Thank you for making this informative and thoroughly enjoyable film!

Absolutely fascinating stuff. I’ve lived in Talbot since I was little and I thought I knew a lot about this village’s history. You’ve taught me so much on this video, bravo. On another note, now that Nuffield Hospital now own a lot of that land in the Heath, expect that relief road adjacent to Wallisdown Road to be built at some point.

It's good to see a more balanced appraisal of Beeching and his legacy, thank you for posting. There are a few additional things that really need to be said: - Beeching was the leading advocate of a major change-over from wagon-load freight to containerised freight, which gave birth to Freightliner. This was tremendously beneficial to rail freight. - Beeching's second report told the government to invest heavily in trunk routes, but that didn't suit Marples' purpose at all so it was quietly shelved. - Beeching's brief was strictly that his survey of rail ridership should take place in a certain week in April, which was known to those who instructed him to be the quietest week of the year. - Beeching was told specifically to avoid any ideas of reducing costs of running less productive lines, and so were route managers. Route managers who made moves to reducing costs by reducing staffing and simplifying operations were summarily dismissed. _ Beeching was also instructed to discount the "feeder traffic" effect of branch lines feeding passengers onto trunk routes, which goes a long way to support their viability. The whole Beeching report was a sham investigation; the conclusion being known already before Beeching was instructed, because Marples set it up that way. Of course there were lines that should have been closed - but many of the lines that were recommended for closure by Beeching, but subsequently saved, are considered successful today. Marples, as you say, was nothing but a crook and the whole Beeching edifice was just his way of getting railways closed so that people would have to buy cars, and Marples Ridgway would get the contracts for the new roads they would need. The scam he thus perpetrated is one of the greatest crimes in history against the British public, because it leaves us with overloaded, jammed roads and shortage of useful railway infrastructure to this day. The "vandalism" you describe was encouraged by Marples, destroying the bridges, stations etc so that rails could never economically be put back. And remember, this wasn't just a Tory thing - Labour enacted most of the closures recommended by Beeching, continuing to line Marples' pockets. A complete disgrace. I have a lot of sympathy for Beeching, his heart was in the right place but he was the fall guy given a dirty job with an outcome pre-decided by the brief. Marples, on the other hand, was one of the dirtiest thieves we've ever seen in government and his legacy dogs us to this day. He's the one who should be reviled and his effigy burned in every town that now has no rail service. Marion

Very interesting. Thanks

Can't wait

Wow! Well done to the soloist indeed👏 Ex military? In fact the whole band are ace😎

Extremely well done by the soloist: Bravo!

There's an Oakmead school in Poole , Dorset . Is it the same one ?

Well done, next year will be my first time.

Why this is called Turkish invade but Israeli occupation called legitimate land expansion??

Reminds me that 90% of the buildings and roads we see today have been built in the last 100 years or so. An explosion in suburbia brought about by the motor car. I wonder if they next 100 years will bring that building bubble to an end and even reverse it?

Great video, I am hoping next year will be my 8th time and one of my favourite days of the years.

When walking around the Matchams View area, my son and I did spot a couple of concrete posts with rounded tops like half of a sphere. I've seen similar ones around other former Southern Railway stations and I believe they were manufactured at the company's own concrete works at Exmouth Junction. If you walk the line east of Ringwood there are two crossing-keepers cottages now used as private homes. At the easternmost one you can still see the double tracks where they cross a narrow road at the former level crossing.

Great video David! I also live in Poole and today ran along the footpaths on the old railway from Downton - the sidings road to Alderbury. Found quite a few bridges, including a couple hidden across a farmers field!

I worked at Redland pipes when young...Old boys who worked there told be all the tales of the past...they said there was a gate to the estate at Wallisdown cross roads by the round about....the road then went down past Talbot village and the church across to Talbot view common and there is a bridge there over the railway and onto the Branksome estate and Canford village...loads more but i will leave it there.

I don't think Marples invented Subscriber Trunk dialling. "Holding the baby" springs to mind. certainly the fore-runner of Maggie's "Great Car Economy"

Another well presented and highly informative video David. I always learn something new. On a sidenote, i was amazed that the Brighton Cottages were only knocked down as late as 91. Although i only started to drive in 93, i cant for the life of me, ever remember those cottages. Maybe I'm just getting on in years now 😂

fascinating ty

Fantastic, really enjoyed watching this. Makes Paul Whitewick video look second rate !

Well done mate , but no ice cream van up the top at the beacon ?? A '99' would have been a nice reward after that slog !!

I went to school at Henry Harbin and there was a guy called Angus Fitchett who lived in one of the Brighton Cottages. He had an old bath tub which he rowed round Holes Bay - what a character

It's not unusual for politicians to hire someone and then when the job they're paid to do looks bad politically they get all the blame for doing their job. However if the job they do is politically good then the politicians take all the credit sidelining them in the process. The real slimy ones are the politicians not the people they hire. Even Ernest Marples said that Richard Beeching had no authority to close any railway for that's the minster of state for transport's job or Ernest Marples in this case. But because it was bad politically all the blame was heaped on Beeching and Marples got away with it as slimy politicians always do.

