Earl of Mount Edgcumbe on Capel's Mill viaduct

I have had this appointment in my diary for several months. I like steam trains and we are lucky that they travel through Stroud and along the famous Golden Valley regularly. However there have been fewer in recent times because of major engineering works on the line a few miles closer to Swindon, so I wanted to grab this opportunity.

I decided to forsake the close up views of the steam engine for a wider shot using the site of the recently opened section of the Thames and Severn canal just a few hundred yards to the east of Stroud town centre. It is here that the line starts its long and progressively steep climb up to Sapperton Bank and the engine will; have to start using the 'built up head of steam' to keep its speed up. The whole line was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the 1840s although the original wooden viaduct was replaced by this brick structure, probably when the line was reduced from Brunel's special broad gauge.

Capel's Mill viaduct allowed the railway to not only traverse the valley but at the same time it crossed the canal, which had been built a little earlier in 1790, as well as the River Frome ,which formed the valley in the first place. The line runs four miles up to Chalford, and then on to Sapperton, and all the way the lines criss-cross the valley to avoid mill buildings, and the similarly meandering canal, river and road.

Capel's Mill was pulled down a long time ago, and when the canal closed in the 1950s this part of it was filled in as a refuse site while the route of the canal under the viaduct was taken up by a new road by-pass. So when it was proposed to re-opent the canal a whole new two hundred yard section of its route had to be designed and built around the rubbish and under a different arch. I stood today on top of the dump in such a way that you can see the new canal at the bottom left of the picture and the new canal footpath was established on top of the stabilised dump.

The train was GWR Castle Class No 5043 – Earl of Mount Edgcumbe – and today it ran under the banner of the 'Cotswold Venturer'. It was exactly the type of engine that would have been used on this line, particularly for pulling the famous Cheltenham Flyer in the classic days of steam haulage on the railways.

After this brief sighting, Helena, who had joined me for this jaunt, and I walked further on into town because I had arranged to shoot another portrait for the book. As it happened I managed to film three portraits all within an hour and a half , as well as having a coffee and a bacon roll at the Farmer's Market. One of my subjects was G. who had started the Farmers Market with Clare about a dozen years ago, and it has been a phenomenal success for the town, winning awards as well as bringing a lot of people and their spending power to revitalise the wider economy as well as providing a lot of colour and fun.

Clare also started and runs the 'Made in Stroud' shop and she met me at midday just outside the market area. I took some photos of her for the book, but I also got her to pose for more pictures with her friend Mark. I was really pleased and they were such fun and willing subjects. I have posted a few pictures of Clare and Mark here on my Flickr gallery, which I would like you to see, as they are much more beautiful and fun pictures than this old steam engine. But I wanted the steam engine to have its place in my journal so I am sticking with it as my blip for the day.

An earlier visit of the same train, and closer up!