Our Lost Lines
Anthony Poulton-Smith
- Region:
- West Midlands
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Professional
- Fee:
- Paid: Negotiable
- Category:
- Travel
- Updated:
- 9th April 2021
In 1963 the infamous Beeching Report saw the closure of more than 2,500 railway stations and the lifting of 5,000 miles of track. This released a large amount of land that has since been put to an amazing array of uses. The gentle gradients that were once perfect for trains are in turn perfect as footpaths and cycleways. Stations have become refreshment stops or cycle hire premises on leisure routes. Yards now serve as recreation sites, grassland, retail parks or housing developments. And there are the unusal and quirky: signal boxes used as greenhouses, hen coops and art studios; railway sheds housing mechanics, youth groups and dance studios; and, of course, much has simply become overgrown.
Views: 1639 | Enquiries: 1About Anthony Poulton-Smith
A freelance journalist and author, with 94 books, many articles, is a ghostwriter, innumerable crosswords and puzzles published, whilst also compiling and marketing quizzes. These books have mostly been on the subject of the origins of place-names and as part of the publicity Anthony has been interviewed several times on the radio and privileged to be the guest speaker at more than seven hundred events. Fascinated by the development of language and etymology, based in Tamworth Staffordshire and trustee of Tamworth Literary Festival, Tamworth History Group, Friends of Tamworth Castle and Museum, League of Friends of Tamworth Hospitals.
Happy to travel and available at short notice.
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by Anthony Poulton-Smith
- Origins of Place Names
- Not the Normal Paranormal
- When Nature Called
- Origins of Pub Names
- Animal Myths
- Humorous Etymologies
- The Saxon Era
- Talking Butts
- Salt Routes
- Watling Street
- The Fastener Industry
- Ancient Ley Lines
- Know What You're Eating
- An Odd Shopping Basket
- Crime on Canals
- The Daft of Fire
- The Daft of Time
- Gunpowder Plot
- Classic Toys
- Measurements
- Pots and Pans
- Laboratory Literature
- Street Names
- Forgotten Holidays
- Stupid Moments in History
- Wonderful Words
- Tales of Ales
- A Tale of Attire
- Old Wives Tales
- An Author's Errors
- Old English to Modern English
- Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
- Colloquialisms
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