Error on your map around Redbridge Roundabout, it did not skirt around the Roundabout it went thought it, the popular trees mark out the side of the canal, I can remember where the canal was, before they turned the Mono Redbridge road into dual carriageway, and put in the roundabout which came before the flyovers, There was a dip in the ground were the canal ran, between Millbrook Roundabout and Town a lot of the canal never got built only sections of it did, The canal never ran under Gover Rd, but between the footpath you walk and the front gardens of the bungalows ant the bottom of Gover Rd near Nine Elms Rail gate, it branched off and went behind the Anchor Pub to a canal dock. The flat subsidence was more likely cause by the number of Marsh Creeks and streams and not the canal, the whole of that area 400 to 500 years ago was reeds and marshes, the oldest building in that part of Redbridge is the Ship Hotel/Inn, originally built in the 1600s when there was a mud dry dock close by and used for the ship builders. This was not the first canal, the original canal was for sailing barges, that sailed up the River Blackwater up to the cooling ponds where they made gunpowder at this point of time, there were 3 rivers Totton side was the Blackwaters and on Redbridge side was the Test and the one in the middle was the Grayling stream, then they built the 5 arch pack and pass bridge followed by the causeway out of Totton, the Blackwaters were diverted to the Grayling and a single arch regency bridge was built to allow for the barges to sail up to the cooling ponds and a link between Black waters and Test dug out to allow Blackwater barges to connect to the Andover Canal

David, well done! I have travelled this are for years and never realised there was a canal there! Thank you, I shall now explore with knowledge!

David, doing what you do best! Fascinating and a really good watch. I have retraced some of your rides inspired by your vids since you first started and really enjoy your historical take and depiction of the subject at hand. Please keep up the excellent and entertaining work. Thank you!

Well done it’s a great bike! Enjoy!

Good luck David, you will be carried along by the spirit of the event and it’s only 54 miles (approx) so not so bad. Your training looks perfect, there are some hills but nothing too bad and nothing to rival Worth Matravers, just make sure you have a Granny gear available for Ditchling Beacon. It’s a fantastic event, if a little crowded, but it will leave you on a high. The very best of luck and enjoy. Great to see you back again. By the way I’m envious of your cruise jacket… very cool!🙂

Thank you David - most informative, and enjoyable !

Watching this with 2 weeks to go until the ride

Just wondering, if you ever worked for Mastercare, back in the 1980s. at the time i was working for dixons.

I definitely need to go see the lady bridge it’s near the school for tight pants!

That bridge at Wimborne now gone my hubby kayaks along there it’s not far from where Wimborne market used to be. I believe that a new housing estate has been or is being built there

Definitely not a mark2 Capri, they had vinyl roof and no spoiler! Mark 3! X

If you go into Upton country park, part of the castlemans is within it, with an impressive telegraph pole and p way hut. You can also head to the railings at the back of hamworthy lidl and get onto the bridge. It’s quite scary up there tho I must warn! It was cool to have actually got on it though even though I had to turn back due to safety issues!

Most of the new forest is a no drone fly zone. I have no idea why, maybe because of the animals?

Did you say ‘kittens bum’ 🤪

Fogmens hut. They had small braziers to one side

At 3:20 in the video! It was loose on the ground so I picked it up! Also got a couple of ceramic insulators from a collapsed pole on the large bridge near ringwood

I have a couple of bits from there including that bridge support strut that is shown in this video!

I was in the U.N. and did a 6 month Cyprus tour in summer 1976, I was driving a RE “fridge” mechanic and and went there to fix the Swedish police fridge, but back then had to be escorted from checkpoint by the police and Turkish troops. Grass and trees were starting to sprout even so soon after invasion.

I'm eternally grateful for the existance of such a video with such a title. So many don't understand that Beeching simply did what *he was told to do.*

We visit Cyprus a lot ! we have been visiting Cyprus for 24 years & of this year (April 2024) we had chance to visit. We are from Ireland & see some familial issues . It was Well worth a Visit.

evening hill dam near killed me and that was when i could manage a mountain bike. good option to walk it.

Well done, keep up the training. There are some particularly vicious hills on the London to Brighton route.

"Beeching wrote a report but he never closed a line." - That sounds like a technicality to me. Did Beeching agree with his own report or not? Was he in the habit of writing reports he didn't agree with? To excuse him just because he only wrote the report is a bit silly. The video just replaces one villain with another. I think Beeching was responsible for his own report and clearly agreed with the parameters set for him - his own public statements supported this. The truth is that a narrow view was taken of the railways by politicians, no doubt under influence from the car lobby (e.g. Marples, but not just him), and Beeching shared this view, which is why he was chosen to write the report. Beeching is responsible for his own work and so are the politicians who made the decisions. They believed that railways should be profitable, which is clearly stupid and shows that something was fundamentally awry with the post-war generation of politicians and civil servants (other misguided policies post-war governments were responsible for - mass immigration, joining the EEC, abolition of grammar schools, provincial Brutalist architecture, railway privatisation, list goes on). They had been affected by the War experience and wanted to build a shiny, idealistic new world while suffering from some sort of folie en masse (or whatever is the expression). They were mentally captured by ultra-modernism and railways seemed old, smelly, provincial and stale, and a bit boring too because a railway-centric society means people are more regimented and family-centric and activities are more structured. That's so boring, whereas cars are individualist and exciting and you can go anywhere in a car. It's freedom! We can now see that they were stupid, but it's too late. We are where we are.

I'm bit confused, David. Breamore House was build after King VIII, so how did he behead the owner if the house wasn't built?

in DR Richard Be ec hing's defense BR needed to save money and closing down lines, and employing people and scrapping locomotives and rolling stock to save money was the most freezable things to do why keep something open if it's gonna be a drain on finances.

Very interesting how stories are simplified for general consumption. There are plenty of skeletons in the mismanagement /vandalism cupboard I am sure. Didn't he preside over the double arrow rail symbol, which is excelent. (in some countries, it is hard to see where the station is) and the merry-go-round for feight trains to power stations?

Great video! Interesting stuff about the railways and castle too - enjoy the cycle!

Very enjoyable. I travelled the Ringwood to Salisbury road frequently doing my sales calls. I often wondered about the railway but never seemd to have time to explore. Thank you for posting your video..