for training use for the duration of the second world war and never returned, are well known, and indeed visits to Imber each summer and a few other accesses through the year keep it in the public eye.  Further back in history - obscured by the fog of time, perhaps, was the take over by the government of the more easterly area of Salisbury Plain as the 19th century changed to the 20th century.  Initially farming continued amongst the training, but within a decade or two this chunk of land was purely military. By the time we moved to Easterton, public footpaths up the escarpment were (they still are) well used to the Ridgeway path along the ridge - an unadopted / unmade road much used by military and leisure off road traffic.  Access beyond The Ridgeway was discourages by signs warning of unexploded ordnance, and controlled by military police patrols and checkpoints at places such as Lavington Vedette.

More about Pond Farm at https://marketlavingtonmuseum.wordpress.com/tag/pond-farm-camp/

Lisa and I courted, TransAtlantic, from spring/summer 1996; we knew of each other for a while prior to that - both members of an online news group spread around the world, who met up annually.  Some 90 members met at St. Briavels Castle (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/st-briavels-castle/) - a youth hostel a few miles from Tintern.  At the time, Lisa lived in Naples, Florida and prior to "AGM96" as the meetup was called (group alt.good.morning) neither of us was looking for more than a meeting with online friends that week. That week is worthy of a separate article, up to what we suspected was our parting on Reading Station as the doors closed on the Gatwick Turbo.

"Damned Geography" was overridden by something though ... we courted long distance. From Wikipedia: "Laker Airways 'Mark II' leased two McDonnell Douglas DC-10 wide-bodied jets to operate low-fare, high quality transatlantic scheduled services, which commenced on 5 July 1996 between Fort Lauderdale in Florida and London Gatwick at a frequency of two return flights per week" We remember meeting Freddie Laker himself at Fort Lauderdale when he came down from his office in person to apologise for a flight delay, and also go to know the other airlines that were running from London to Miami, and "Alligator Alley" across to Naples.

It is a very, very brave decision after 25 years living in Florida to "up sticks" and move to England to live with someone you've got to know fairly well, but only online and for holiday and holiday-esque periods measure in weeks and not longer. It's also something to take in steps if you can. When Lisa came across to the UK at the start of 1998, it was with a suitcase possessions and her laptop in a bag. Everything else was packed into a storage unit in Naples, and she a visitor to the UK for as something of a 6 month trial to see where we took things.

Lisa has a loving family in the USA, and (back to the top of my story) her family research where she was headed online -
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/pondfarmnow.jpg)
- the difference being that the maps here family found also had the works "Danger Area " plastered over them.  Suffice to say, fears were calmed, and Lisa soon got used to the sound of military ordnance of various types, and having the sky lit up by star shells from time to time, whilst the place was pitch black on other evenings. No street lights, and in the bottom of a little valley on the edge of The Vale.

The "Well House" had a well in the garden - or rather, a spring. The valley was dry upward of our home, but the stream always flowed out of our garden and down through the village.  Our address was "63 High Street" but we had no frontage onto the High Street, which was reached via a steep public right of way. We pumped waste water up to the main sewer, and any issues including occasional solid clearance was done by "Kyte the Shyte".

To the rear of our property, the private track to the Village Hall ran beside our garden, which fell from the track in two terraces separated by a lawned area. A steep concrete path stepped part on the way and treacherously sloped the rest of the way; we had parking at the top, so this was our normal access ... in icy weather not direct down the ice sheet slope, but tacking back and forth over a lawn section.

"The Well House" was the old gravedigger's cottage.  On one side we had the graveyard, across the road from that was the Jam factory, and across in the other direction was the farm.  Step outside, sniff the air and you could tell if the wind was from the west (Raspberry) or east (pigs). The door we used lead into the kitchen with the coal fired Rayburn which provided the 'central' heating.  Two further rooms along the frontage has successively lower ceilings as you moved into the older part of the house; thick walls, a little damp. Beautifully cool in summer, freezing in winter.  Up the steep stairs (mind your head - and sorry no handrail) to the landing which ran along the rear of the house - steps up as moved up to the more modern rooms above the kitchen.

Into this unlikely, remote, cold and impractical house came Lisa from Florida.  TV reception was awful; only Channel 5 was reliable and Lisa found herself watching many hours of Sunset Beach (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Beach_(TV_series)) while I was out working long hours at Harwell - a 50 mile drive each way.  And in those days, internet connection was dial up, slow connections, shortages of point of access equipment and per minute charges.  But then this was life for the one who had been the first person on line in Naples, and myself as the first person online in Easterton.

Somehow ... Lisa and Graham 'worked' and as we faced the end of Lisa's Visa, we faced "get married or get out" and there really wasn't much of a question.  Well - we got married (24th July 1998), we sorted out all the issues for a permanently changed life, and just over a year later we bought a wreck of a property in Melksham ... but that is a story for another day.  Some very fond memories of Easterton; some twinges of sadness too. But it was right to move on for the new millennium.

Not quite Graham. Lavington, like Badminton, escaped the closure of the rest of the local stations on the line, and finally closed when the Holt to Patney & Chirton line lost its service in April 1966. That said, as far as I recall there was only one other station between Patney and Westbury, and that was Edington & Bratton. The bible on this subject, "Passengers no more" by G Daniels and L Dench, says it closed on 3rd November 1952

I find it hard to believe there was a Grahame before Melksham – or a Melksham before Grahame.  ;)

Believe you me there are many old stories to bore you with tell.

For the last the years or so, Lisa and I have been involved involve with a group of very senior ladies - the "Bowerhill Villager" team and, my goodness, first impression if very straight laced.  Delve a little deeper and each one of them can surprise you with their past and in so many other ways.    Both Lisa and I have colourful pasts too ...

Indeed - former stations between Pewsey and Westbury in full:

Pewsey is 75.25  miles from London
Manningford Halt was closed 18.4.1966
Woodborough was 78.875 miles from London, also closed 1966
Patney and Chirton was 81 miles from London, closed 18.4.1966
Lavington was 87 miles from London, closed 18.4.1966
Edington and Bratton was 91.5 miles from London, closed 3.11.1952
Westbury is 95.5 miles from London

Between Bedwyn and Pewsey, Savernake low level (later known as Savernake for Marlborough) and Wootton Rivers Halt also closed on 18th April 1966. To the west of Westbury, stations at Witham (closed in October 1966) and Strap Lane Halt (unknown closure date) have been lost before Castle Cary; Frome (on a loop) and Bruton survive.

Of all of the 9 losses listed, perhaps Lavington was the most unfortunate. Not only did it neatly bisect the Pewsey to Westbury section, but was on the main Devizes Road and has a regular bus service to that town (to this day).  Parallels with "Bodmin Road".  Not as perfect as a new "Devizes Parkway" at "The Clock" but that would be unnecessary if the station stayed open at "The Chocolate Poodle".  Lavington station also served the whole cluster of villages - Littleton Pannel, West Lavington, Market Lavington, Easterton, Great Cheverrel and Little Cheverrel. You could argue to include Erlestoke, Worton and Potterne in the catchment.

2km (walk), 4km (cycle) and 8km (drive) catchment circles around the Chocolate Poodle. Proposed "Devizes Parkway" site at white pushpin
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/lav248.jpg)

As there was a comment about Stonehenge Airfield in the opening post, I hope that everyone took the chance to listen to this week's Hancock's Half Hour on Radio 4Extra which featured him getting the train to Stonehenge station, with the prospect of a 10 mile tramp from there to Stonehenge itself.