What it Looks Like Today: Bampton Station
Living quite near to where Bampton Station once was,I quite often have a walk around what is now a carpark and try and imagine how it used to be when steam trains took their passengers up and down the Exe Valley.Although I can easily transport myself back in time in my imagination,the harder part is coming back to the present and realising that it is all gone and that I will never ever see it for real.
To take my mind off one of these sad little returns back to reality,I decided to further investigate around Bampton,to see if I could find anything that I might of missed.
I had recently found an old postcard of the bridge and wanted to compare it with how it is today.If you compare the right hand side of the bridge in the earlier postcard with the right hand side in the postcard in the slider,you will see that at some point,the wall has been lowered and replaced with fencing.
Seeing this reminded me of the story I had heard of children,climbing on the bridge and trying to drop turnips into the funnels of engines,as they passed underneath.Maybe this fence was placed there to try and stop this game.
Many of the pictures taken looking down the track through the station were taken from this bridge,but is hard to recreate that view now as the trees and shrubs block it out.
Click on the buttons to see what it used to look like and what it looks like today.On the right you can see the gate to the path that led down to the platform and waiting shed.Also note the signal just poking up and how the road layout has changed.Although the bridge is still there,it is now buried under the road.