Given a station just out of the town/village, it can be rewarding to look for the pavement alongside the road that eased access to it - something that holds good even for long-vanished stations. That's something from which Chetnole doesn't benefit, mind - and even the village's 30 mph limit ends at the village boundary.
At Chetnole, you walk us the steps and though a gate direct onto the main carriageway a few yards from the blind bridge brow of the lane over the railway. Not ideal, and as I walked during the day I found that cars are far quieter ( to me at least ) than they used to be - a combination, perhaps, of engineering, electrics, and my own more limited hearing. BUT - care taken knowing these limitations and it's OK.
That was the site of Cattistock Halt, opposite is Cattistock Cricket Club where I spent many hours trying to play that game.
It looked to me as if that cricket pitch was sloping ... not a test match wicket?
If open the Fox and Hounds at Cattistock would have been the better choice. The Chalk and Cheese used to be called the Brewery Inn. One of three pubs open when I moved there in 1976, the others were the White Horse and the Castle. The latter had a terrace on to the river.
Not knowing the walk / paths, I stopped briefly at the Post Office and store in Cattistock for a can of coke which I drank in the bus shelter, secure in the knowledge that I was not depriving anyone who was waiting for the bus of a seat. And the proceeded to Maiden Newton so that opportunities to get lost, explore, etc were not lot in the need to catch the next train.
The only bus now is the school bus to Beaminster School. There was a regular run years ago running Dorchester, Maiden Newton to Evershot and Yeovil but that stopped some years ago.
I explored the option of walking the route in two halves, picking up a bus / dropping off from a bus on the A37. But there isn't one. Ironically, a coach full of what looked like work people rushed by as I crossed that road. It truly is a public transport desert!
Holywell or Evershot Tunnel was built at the behest of the land owner, Lord Ilchester. The WSWR would have preferred a cutting. Plans at Dorchester Record Office show that the north entrance of Evershot Tunnel needed the cuttings deepened and extended before opening of the line. The road over the tunnel at this point had to be diverted.
Like other Dorset rivers, the Frome has parallel roads on either side - the winter and summer ways. These form a circular walk to Evershot or to Rampisham.
Fascinating - although I ended up tired at the end of the day, I really saw and learned a lot and the filling in information from members does so much to add to the picture. I may well look to walk from Maiden Newton onwards to Bridport later this summer. The walk to Dorchester more dubious - looks like a long way and perhaps mostly a road walk?
Click on the map to explore geographics
