Welcome back my lovely people!
Today I want to tell you about the glorious day I have at the Watercress Line event #warontheline which I attended on Father’s Day – obvs I took me Mam and Dad with me!
The Watercress Line is the marketing name for Mid Hants Railway – a heritage railway in Hampshire running 10 miles from Alton to Alresford. It earned the name the ‘Watercress Line’ as back in the day it was used to transport local Watercress up to the London markets.
Honestly it was just a beautiful event from start to finish, so authentic and timely in every sense. The effort people went to to dress up was out of this world, in the world we live in today it was so nice to take a step away and see so many people unite about a topic they loved.
We took a tour around Ropley station first, which is where most of the action was happening. Before the beautiful ladies above took to the stage, we had a lovely inspirational talk from Winston Churchill. There were plenty of people dancing along to the tunes these ladies were belting out, with copious people dancing in front of them.
Ropley is such a wonderful countryside village, the views from the bridge were absolutely stunning.
From Ropley we took the train down to Alresford to continue the celebration!
To be honest I could say exactly the same about Alresford as I did Ropley, such a cute little village. There are an abundance of wonderful independent cafes, coffee shops, clothes shops, food markets etc – the ideal day out. At Alresford Station they also had singers, food and a room full of artifacts from the war.
I started speaking to a chap who collected various German ‘bits and bobs’ from the war, that he would keep to do shows such as #warontheline or he would put them on his website to either sell or let people searching their family history find it. For example in the image above you will see a young girls identity card which he bought over from Germany – eerily she would be the same age now as my Grandma. He pops items like this on his website for families who may be researching their family history to find.
I was quite interested in simply going on the train on the Watercress Line! Living in Alton I have always seen the Watercress Line but never been on it, so I was quite looking forward to it. I will say it was strange getting on the train to actual chairs and tables, that you could move! The slightly wonky steps up and down from the train weren’t the best – especially as my Mum & Dad are not getting any younger! Had to give them a little help down. It was definitely no South Western Railway train, but I can 100% see the evolution of trains over the years and just how important they were then as they are now.
Thank you to @sotonbloggers and the Watercress Line for having me!
Fran, X
ApageofMe 