November 2019 – Harry Mottram

Wed. Nov 27th, 2024

The age of the train is returning – the tickets today are highly expensive but new lines and stations are planned – will the original branch lines closed by Beeching reopen?

Nov 30, 2019 harrymottram

Infrastructure required Back in 2015 Harry Mottram mused the possible return of a new age of the train. Michael Portillo…

STRAWBERRY LINE TIMES THEATRE REVIEW: Funny and feisty, this production of David Hare’s Skylight unpacks universal themes of love, betrayal and death with style and pace (spaghetti included) in a grungy London flat

Nov 30, 2019 harrymottram

Theatre review: Skylight. Axbridge Town Hall Super Mario, UB40 and the good old Yellow Pages. Yes, we’re transported back in…

Strawberry Line Times to restart in 2020 as an online publication

Nov 28, 2019 harrymottram

The magazine Strawberry Line Times was published covering the area of the former railway line between Yatton and Wells as…

STRAWBERRY LINE TIMES – FEATURE: memories of the Big Freeze in the winter of 1962/63 and when steam trains connected Wells and Banwell (and when naughty school boys could lark about in the compartment carriages)

Nov 28, 2019 harrymottram

Latest feature: An article by Harry Mottram in the Strawberry Line Times magazine four years ago about the winter of…

STRAWBERRY LINE TIMES – FEATURE: building Cheddar reservoir in the 1930s with man power, steam engines and horses and carts (and there was no opening ceremony)

Nov 27, 2019 harrymottram

Harry Mottram on the history behind the building of Cheddar reservoir – which he claims to be in the shape…

STRAWBERRY LINE TIMES – FEATURE: how a national asset has been transformed from a railway to part of the National Cycle Network (but there’s still plenty more work to do to link it up to Wells and beyond)

Nov 25, 2019 harrymottram

The section between Cheddar and Axbridge makes for a nice walk The Strawberry Line has changed but there is still…

RAPSCALLION MAGAZINE – film review: George Michael inspired song about last Christmas is the nation’s number one hit movie – but is slammed by critics – here’s what we think

Nov 23, 2019 harrymottram

Up until the last minute plot twist Last Christmas is an upbeat feel-good Christmas Rom-Com. It’s got Christmas trees, Christmas…

AXBRIDGE REVIEW: get ready for a spaghetti supper, family recriminations and a lost love affair in the play that made Bill Nighy famous (and it’s all in aid of the Axbridge Pageant 2020)

Nov 22, 2019 harrymottram

Axbridge Community Theatre are staging David Hare’s Laurence Olivier Award winning play Skylight in the town hall from Weds-Sat 27-30…

STRAWBERRY LINE TIMES – FEATURE: when you could earn six shillings a week on the railway, blackberries were loaded by the barrel in Cheddar and everyone looked slim, fit and healthy (but there were chocolate machines at Cheddar Railway Station)

Nov 22, 2019 harrymottram

This article appeared in the Strawberry Line Times Magazine in 2013 following a meeting with Shirley Hudd of Cheddar who…

HARRY MOTTRAM FREELANCE FEATURES: Now the High Street’s suppliers are being hit as DCI-Artform say they could ‘exit’ the business as sales dry up

Nov 22, 2019 harrymottram

Loughborough’s retail specialist DCI-Artform is in crisis with the threat of closure in the New Year. The firm’s boss David…

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