Excellent film - best I have seen for explaining pre railway Leicester with the canals, then the various stations and connections being added and removed. Link now on the Swannington Heritage Trust website.

@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much. Looking forward to a nice walk that way soon.

As a previous resident of Desford I found this incredibly interesting. Thank you.

My Uncle died on this line, as the driver of a steam locomotive, when it was being shoddily maintained and poorly operated by British Railways in the 1950s. Thank you for putting up this detailed historical perspective.

Great video

Great video. I grew up in glenfield. Me and my friends were always playing down glenfield tunnel. The doors were open for a month in the early 90's and we walked all the way to the other end. There is a ladder with a manhole cover at the far end. Think it is in someone's garden as we could hear people talking when we climbed up.

@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

2 жыл бұрын

Tours are currently taking place (2022) of the tunnel and there's spaces left in July and September if you fancy coming again

My father rode on the line and the MR carriages had bars on the windows because of the narrow clearances. He took me to various sites when it was still being used for goods traffic. I remember the yard at West Bridge especially.

@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the comment, John. It's brilliant to relay that first hand experience, at least the bars would keep your head on, though a hand might be lost. Do you remember if it got smoky on the way through?

My family is from Derbyshire until I was 13 and I regularly walked the Ere wash Canal in Ilkeston. My maternal grandfather ran the Ilkeston signal box until Beeching. It was all he knew and it devastated him. With renal failure from a genetic condition he agreed to undergo one of the first kidney transplants in Britain. He died but from his case the doctors learned a lot about how long an organ can be out of the body before it was too late. I will always be proud of him, although my Mum said he did it knowing it to be a death sentence after the loss of his well-paid (for the times) job. He knew nothing else and couldn't find a job after losing that one due to ill health. He remembered the Dole means tests from his childhood and believed that his family would be means tested as if it were still the 30s. Beeching ruined lives, sometimes seemingly in a folly, especially as the Portishead line of the Strawberry Line had to be rebuilt due to demand. Massive out lay for no reason.

Beeching's short-sighted cuts led to roads being overwhelmed with traffic today. He could not foresee what would happen then because in the 1960s few could afford cars but the resulting lack of railway stations in rural and semi rural areas drove car buying out of necessity. The rest is, as they say, history!

@bobtudbury8505

3 жыл бұрын

the labour party closed it, not beeching

@kleedhamhobby

3 жыл бұрын

@@bobtudbury8505 It seems to me that your agenda is entirely party political. It was Dr. Richard Beeching's massive academic and political arrogance, entirely lacking in either historical perspective or reasonable foresight, that led directly to the greatest destruction of valuable infrastructure in the history of Britain.

@bobtudbury8505

3 жыл бұрын

@@kleedhamhobby you know nothing, Beeching presented his plan to the labour party , the Government, then cancelled some of his recommendations ( key word there ) but the labour party cut 100's of miles of track on top of his recommendations ....and do not forget beeching was awarded with a medal after.By the labour governement ....Also let's not forget labour closed hundreds of pits in the 60's , the working man's party ???? i do not tink so

@kleedhamhobby

3 жыл бұрын

@@bobtudbury8505 Beeching did not 'present his plans to the Labour party, the Government'. It is true that many of the closures took place after the election of the Labour government in October 1964, but Beeching's report on the railways was published in March 1963, when Harold Macmillan was still the head of a Conservative government (succeeded by Alec Douglas-Home in October 1963). Beeching's railway report was published by the British Railways Board, as was his subsequent report on road development (which was published in the time of the Labour government). I might add that I am old enough to actually remember this. It is true that Beeching couldn't put his plans into action directly himself... but it was his narrow interpretation of 'value' or 'economic worth' that led directly to the destruction of vast amounts of infrastructure (not that much hadn't already been done before Beeching's work to decay Britain's railways and demoralize railway staff).

@bobtudbury8505

3 жыл бұрын

@@kleedhamhobby lol demoralize staff? some staff had been paid for years that no one knew they were even employed by the railways . An exact number of staff could not even be numbered, it was not known .The torys set up beeching , the labour party acted on his report LABOUR . do you still not understand . Another thing, however beeching presented it labour did not close all his recomenndations but labour acted on itself to axe a futher 1,0000s of miles. I am old enough too to remember , Beeching had no power .Labour closed the lines and gave him an award too. LIEBOUR ,,,,and the NHS was not even their idea too Socialism sucks and fails everywhere.All the time

Great! Another 'watch it at least twice' video.

