I have always thought that many railway stations
Were at their most manicured in the years
Leading up to the Great War
But they are Blue Remembered Hills Jack
That era has passed
It has been totally obliterated by time
Here look at this photograph
What do you see
A station master standing with two children
His name was Mr Batchelor and the girl is my grandmother
How haunting
Yes
I found it in a book about ten years ago
Were they his children
No he was the Station Master at Arley
On the Severn Valley Railway
The children just posed with him for a photograph
These were the days of Empire
It was something to be English in those days
Look at the flowers behind them
They were grown with care and love and won many prizes
The platform was not littered and everything was ordered
I have always considered that the railways were a barometer
A barometer of what
England my England
My Lost England
Today the railways are scruffy and unloved
Everything reeks of utilitarianism
It is supposed to bring the greatest happiness
But in my view the opposite is true
It brings the deepest sorrow
Do you think that things have improved
No
Why
Because we were betrayed
By whom
Our fathers and our fathers fathers
It was all down to strength
We were ruled by fools and the sons of fools
Men became effeminate
Sodomites
They let Empire slip between their fingers
They tried to grasp sand
That is considered a rather old fashioned view these days
I do not agree with you Martin
We should agree to differ
As we are great friends
I agree
Kent Ale
That would be nice
I do have one question though
That being
What happened to the children
I do not really know
The little boy was not related
There is a chance that he might have fought
I really do not know
Your grandmother
She and her family emigrated to Australia in the thirties
But slowly but surely the family lost contact with them
My grandmother became a teacher and was last heard of in the fifties
She was living and teaching Adelaide with her husband
Who was also a teacher and previously a mining engineer