Sarah
Hawkins Genealogy Site
Newspaper
Articles
The Somerset County Gazette, Bristol Express, and Devonshire News. Saturday 21 Apr 1888
Page 2 Column 2
PARISH FOOTPATHS AND ROADS.
THE OBRIDGE AND GREENWAY CROSSINGS.
SIR, - Before I speak of these paths and crossing I wish first to describe the neighbourhood as it was between fifty and sixty years ago, and the importance these paths were in former times. I will first take that of Obridge. When I first knew North Town the Flook House gardens, enclosed by a wall, reached as far as the Crown and Sceptre Inn. Rather beyond it, near the end of the garden wall, was a ditch, or stream of water coming from the Flook pond, which passed under the road to the opposite side. There was not a house between the end of this garden wall and old Bob PERROTT's, the market gardener and dairyman, at Rowbarton. Bob's cottage was thatched, covered with roses and honeysuckles, and had a primitive garden gate at its entrance. It stood near, or just beyond, the present chapel. The next house to it, I believe, was the house still standing opposite the blacksmith's shop, then inhabited by a Mrs. LOCK. On the opposite side of Flook gardens stood, as now, the Crown and Sceptre Inn, but it has been sadly pulled about and modernised since that time. The only front entrance to it was by a door, made to open half way down, the lower part having a ledge to rest pots of beer upon, or for old Mr. and Mrs. POOLE to rest their arms whilst gazing at an occasional foot passenger or carriage. Just at the side of this house was a gate leading into the field. In a line with the road was an old white rickety railing to prevent people from falling into the ditch. You then passed the road now known by the name of Canal-road, but then as Firepool-road, or Firepool-lane. You then came to the garden wall of Rose Cottage, which, at that time, extended from the Royal Mail Tavern to Rose Cottage, now inhabited by Mr. MANNING. The wall was of cob, with here and there in summer a wasp's nest. Next came a barton, with wide gates, linhays and sheds for cattle. From this spot to the blacksmith's shop at Rowbarton there was not a single dwelling-house. The road to Rowbarton was then very steep, as any one can now see by examining the sides of the roads from the old canal acqueduct to the railway-station; the road to the goods station, and the Cheddon-road, as far as Stanley Terrace, have been lowered very much. The road lying between the Crown and Sceptre and the barton was partially under water many months in the year, produced by a long shallow stream or ditch on the left-hand side of the road. The road at this spot was fenced from the ragged field beyond it by a few pieces of timber, which was in a very dilapidated condition. I mention all these facts to show the importance originally of the Obridge path. Pedestrians coming into the town from Lyngford and Priorswood would turn into the fields nearly opposite the Lyngford cottages, pass through two fields which brought them out by Tommy HALL's farmhouse. Leaving this farm on the right and crossing the road into a field took you out by the garden-wall of Plais-street House, then down over the path into Firepool-road and out by the Crown and Sceptre, either through the road or by turning into the fields. These fields were very pleasant to walk in, having on your right a high hedge and tall elm trees, and on your left an uninterrupted view of the river, the town and the hills beyond it. Firepool-road had a high gravelly and pebbly bank on the left-hand side going from the town. There were no houses on either side to obstruct the view – not even the lock-keeper's house. A friend of mine (my senior by several years) reminds me of the “Black Dog well” or rivulet in this road, where the simple-minded went to bathe their bad eyes, supposing it contained some medical virtue. When I was a boy there lived at Plais-street House, then a gentleman's house, but now the Gardener's Arms, Captain HARRIS, R.N., and before him a gentleman and his family named AMBROSE, and Captain MAKER, at Obridge. The Canal Company when they crossed this path did a very proper thing, namely, built a strong stone bridge over their canal. But what have the Railway Company done after destroying this way and disfiguring the neighbourhood? Absolutely nothing. They have done nothing to recompense the public for the path taken away, but rendered it a very dangerous spot for people of the town going to or returning from that neighbourhood. I have often seen women and children wait for some time, then make a dash to the opposite side, to the great risk of their lives.
