Epilogue

Highworth Bunk Line

Walking from Stratton to Highworth you'll pass
The remains of an old track grown over with grass
But as you go by now there's never a sign
Of the railway we knew as the Highworth Bunk line.

In the days before Beeching it was in its prime
Taking men to the Western where it joined the main line
At Stratton and Stanton and Hannington too
The men from the Western all had work to do.

When I was a small boy about eight or nine
I'd drive the goods train to the end of the line
The driver and fireman their lunch I would share
O when I went to Highworth it cost me no fare.

The trains on the Bunk line they never went fast
And through Stanton woods each one it did pass
At Hannington bend the whistle was shrill
The boiler was stoked up to climb Highworth hill.

But today there are no rails to shine in the sun,
No longer the whistle, no longer the men,
There's never a signal, there's never a sign,
And only the wind sounds on Highworth Bunk line.

- P. Saunders