Remembering a unique railway – the Weston. Clevedon & Portishead.

We are the only group dedicated solely to this railway.

 

NEWS ARCHIVE         Back to current News …

2022:

• We held a very successful WC&P Railway Anniversary Exhibition on Sun 2 October 2022 in Portishead.

2021:

• December: North Somerset Council have begun construction of the new Greenway path along the old trackbed.  See North Somerset Council news item …
• We installed a new interpretation board in Weston-super-Mare on 6 August 2021 to replace the original installed in 2011.

2020:

• We installed a new interpretation board in Portishead on 23 June 2020 funded jointly with Portishead in Bloom and Gordano Civic Society.
• We were working with North Somerset Council on a reconstruction of Wick St Lawrence station as part of a new shared use path called the Greenway along the old trackbed.  (The replica station is not now going ahead)

2019:

• An exhibition on the WC&PR was open at Weston Museum from 7 Dec 2019 to 17 March 2020. This was a cooperation between the museum and this group.
• Our 11th guided tour of the WC&PR route by mini-bus took place very successfully on Sunday 20 October 2019.
• We have published a new book ‘The WC&P Railway - Then and Now’.
• We have two new greeting cards for sale in our on-line shop, one of Portishead station in winter.
• An enjoyable trip to the Llangollen and Foxfield Railways with boat trip over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct took place on 18/19 May 2019.
• We had a small display in Clevedon Library for the month of May 2019.

2018

• Our tenth guided tour of the WC&PR route by mini-bus took place on Sunday 14 October 2018.
• Our fifth Interpretation Board was unveiled on Fri 14 Sept 2018. Details …
• Our ninth guided tour of the WC&PR route by mini-bus took place on Sunday 27 May 2018.
• We had a very enjoyable Group weekend trip to the Nene Valley and Great central Railways on Sat 19/Sun 20 May 2018.
• Our big Anniversary Exhibition on Sunday 22 October 2017 was a huge success. We had 786 paying visitors plus about 30 under-6 children. Details …
• We are now on Facebook.

2017

• Our big Anniversary Exhibition on Sunday 22 October 2017 was a huge success. We had 786 paying visitors plus about 30 under-6 children. Details …
• We are now on Facebook.
• A new greeting card of Midsomer Norton has been added to our range. It is only available from us. New coloured maps of Weston and Clevedon added.
• We now sell unique WC&PR Tea Towels. Details …
• A successful weekend trip by members and guests to the Bodmin & Wenford Railway and the South Devon Railway took place on Sat 13 /Sun 14 May 2017.
• We have now added four fine art prints from Stuart Booth to our on-line shop.

2016

• To mark the 10th anniversary of our Group, we arranged a special showing of the classic 1953 film The Titfield Thunderbolt at the Curzon Cinema, Clevedon, which was shown on 20 October 2016.
• A very successful guided tour of the WC&PR route by mini-bus took place on Sunday 5 September 2016. This was our eighth one.
• A very enjoyable weekend trip by coach was had by members and guests to the Vale of Rheidol and Gwili Railways on Sat 21/Sun 22 May 2016.
• Prices of our current range of maps are now all reduced from RRP.

2015

• Our fourth Interpretation Board was unveiled on Weds 21 October 2015 in Worle at the former station site in Station Road. Details …
• A very successful weekend trip by coach was had by members and guests to the Bluebell and Kent & East Sussex Railways on 20/21 June 2015.
• Four lengths of original WC&P rail were removed with permission from land in Weston in Gordano in April 2015 and transferred to storage.
• We have completed a detailed physical survey of the WC&PR route from Ashcombe Road to the Blind Yeo on the outskirts of Clevedon (30 April 2015).
• We now have exclusive new polo shirts and an expanded range of greetings cards available in our on-line shop.

2014

• Our third Interpretation Board was installed in Clevedon on the wall of the Conservative Club on 11 June 2014. Details …
• A very successful guided tour of the WC&PR route by mini-bus took place on Sunday 19 October 2014.

2013

• We installed an Interpretation Board opposite the White Lion in Portishead on 29 October 2013. Details …
• A downloadable Catalogue of our complete range of items for sale has been added to our on-line Shop.
• We ran a 6th successful guided mini-bus tour of the Route of the WC&PR on 21 July 2013.
• A very enjoyable trip was made by members to the Gloucestershire-Warwickshire Railway on Sunday 16 June 2013.

2012

• We had an enjoyable Group visit to the Dean Forest Railway on 21 Oct 2012.
• Sixteen WC&PR concrete sleepers were donated to us.
• We ran a 5th successful guided mini-bus tour of the Route of the WC&PR on 29 July 2012.
• We bid successfully at auction on 14 Jan 2012 for a WC&PR cast iron plate which is quite a rare item.

2011

• We installed an Interpretation Board and other signage at the Ashcombe Road site which was unveiled on Fri 9 Dec 2011 by John Penrose, MP.

2010

• We ran a 4th successful guided mini-bus tour of the Route of the WC&PR on 22 Aug 2010.
• We published a unique new 16 page booklet (Aug 2010). (Now superseded by our new version.)
• A replica of Broadstone halt shelter constructed by David Butterfield was temporarily erected at its original location on 25 May 2010. It was moved to its permanent location at Oakham Treasures on Weds 24 June 2010. Our new DVD was featured on BBC Points West on 24 August 2009.
• We have completed an initial physical survey of the complete route from Weston as far as Portishead.

2009

• This website was launched in December 2009 as a spin-off from our main site on the WC&P Railway.
• We ran two very successful guided mini-bus tours of the Route of the WC&PR on 25 July and 16 August 2009.

2008

• We held our 2nd AGM on 20 Nov 2008. Our membership reached 90 for the first time.
• We had a stand at the “Archaeology in the Park” event at Weston-super-Mare on 13 July 2008. We were pleased to be invited to attend, and we emphasised the industrial archaeology aspects e.g. our route survey. We made some more useful contacts.

2007

• To mark the 110th Anniversary on 1 Dec 2007, members met at the site of the Weston-super-Mare Ashcombe Road station.
• We had our first AGM on 22 November 2007 with a guest speaker.
• On 10 November 2007, 12 members visited the River Yeo bridge and wharf which is on private land, by arrangement with the farmer, as part of our route survey.
• We have been contacted by a number of people to tell us of their memories of the railway, for which we are very grateful.
• We featured in the Bristol Evening Post on Sat 4 Aug 07 as a double page centre spread article, and also on page 2 of the Clevedon Mercury on Thurs 2 Aug.
• We have started doing audio recordings of people’s memories of the railway.
• We are doing a comprehensive physical survey of the route.
• We had our first public event with a stand at the Trams, Trains, Buses, Models and Memorabilia exhibition at Weston-super-Mare on Sat 21 April 07.

2006

• The inaugural meeting of the Group was held on 30 November 2006 in Clevedon.

The Group’s past attendance at shows and exhibitions is listed on the Shows Archive page.

For a list of speakers and talks at past Group meetings see Previous Talks page.

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