You seem to have overlooked the branch line from Ratby to Groby granite quarry. Also there was to the west of Ratby serving Alexander stone works. During the First World War east of Ratby near to the Groby granite junction there existed an ammunition works connected to the Ratby Glenfield section. The location was referred to as the Dumps. A buffer block is still extant here next to the M1.

Great thanks 👍 Very interesting 🧐

@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

3 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

Superb video , i can't believe you only have 68 subs !!!!

@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

3 жыл бұрын

Hi daystatesniper, thanks for the comment. Please feel free to share the channel in the appropriate places to help me get some recognition!

@inyobill

3 жыл бұрын

In just 3 weeks, almost tripled to 180+. Nice.

THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for your amazing detailed research.

Nice article but one branch line has not been discussed I.e. the branch which served Groby granite. This however may have been a private venture! This extended from the Groby quarry (Groby Pool is near the works entrance) to a junction adjacent to the Glenfield brick works I.e. between Ratby and Glenfield adjacent to the current M1. Also here during the First World War was an ammunition works known commonly as the Dumps. A second set of sidings also existed at the Western side of Ratby (again known as the Dumps) which latterly served the Alexander Stone Co.

@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

7 ай бұрын

Is this branch different to the Groby Granite branch that appears at 10:09 and disappears at 13:49? I walk this branch on a regular basis on my way to Sheet Hedges Wood and Bradgate Park and the A50 road bridge creates a curiosity to its existence here.

Excellent video.

Very good

what a lovely history told well, wish i could tell it so well in my video's. very enjoyable thanks

@RichieWellock

3 жыл бұрын

will have to now watch more of your Beeching's Ghosts

Another excellent video. More please.

@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

3 жыл бұрын

thank you very much! there will be something for you by the end of the month

The photo of Coalville is actually Hugglescote.

Brilliant video Fantastic relaxing voice

@nielsdebakker3283

3 жыл бұрын

Sounds a bit like Fred Dibnah.

So sad that most of the railway lines in the Midlands are no more. But hopefully the government would soon reopen the railways in the Midlands that people want it back.

why mention beeching? it was the labour party that closed the lines. and they closed more then beeching recommended

@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Bob. Thanks for the comment. Beeching is mentioned as he is generally regarded as the scapegoat from a plethora of sources whether government, ministers, road or rail businesses looking for excuses. If anything, Beeching *might* be seen in years to come as the saviour of the railways, preventing the whole lot from collapsing.

@bobtudbury8505

3 жыл бұрын

@@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts i know but the record needs putting straight, it's like the american revolution, it has nothing to do with tea!

I was surprised to learn tthat the canals of China reached England by the 900s. How did they bridge the Channel?

@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

3 жыл бұрын

We can thank the Romans for our canal network, but their system was much more complicated than just a transport tool, used for irrigation and borders. I'm not quite sure how they managed to get it from the Chinese, my research didn't go that deep.

@inyobill

3 жыл бұрын

@@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts Thanks for taking my comment in the light I intended. I am minded of the words "gentleman" and "scholar". Again, with your response, I have learned. I was not at all aware of Roman canal work, a new direction to read. I understand that the cross channel car ferries are going to be restarted this summer, we hope to get back to Britain in hopefully the not too late fall time.

@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts

3 жыл бұрын

@@inyobill a friend of our family has a villa in the South of France and after a walk into the country we found a very small viaduct carrying water supply. It's still effective although does leak a bit, but the supply of water is cold and fresh, albeit only a foot deep and just as wide. I was amazed it was still working however I think it feeds much of the grapevine farms. I wonderful find hidden away in the forests that no one would otherwise know was there. Sort of a canal, but Roman nonetheless.

@germanogirardelli

3 жыл бұрын

@@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts hello mr Davis, I think canals are as old as human commerce, the first Suez canal was thought up bu ancient Egyptians just to make an example. I know that around northern Italy many rivers have been diverted in Roman times, some so often we don't know where they used to be originally!

@nlo114

3 жыл бұрын

By boat?