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I feel privileged to have experienced this time in history.

What a lovely time, british to the core before the country fell into the decline we are seeing now, before immigration ruined the country...rip JB

It’s beautiful to see this invaluable old footage of York as it was in it’s glory days. I love GER No. 87; such an unconventional but beautiful design, as well as Hardwicke, Columbine and all the other locos the museum that are no longer there.

You can sense the brightness and the colour of those times, confirmed by my childhood memory. Today's technology merely confirms how dull things have become.

What a great railway program. I still buy DVDs and j wish I could buy this on DVD. 👍🚂🚃

Did this exist only in our dreams then they wonder why we dream so much.

He was so right. To re-instate the Oxford to Cambridge railway, closed around 50 years ago, the Government is proposing to spend £6-7 billion. For something that was once already there.

So evocative, brings a tear to my eye. I can just about remember when Burnham-on-sea looked like this. Although I am not sure whether I remember the railway line. My mother's family came from Burnham and we always stayed with my grandparents for two weeks for our summer holiday. I still go back every year for several days, although of course it is not quite the same now.

What an absolute national treasure this man is. We need to reinstate the branch lines in his honour. Glastonbury, Street and Wells without a railway station! A disgrace!

Man, if only the museum had this many locomotives in it today.

There is a plethora of videos on the S & D, but I have never seen one on the Mid;and and South Western Junction line between Cheltenham and Andover. Was one ever produced?

These streets of once proud terraced town houses, once stood proud, but now have sunk to host the thousands who prefer to beg rather than work - which Mr. Stride now says is fine for the next year or two.

Everyone today is a teddy boy destroying our history.

The vanished beauty of Great Britain. All gone.

Poignant.

What an absolutely nice Gentleman 👍

He would find there's still plenty of time to get out and look around. Especially on strike days .

I WAS AT BOARDING SCHOOL NEAR THERE AROUND THAT TIME!

Wonder what he would have made of a 15 minute city? You feel in your bones a desperate yearning for the world he moved in.

My great uncle, Charlie Jones, worked on that branch, between Highbridge and Glastonbury all his working life. At one stage he was based at Basin Bridge. My brothers and I went by rail from Highbridge to see him there on one occasion. Wonderful memory.

The Thomas Hardy poetry reading by JB accompanied by this wonderful music is absolutely brilliant in every way .

Prescient wasn't he our John .Lovely man.

I mourn our beloved railways.

Fascinating

Just googled Highbridge Station War Memorial...and it seems it was relocated in 1965 - about a quarter mile away at Southwell Gardens in Highbridge. 67 died in WW1 and 19 died in WW2. It first saw light of day in 1922 at the loco shed works further down the track. However, the loco sheds closed in 1929, so I would assume that it was then transferred to the end section of the main station building. "

@ 1-36...where did they relocate (presumably) the war memorial seen here?

It is remarkable that Sir John could see merit in Victorian buildings at a time when most historians saw anything dating after the Georgian period as vulgar and squalid. In his gentle and charming way he educated people in the true value of the local scene. Perhaps he contributed much to the later upsurge of interest in local history.

I’ve just rediscovered buses and trains to work and home. Six dollars a day. I’ve got my life back.

Evocative and very sad. Needs background music, though. Vaughan Williams "English Folk Song Suite", perhaps? I'm glad Sir John would never know just how much more traffic would infest Britain's roads

school sent is here

The days of superb locomotives and great Chief Mechanical Engineers. For any interested…. Seen here, locomotive 2204. Designed by Charles Collett (0-6-0 configuration), built at the Swindon Works in 1939. Withdrawn 1963. 3210, likewise a 0-6-0 locomotive again designed by Charles Collett. Built in 1947 at Swindon and withdrawn in 1965. Also shown is 44560, designed by Henry Fowler (0-6-0 configuration), built in 1922 and withdrawn in 1965. And lastly, 44417, again designed by Henry Fowler (0-6-0 configuration), built at the Derby works in 1927 and withdrawn from service in October 1962. Evocative memories of our long (partially forgotten) past.

The waiting rooms of that time were more like home from home rooms while the modern waiting rooms resemble more like public latrines Great Shame, Britain in 2022 is just a burnt out husk

The bombing of civilians in times of war is unjustifiable and should be absolutely forbidden, no matter who, what or where. As sad as these events were, the British population were never told that those horrors were retaliations from British raids that were much mpre destructive and sustained throughout the war, Berlin, for example was bombed more than 300 times... hard to comprehend.

An excellent program to relax your mind of today's trouble and turmoil with Sir John Betjeman, I can watch it time after time, I remember the early 60s so well

Betjemens words make my heart yearn for times long gone, even as a child I remember watching him in several documentaries and being fascinated by his beautiful almost singing lilting voice. Then when I discovered his poetry I realised that this man TrueType was a god of words.

Wonderfully, wonderfully evocative. Truly a vanished world.

"Forget motor cars, get rid of anxiety." Oh, indeed. An exquisite and most tidy presentation of the station and its train. Thank you, John Betjeman; how lovely to have a voice as you owned.

Another good thing of the sixties was there were no liars like Fromage, Witchicombe and BoJo.

the furure is here now, sir John was right of course and our so-called perspicasious politicians wrong again!

5:40 poetry in motion.

Wonderful Nostalgia.

Wonderful Nostalgia.

Wonderful Nostalgia.

Noted Edington BURTOL on map! Actually it's Burtle, must be that Somerset burr?...

Now I have always liked anything John Betjeman, but he's made a mistake in saying GWR broad gauge, the line was built by the Somerset and Dorset Railway at standard gauge. the wide bridge was part of the line that had two tracks not broad gauge! the line between Glastonbury and Highbridge was mostly single line.

1:58 (Just a bookmark for me)

Now the government are wanting to REOPEN close lines due to gridlock on the roads.......so WHY NOT REOPEN THE S&DJR. Chuck all the people OFF the track bed that nicked land! Flatten all those awful housing estates and factories and bring back RAIL to Somerset! 👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🇬🇧 RIP Sir John.

A truly wonderful man, I am pleased he did not live to see the horrific gridlock on the roads, pollution and lorries everywhere and the S&D RIPPED UP and grotty housing estates built all over the track beds!😢 if they put the money that they are wasting on HS2 into reopening this line, it would bring back prosperity and wealth to the area that lost it all when they took away their railway😡

Nearly 60 years ago now and he accurately predicted the traffic chaos and subsequent reduction in the quality of life, how was it that he could see this and yet no one else did? Unfortunately he mentioned one of the reasons the station was 2 miles from the village it served, this was the case for many village and town stations and this encouraged people to acquire a car.

How right he was about regretting the closures in future times