Site Visit

Visiting a garden centre on a Sunday afternoon is a perfectly normal thing to do, but it just so happened that the garden centre my wife wanted to visit was about 3 miles from Thakeham. "Let me drop you off" I said, picking up a camera and a tape measure...

I wasn't expecting to see a great deal, but even pictures of the surroundings and the colouring of the walls would be useful, and I knew the bridge crossed a footpath. As it happened I got some good views. This one from the front gate of the site shows, in the distance, sand in the top of the hoppers that used to feed the trucks, but now a conveyor belt.

Round the back of the site this is the bridge over the footpath. The tipping shed was on the left, to the right the engine shed and hoppers. Above the bridge the conveyor is seen.

The striped beam in front supports - or at least protects - a pipe, and I believe is the site of an earlier bridge. I could get some measurements, and some useful photos of how the bridge is made. It is a simple structure, the 8" beams are at 3' centres. 

Climbing the embankment next to the bridge it was possible to see the top of the bridge, the tipping dock is too the left although it seems the shed has been re-built with the advent of the conveyor. 

I thought I could make out the engine shed in the opposite direction, but it could have been any other shed, and it didn't show in photographs. I couldn't see the hoppers, though I could see where they were. Clearly I didn't want to risk trespass, but nonetheless I was happy to get such a good feel of the site. 15 minutes well spent!

Click below for the full set of photos.

Thakeham Tiles Railway