All the Devizes Branch Railway caches can be found here.
Tek-kaz invites others to add to this series and help him mark the route of this once proud little railway line. All he asks is that you place the words “Devizes Branch Railway” at the END of your cache description so that it can be found by the above link.
The Devizes Branch Line was a railway line from Holt Junction to Patney in Wiltshire, and named after Devizes, the largest town on the line. It was built by the Wiltshire, Somerset and Weymouth Railway, and was later bought up by the Great Western Railway. At one point the Devizes line provided a direct link from London to the West Country.
The Devizes Branch line and all of its stations closed in 1966 under British Rail's modernisation plans. The closure of the line can be accounted for by the awkward geography of the Devizes line and the falling amount of traffic since the building of a rival railway line from Chirton to Westbury which by-passed the steep gradients of the Devizes branch line. Apart from a few remaining bridges and tunnels there is little evidence of the railway on the landscape today and after the closure of the line, all stations and halts were dismantled. More information on the Devizes branch line can be found here and here.
Seend Station is now the site of a concrete products company.
There is parking at the side of the road near the cache.
We are intrigued as to how the occupants of the house to the east of the cache travelled there before the line closed, as their drive now goes along the bed of the railway line!
