Cheddar Valley Railway
The Cheddar Valley line was a railway line in Somerset, England, running between Yatton and Witham. It was opened in parts: the first section connecting Shepton Mallet to Witham, later extended to Wells, was built by the East Somerset Railway from 1858. Later the Bristol and Exeter Railway built their branch line from Yatton to Wells, but the two lines were prevented for a time from joining up. Eventually the gap was closed, and the line became a simple through line, operated by the Great Western Railway.
The line became known as The Strawberry Line because of the volume of locally-grown strawberries that it carried. It closed in 1963. Sections of the former trackbed have been opened as the Strawberry Line Trail, which runs from Yatton to Cheddar. The southern section operates as a heritage railway using the name East Somerset Railway.
Important inland market towns suddenly found themselves at a huge disadvantage when trunk railways connected competing communities, giving them cheap and fast transport of the necessities of life, and of their products. When the Great Western Railway (GWR) opened throughout between London and Bristol in 1841, the inhabitants of Wells and Shepton Mallet saw that a railway connection was important for them.
The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) obtained its authorising Act of Parliament on 30 June 1845, to build from the GWR main line near Chippenham, to Salisbury and to Weymouth, the latter part running through Frome, Witham and Castle Cary towards Yeovil. The WS&WR was soon taken over by the GWR; construction enabled the line as far as Frome to be opened on 7 October 1850, but the line towards Weymouth had a low priority, and the section between Frome and Yeovil did not open until 1 September 1856.
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