REALLY SideTracked – Trouble House Halt
Flanders and Swann Slow Train event No 18.
The Slow Train series continues with a geocaching meet-up between 12.30 and 2pm on Saturday 24th February, at the Trouble House Inn.
This is the next in a series of SideTracked events based on the song Slow Train by Flanders and Swann. Written in 1963, the song laments the closure of many stations and railway lines under the Beeching cuts of that era.
"On the main line and the goods siding
The grass grows high,
At Dogdyke, Tumby Woodside and Trouble House Halt..."
About SideTracked Caches
This cache belongs to the SideTracked series. It is not designed to take you to a magical place with a breath taking view. It's a distraction for the weary traveller, but anyone else can go and find it too. More Information can be found at the SideTracked Website.
About Trouble House Halt Station
The tiny timber platform of Trouble House Halt during 1959. © David Glasspool Collection
Trouble House Halt was a small station on the Tetbury branch line between Kemble and Tetbury between 1959 and 1964, when the line closed as part of the Beeching cuts.
Diesel railbus services were introduced by British Railways Western Region on the Tetbury branch line on 2 February 1959, and on the same day two halts were opened on that line, at Church's Hill and at Trouble House. It was built to serve a 17th-century public house, the Trouble House Inn, which had originally been called the Waggon and Horses, but was later renamed because it had been built on flood-prone land known as "The Troubles" and also for the difficulties which beset a series of innkeepers in the 18th and 19th centuries, including being taken by a press gang. It was the only station in England built specifically to serve a pub, although Berney Arms station in Norfolk has much the same function.
The station itself consisted only of a wooden platform and was known locally as "Beercrate Halt". Late night travellers had to flag down a train by showing a lighted match. The line and station closed on 6 April 1964, but the station was immortalised in that year in the song "Slow Train" by Flanders & Swann.
On 4 April 1964, the last day of operation, when the last passenger train from Tetbury arrived at Trouble House Halt, a coffin was loaded onto the train by bowler-hatted mourners. It had been made by the landlord of the pub together with his brother, covered with inscriptions and filled with empty whisky bottles. On arrival at Kemble, the coffin was transferred to a train for Paddington, addressed to Richard Beeching. The last passenger train to Tetbury found its approach to Trouble House Halt blocked by burning hay bales.
Source: Wikipedia
The event
We will meet in the Trouble House Inn, where hopefully there will be an area set aside for us. Food should be available - please indicate in your will-attend logs how many will be attending and likely to eat so I can give the pub some idea of numbers.
Related web pages:
Image sources: