The Town Centre with an Abandoned Railway Station

[@philiptaylor7902]

Thanks Alex, a fascinating video on a part of the country about which I know (or knew) next to nothing.

[@AlexinGreatBritain]

No worries, thanks for watching!

[@Bethi4WFH]

So interesting....thank you! I live near the Essex/Suffolk N/E border and had no idea that there was a house owned by Anne of Cleves within easy reach. Will do some research!

[@TheSpikehere]

Another very enjoyable video. Beeching's boss, the Minster of Transport, Sir Earnest Marples just happened to own a road building company called Ridgeway. So no conflict of interest there then.

[@AlexinGreatBritain]

Thanks, and yeah that's an interesting... coincidence!

[@terrymoore9388]

Great informative video

[@juni.Th17]

here in Brazil there are many abandoned railway stations: this is history thrown away

[@AlexinGreatBritain]

Yeah it's a shame, I know.

[@danielrose7955]

Actually the old station is a nice cafe, very much worth a bike ride or drive out if you live nearby. As a local who can't currently drive the lack of a station is painful especially as the bus services are pretty rubbish.

[@AlexinGreatBritain]

I noticed the cafe, yeah. And it's true, there's room for improvement with the bus services. Running buses to Haverhill Monday to Friday only seems a little tight, especially as Saturday's a market day for Haverhill! But still, it's better than nothing - in the quite literal sense.

[@johnmilner2316]

My parents moved to this area from their rural cottage in the mid 60's when Dad had to give up driving due to poor eyesight - after all they could use the train instead, couldn't they? Only for a couple of years, then Beeching! His name was always prefaced by and/or followed by, expletives, in family conversation thereafter. And then the fat oaf was given a peerage . . . .

[@guyroebuck8510]

He was just the man doing the governments dirty work. Marples who's wife owned an asphalt company. Very crooked

[@sameyers2670]

To be fair it wasn't all Beeching's fault, the railways were losing money hand over fist for various reasons and Beechings remit was solely as an accountant. Ultimately it was the transport minister of the day that had the final say about lines. I agree mistakes were made and some lines closed that shouldn't have done though

[@johnmilner2316]

Fair enough Sam, My parents are long gone and I'm in my 80's so he doesn't get cursed very often now! If Wiliam Shakespeare had known accountants maybe he'd have classed them with lawyers? Incidentally, when I was a small child I lived in Tavistock which had two railway stations - until the 60s.

[@markmoran916]

@@sameyers2670beeching wasn’t an accountant. He was a physicist

[@sameyers2670]

@@markmoran916 I know he wasn't an accountant, the point I was trying to make was that his remit was to look at it solely from a financial perspective, it wasn't within his remit to consider the social cost of a line closing

[@JohnWhite-uq7hu]

As a reposte to Clare and its lost rail connection, come to Edenbridge in Kent. We have history and a river although not as picturesque as the Stour, but dispute our small size still have two separate working rail lines

[@AlexinGreatBritain]

Edenbridge is lovely. It's a pleasant surprise seeing real Tudor buildings that close to London!

[@JesusLovesYou-nd1rz]

Dr. Beeching is the figurehead of this particular wave of rail closures, however really he was working in cooperation with the then UK Government which were looking to reduce loss inducing routes. A fair number of stations and lines were closed in the 1950's as well. It was an overall process, but hopefully some of thrm can be reopened, as many were closed which should've been.

[@timcant4350]

Been to this location many times but Clare a town? not to my knowledge just a large village in the Stour valley well worth a visit

[@AlexinGreatBritain]

This is actually something I was wondering. All the signage in Clare refers to it as a town, and most sources do as well, e.g. 'smallest town in West Suffolk'. But I don't believe it's got a weekly market so maybe not a town in the strict definition? I'm curious as to what the consensus is among locals.

[@DadgeCity]

I'd still call Clare a town. It was a town for centuries, a significant one for most of that time, and with a population of 2,000 (bigger than various Scottish and Welsh towns) I think I wouldn't downgrade it yet.

[@smartwatcher9307]

Haverhill is normally pronounced as two syllables, not three - "Haave" (long 'a') "rel" , or by some people with a short ''e' -"Haave-e-rel".

[@guyroebuck8510]

Love our countries place names. So easy to get them wrong for non locals. 😂

[@1258-Eckhart]

A beautifully crafted video, please stick with the format. From the thumbnail, and not knowing either place, I thought this would be Tavistock in Devon. It goes seem to have been very shortsighted to have cut off Sudbury and Haverhill from Cambridge, the economic powerhouse of the region. How silly to have to drive there.

[@cycklist]

There are hundreds of ABANDONED stations just like this. ABANDONED.

[@guyroebuck8510]

The railways are booming. Where they still exist. Its a political thing. I would stop all road expsnsion and direct it into rail reopening.

[@simontay4851]

Absolutely. If they build it, they will come. All the lines that have been rebuilt have far exceeded expected passenger numbers. At least double.