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Sir John Betjeman

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crewmeal

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Lets not forget the 30th anniversary of this great poet's death by celebrating his love for the railways.

This article taken from 'The telegraph' just demonstrates his true love for the railway.

John Betjeman’s boyhood summers began aboard the Atlantic Coast Express from Waterloo to Padstow. He wrote that the final stretch along the Camel Estuary was the most beautiful train journey he knew, and, at the end of the line, a different world awaited: one of “oil-lit farms” and “golden unpeopled bays”, of shipwrecks and haunted woods, all of which he explored while holidaying at his father’s property in the village of Trebetherick. As an adult he continued to make annual pilgrimages to the area, capturing its melancholy and majesty in numerous poems, essays and the 1964 television series One Man’s County.

The whole article can be found here:

 
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yorksrob

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I often follow in Sir John's footsteps by going on holiday by the London & South Western Railway (at least as far as Exeter :D).

A great poet and a champion of the railway (and he also made some very interesting and enjoyable programmes).
 

w0033944

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yorksrob

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w0033944

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Highbridge Wharfe,
Your Hopes Have Died,
They Flow Like Driftwood,
On The Tide,
Out, Out Into The Open Sea,
Oh Sad, Forgotten S&D......

Just goes to show that great poetry need not be impenetrable. As for the S&D, I always rate it, the M&GN and the Waverley Route as the 3 greatest mid-20th century losses.
 

yorksrob

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Just goes to show that great poetry need not be impenetrable. As for the S&D, I always rate it, the M&GN and the Waverley Route as the 3 greatest mid-20th century losses.

Indeed. I certainly think the main line would be well used today had it survived.
 

Ash Bridge

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I often follow in Sir John's footsteps by going on holiday by the London & South Western Railway (at least as far as Exeter :D).

A great poet and a champion of the railway (and he also made some very interesting and enjoyable programmes).

Iam sure Sir John Betjeman must be smiling when he looks down from above at Okehamptons wonderfully restored station. Iam sure in his last years that even he could not have envisaged that happening.
 

yorksrob

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Iam sure Sir John Betjeman must be smiling when he looks down from above at Okehamptons wonderfully restored station. Iam sure in his last years that even he could not have envisaged that happening.

Indeed. He'd probably be smiling even more if we managed to get train services running through to Plymouth again !
 

t o m

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One of my favourite quotes from Betjeman.

"People's backyards are much more interesting than their front gardens, and houses that back on to railways are public benefactors."
 

khib70

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Don't think he was a "great poet". A lot of his work veers towards twee and over sentimental. However, he was a great friend and chronicler of the railway, and an often isolated voice speaking out against the disastrous planning decisions of the sixties and seventies.

His best poetry takes devastating satirical swipes at the above, and the hypocrisy and complancency of the middle classes. In particular, his poem "In Westminster Abbey" , though set in WW2, is a devastating deconstruction of the Daily Mail/UKIP mindset.

http://allpoetry.com/poem/8493441-In-Westminster-Abbey-by-Sir-John-Betjeman

And his television programmes, especially "Metroland" are absolute classics of their genre.
 

Ash Bridge

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"The emptying train wind in the ventilators, Puffs out of Egloskerry to Tresmeer Through minty meadows, under bearded trees And hills upon whose sides the clinging farms Hold Bible Christians. Can it really be that this same carriage came from Waterloo?" This is quoted from Betjeman's Summoned By Bells, describing part of the journey on the Atlantic Coast Express from Waterloo to Wadebridge/Padstow. If Beeching had not closed the North Cornwall Line would this train today be operated by a Class 159 DMU?
 

Taunton

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John Betjeman’s boyhood summers began aboard the Atlantic Coast Express from Waterloo to Padstow
Slightly inaccurate. Sir John was born in 1906. The morning train from Waterloo to points in the West Country did not get named the ACE until 1926.
 

Carlisle

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I often follow in Sir John's footsteps by going on holiday by the London & South Western Railway (at least as far as Exeter :D).

A great poet and a champion of the railway (and he also made some very interesting and enjoyable programmes).

Yes well said ,a man well ahead of his time in lobbying for rail long long before all those tree huggers jumped on the bandwagon :D
 
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ian1944

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One of my favourite quotes from Betjeman.

"People's backyards are much more interesting than their front gardens, and houses that back on to railways are public benefactors."

Indeed - I've had fascinating insights into peoples' lives through their back windows, from a passing train when they weren't expecting one (or perhaps didn't care).
 

SemaphoreSam

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There was a whole movie made of this subject in the mid-50's, Stewart and Kelly, "Rear Window". Very well done, I think Sir John B. would agree, although trackage and trains were not involved. Sam
 

ChiefPlanner

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"Rumbling under blackened girders - Midland, bound for Cricklewood.
Puffed its sulpher to the sunset, where that land of laundries stood"

Sheer genius- Willesden was laundry central then !
 

LateThanNever

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Don't think he was a "great poet". A lot of his work veers towards twee and over sentimental. However, he was a great friend and chronicler of the railway, and an often isolated voice speaking out against the disastrous planning decisions of the sixties and seventies.

His best poetry takes devastating satirical swipes at the above, and the hypocrisy and complancency of the middle classes. In particular, his poem "In Westminster Abbey" , though set in WW2, is a devastating deconstruction of the Daily Mail/UKIP mindset.

http://allpoetry.com/poem/8493441-In-Westminster-Abbey-by-Sir-John-Betjeman

And his television programmes, especially "Metroland" are absolute classics of their genre.

A great link, thank you. I also find that this archetypal Brit was in fact Betjemann - and of German origin! Well aren't we all I suppose... But still personally think it is lovely poetry...
 

Taunton

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One of the subtle attractions, to us lot here, of Betjeman's poetry, is the beat that he incorporated in much of his poetry, the simplistic Da-Da Da-Da, Da-Da Da-Da that is there. t's almost like he took the inspiration from the beat of 2-cylinder steam locomotives pulling slowly that he regularly worked into his subjects.

I once drew this to the attention of my English master at school when a couple of his works came up there. He just said Oh Yes. A week later he told me he had been thinking about this, and I was right. Read any of his work through with this in mind and you will understand it.
 
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