Last train to Buntingford
N7 tank locomotive taking on water from the tower behind the signal box at Buntingford Station, September 1958.
© Michael Covey-Crump
a poem
By Steve Glason (added by Chris Scott-Hake)
"My poem 'Last train to Buntingford' was a recent entry to the Ware Poetry Competition.
I have fond memories of travelling on this long vanished railway branch line - an autumn journey with my mother in 1961 and a journey with my toddler brother in the summer of 1964. Alas the line closed for passengers in November 1964.
I also have memories of attending St Edmunds College near Puckeridge from 1965-1970 and cross country running along the lanes near Levens Green and Dane End."
LAST TRAIN TO BUNTINGFORD
Come citizens who live in Ware
Fond memories I'd like to share
A sleepy branch line - here no more
Beeching closure - by the score.
Stanstead Abbotts - caught the train
Up, up to Mardock - and again
Through Hadham, Standon - lovely ride
True Arcady on either side.
Track bed succumbed to grassy seed
Braughing full of rampart weed
Puckeridge - cars slowing down
Bypass relief - this little town.
Peaceful lanes around Westmill
And rural idylls - canvas fill
Nature paintings spring to mind
Vanished station hard to find.
Our journey's end is Buntingford
The very place now strikes a chord
Delightful name - to me at least
Impossible from Hertford East.