The House By The Track

Our house had been built in the style of the previous century, probably in the year 1909. So by the time that I was born it was getting on for fifty years old and it felt much older than that. It was very cold in the winter and hot in the summer. The coal fires only warmed part of the room, although we did have a paraffin heater occasionally lit somewhere for additional heat. They were very dangerous and smelt strongly, glowing with a blue/purple flame.

Our house was built so close to the railway line that I reckon there was hardly twenty feet from the corner of the house and any train that ran along the side of it.  I have never seen any house nearer to a railway line than that, it just wouldn't be possible. I think it was dangerous and I don't think it would happen like this today, what with Health and Safety considerations.

There was a four/five feet high retaining wall which separated us from the railway line. On top of the wall there was a wooden fence, which was placed a couple of feet in towards the railway line, so there was a small amount of room where beautiful wild ferns grew. I think they were poisonous. We never touched them. I hated them at the time, but now I think they are beautiful.

When the signal fell down, trains would sometimes stop and people could look down into our room from the train. My mother was not impressed. She would grumble every time it happened. I have always loved trains and the noise was something I was always used to. It beats the sound of heavy traffic any day, to my mind. Steam trains were still in use in those days.

Before the railway reached our house, it ran across Easton Road, across a bridge which is still there today. Double decker buses used to drive beneath it until one year a bus went through and got stuck. Now, only single deckers go through.  We called this the Easton Road arch, or just 'the arch'.

The retaining wall of the railway line ran past our house and garden, across the top of our cul-de-sac and past the opposite houses and on into the city of Bristol. At the back of those opposite eight houses, ran several other railway lines. These were set down below road level and ran underneath Easton Road bridge. That bridge is still there now and some of those lines are still in use I believe. So, in effect, we had railway above us and below us on two sides.

I have a black and white photograph showing our cul-de-sac in the snow with a train coming towards our house. The signal is visible too.

We had a triangular shaped garden at the side of the house which my mother did her best to keep tidy and I loved it. At one point there was a trellis on which a beautiful pink rose used to climb. It had the most beautiful centre and smelled so lovely. If I see anything similar now, it makes me feel quite emotional.

I can remember when I was small, finding my sister and her friend Jenny in the street and I asked them where they had been. They told me they had been playing on the railway line! I was about seven I think, I was horrified. They told me not to tell anyone and I didn't. Our mother would have been so angry!

It is now many years on from that time when I was born. I now live right by the side of a dis-used railway line which once connected Bristol to Bath. It is the very same line as I lived by as a child, but is further out of the city. The line is now a cycle track which is used mostly by serious cyclists travelling to and from work every day and at weekends for families and dog walkers. It seems quite strange to me that life has brought me full circle, as it were. I started life living near the railway track and I've finished up living near the railway track.

Here, in my ground floor flat I have peace and quiet. The line is below us, being a drop of about thirty feet from the back of our fence. We cannot see anyone using the cycle track, but sometimes we can hear them talking as they cycle along as the sound echoes.

Not only is the track a good facility for cyclists and helps alleviate the awful traffic congestion we have in the city, but it is also a haven for wildlife. Further along the track I have seen lots of rabbits. Badgers, foxes, squirrels, rats, mice and birds often visit us. I even saw a bat flying at dusk, one time. My latest bird visitors are Black Caps which are grey birds, with a cream breast and a black 'cap' on their heads. I feed the birds regularly and really enjoy bird watching and have never been able to do this anywhere else where I have lived. I must say I really love it, as birds are my favourite animals.

April 2018