A look back at some of Somerset's old stations
One of the most popular form of nostalgia books is the then-and-now style where old photographs appear alongside their modern day equivalents.
One of the latest in this style has been compiled by Mike Oakley whose book Somerset Stations, Then and Now has just been published.
The book contains plenty of photographs of Bath's stations as well as towns and villages round about including Farrington Gurney, Freshford, Kelston, Keynsham, Midford, Monkton Combe, Oldfield Park, Weston village, Twerton and Wellow.
This is Mike's second book about Somerset stations and halts but it breaks new ground in that it is probably the first to match old photographs of stations with modern day photographs taken from the same spot, wherever that is possible.
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Mike writes that the South West has a rich railway history and that its stations and halts exhibit a wide variety of styles and building materials reflecting, in many cases, designs adopted by the railway companies that built the line.
Often a focal point for the town or village community, many were constructed of local materials making the buildings including ticket offices and waiting rooms, goods sheds, signal boxes and station master's houses of considerable architectural merit.
Unfortunately, many of these buildings have been demolished like the ones at Kelston with a few others lie derelict. However, others remain still in railway use or have been renovated for use as houses, offices and warehouses.
In other cases the former sites of the stations and goods yards have been developed for new uses in particular housing, industrial estates and supermarkets.
At one time, says Mike, Somerset was served by some 180 stations and halts. Today only 19 stations remain open on the county's main railway network.
In some cases the stations have changed very little since its opening. In others there are marked differences.
Somerset Stations: Then and Now by Mike Oakley is published by the Dovecote Press Ltd at £14.95.
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