Brean Beach.

[45669]

Evening All,

 

I've just got back from a short holiday in Somerset and one of the places we visited was Brean Beach between Burnham-on-Sea and Weston-super-Mare.  Like Black Rock Sands and Pendine Sands in Wales, it has sand that is firm enough to enable cars to be parked directly on the beach.  It's around 6½ - 7 miles long and it has the second highest tidal range in the world, so when the tide goes out, it really does go out!  Given good weather it's a splendid place to visit and on a clear day you can see the coast of South Wales across the Bristol Channel.  

 

We were unlucky with the weather, but went there anyway.  It was grey and windy, but I managed to shoot a few feet of video and if anyone's interested to see what it's like, here's the link:

 

 

TTFN,

 

Ron.

[Andy Kirkham]

When Captain Howey and Henry Greenly were planning the railway that became the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch, one route that they considered was from Burnham-on-Sea to Weston with a branch to Brean. Romney Marsh won out because the Southern supported it, whereas the GWR opposed the Brean line.

(information from One Man's Railway by J.B.Snell)

[Ruffnut Thorston]

The SR had a branch line to New Romney, from the Hastings to Ashford line.

 

Originally, the RH&DR went from New Romney to Hythe, via Dymchurch.

 

The SR also had a branch line to Hythe, from Sandling Junction.

 

Therefore it was probably seen as a source of traffic for these branches by the SR, and the GWR probably looked upon the proposed line as competition…

 

The RH&DR was later extended to Dungeness. At one time, shingle was transported on the RH&DR. The SR used shingle from Dungeness, and the Crumbles by Eastbourne, as ballast on some routes it seems…