THE GREENWAY CROSSING.
Before I speak of its present condition I will describe it as I once knew it, ere the Canal Company cut their canal or the railway constructed their line. It was once the pleasantest walk about Taunton. You either walked through Quaker YOUNG's Nursery Gardens, then turned to the right over the stile into the field, or by way or Love or Chip-lane. On entering this field you had a nice dry and open path to the next stile. On getting over it and walking straight on brought you nearly to the front of Greenway House, then through the barton yard into Greenway-lane. Crossing it in a direct line brought you into two or three other fields, the paths of which either took you out into a lane leading to Staplegrove or out into a field with a path leading you down over an high gravelly bank a few hundred yards this side of Hope Corner House on the Kingston-road. The Canal Company first began to destroy this pleasant walk, but to do them justice they built a bridge over the canal so that pedestrians might walk over it. The canal did not interfere much with the path, but to make matters worse the new owner of the Greenway estate directed the path around a corner of the field, which was certainly a gain to himself, but not to the inhabitants of Taunton. The original path was cool and shady in summer, and somewhat sheltered in winter, as you had a high hedge and elm trees on the south-west. Now you have to walk in summer close to a heated bank and over a rough, uneven path, in winter very exposed to the winds and rain. This path is very bad and getting narrower every year, but the most disagreeable and dangerous part of this once nice walk is the “Greenway crossing,” which makes everybody cross to cross it.
MY EXPERIENCE AT “THE GREENWAY CROSSING.”
The Great Western Railway Company constructed their railway right across this path, without building a bridge for people to walk over or subway to walk under, which would have made it safe at all times. Now it is very dangerous, and is getting worse daily. The way leading to this crossing by Chip-lane is a disgrace to the town. After walking through such mud and filth as you will nowhere find again near Taunton, you arrive at the stile, and here you find it at times nearly impassable. If this lane was kept clean and in good order it would afford shade in summer, and shelter from winds and rain in winter. My experience at the Greenway crossing must be much like others, which is as follows:- On getting over the stile I pitch on a lot of slag and rough stones; then I arrive at pools of water too wide to jump over. In attempting to do so I jump into them, and if I try to skirt them I tear off my clothes. When I arrive at the end of the path at the gate I find a train right across the path, both ends of it out of sight, which stops my further progress. I then walk towards the tail of it, between the train and the boarding, and just as I arrive at the last carriage and about to cross I hear a whistle, clanking of coupling irons and see the train backing, which of course prevents me. I then walk towards the head of it, but by the time I get there the train goes ahead again. To stand still to see the result, after moving backwards and forwards for some time, it gets out of my way, which allows me to cross over that rail, but I am confronted with another goods train standing in the same provoking manner, and the game is played over again. I am by this time in the middle of the railway in the open space, being between the various six-foots, where my attention is kept alive by trains moving both before and behind me. When I see it pretty safe I make for the gate on the other side, where I am stopped by another train. I then know there are but two ways of crossing it, either to walk around it over rough stones, long grass, telegraph wires and signals, or through the train by climbing up, opening the door and getting down the other side. If I decide on doing it in that way, just as I am up and making for the opposite door I feel a sudden jerk, and am knocked off my legs, and my hat from my head. I once saw a lady standing waiting to cross. I advised her not to attempt it. After I had walked around the train I saw her creeping from beneath it, with her hat hanging on her shoulders, and her mantle torn. She may have been pressed for time, but if the train had moved she would have been injured or killed. Surely it is within the power of the Town Council to see to the lives of the people of the town. Both these crossings (Obridge and Greenway) are parish paths, and I cannot end these remarks better than in the words used in a leader in the Daily News a few weeks ago - “Parish footpaths and county road should be preserved and kept open.”
If further information is required about the other parts of North Town, also other parts of Taunton, as it was sixty years ago, they will find what they require in “The Recollections of Taunton by an old Tauntonian,” published by Messrs. BARNICOTT.
E. F. G.
Belvedere-road, Taunton.