February 27 25
SEATON TRAMWAY
Blog by Lynne Pearl
It was half term so what did we do? We went on the Seaton Tramway. Deep into East Devon you can find Seaton, it has a splendid long beach that goes on forever and in fact was a risk for invasion many years ago. The remains of fortifications are found all around the cliff and there are explanatory boards available detailing the history of Seaton and its’ sea defences. It is however, a pebble beach so if you wanted to run for miles on sandy beaches this will not suffice but there are advantages to having a pebble beach, it gives the sea a completely different character. It shelves off sharply so only serious swimmers use this beach. But it is surrounded by beautiful white cliff at one end and far sway in the distance is the red Jurassic cliff that is warm and inviting.
The pebbles on the beach allow the sea to make a wonderful sighing and rustling sound again and again. It’s sound that could lull you to sleep but it’s too invigorating to do that. It is a music of its own, of the pebbles rattling against one another, the sea drawing in and breathing out again and pushing always pushing and then pulling and that rhythm on and on with the pebbles knocking eternally against one another.
At the far end of the pebble beach is the mouth of the river Ax and right there is the Axmouth Yacht Club. But something strange has happened to the mouth of this river. It does not just flow gently into the sea as its neighbour just further down the coast at Sidmouth does this one has had great changes occurring over time but starting with a storm one frightful night in the 18th century, when the once open mouth of the river was overnight shut. A row of shingle formed at the mouth of the river and shut the viable busy port up river at Colyton forever.
It also created a marsh area that is the home and sanctuary of many birds these days where once proud ships could sail far inland and have their cargo unloaded. This is nothing more than a memory today in the February winds as we look across the marsh to the shelving hill the other side of the river that is now a wide open marsh.
With this back drop we all boarded the Tram at Seaton Tramway. Some of the trams are original ones from the 1920s and some are a little newer. The trams run on the line that used to be served by British rail until 1960s when the line that went all the way from Axminster to the sea at Seaton was closed. In its day it had served the farmers who produced milk in the region and shipped the fresh produce in milk churns to the people in the cities far away. There was also a cottage industry producing fine leather for factories.
The ride on the tram to Colyton takes about 25 minutes. It is a slow vehicle, stopping at passing points when other trams are travelling down to the tram station. It is powered by electricity that it obtains from an overhead cable just like the trams that used to run in the big cities both here and in North America.
The tram stops at Wetlands Halt where you might see a heron fishing, tall and grey. Gulls rest on the estuary by day but spend the night out on the sea where they are safe from predators. There are beautiful marshlands and reed beds.
The tram stops at the final halt at Colyton Station. Here we all disembark from our old- fashioned mode of transport and go and drink tea and eat cake or scones in what was the station but is now a café for all passengers on the Seaton Tramway.
It’s a trip down memory lane on a mode of transport that was taken out of use more than fifty years ago. But the views and the wind are spectacular and it travels so slowly you can watch the birds carefully from the top deck of the tram.
Read poems by me about the South West in ‘Road Trip River Voices’ journeying from North America to Europe and back again. Available as e book on Amazon book store at:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7796332.Lynne_Pearl