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THIS TWO-PART ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN JANUARY & APRIL, 2008.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES (& TWO RAILWAYS):
          Two remarkable towns less than twenty miles apart in southwest Britain share little in common. The 1,000-year-old city of Bristol (pop. about 400,000) has been, variously, England’s great western seaport, one of its grimy industrial engines, and — since Nazi bombs ravaged the city during World War II — now something of a renaissance city of culture and learning, with a revitalized, gleaming inner harbor.
          Just over 10 air miles to the southeast lies the 2,000-year-old small city of Bath (pop. about 80,000) founded by Romans at what may have been a Celtic religious site. Romans built a temple here around its therapeutic spa waters. During Saxon times King Arthur (if there was a King Arthur)

Bristol city celebrates the 200th birthday of their adopted
favorite son, I. K. Brunel with fireworks over Brunel's
masterwork — the Clifton
Suspension Bridge.
Photo courtesy britainonview - Pawel Libera.

Bath — The Roman Baths
and Bath Abbey. The city
of Bath has been
designated a World
Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Credit: britainonview - David Angel.

may well have known the town. Certainly documented Saxon royalty, including Kings Offa, Alfred, and Edgar, knew the place well, as did the Normans — who built Bath Abbey — and the Tudors — King Henry VIII had Bath Priory torn down, but gave the magnificent Abbey a reprieve — and every royal household since. As much as any city in Britain, Bath is associated first to art, architecture and aristocracy.
          Bristol plays Chicago to Bath’s Charleston, SC, and like Chicago and Charleston, Bristol and Bath have at least one thing in common: railroads. Both cities have been important railway junction towns since the earliest days of railroading. Both are key stops on one of Britain’s busiest mainline (trunk) railway lines, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s double-tracked, 7+ foot wide Great Western Railway (GWR) which connected Bristol to London in 1841. The Bath to Bristol section of the Great Western follows the south bank of the meandering River Avon as it works its way among the convolution of hills toward its ultimate confluence with the Severn Estuary beyond Bristol. Because it was the first railway between the two cities, the Great Western took the

          Twenty-eight years later, on the scenic and hilly north side of the River Avon the last spike was hammered in place on a new railway spur connecting Bath with the Midland Railway’s Bristol and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) at Mangotsfield, approximately halfway between Bristol and Bath. The new ten miles of track (the Mangotsfield & Bath Branch Line—MB) made through passenger rail services possible to England’s south coast resort of Bournemouth from Bristol, Gloucester, Birmingham and points north. But, when the line opened in 1869, it also provided Bath to Bristol passenger trains serving villages and towns on the north side of the Avon. The line used the big Temple Meads Station in downtown Bristol, where it interchanged with the 

Although it hasn't seen a passenger
train since the late 1960s, Bath's
former Green Park Station remains
an elegant and useful landmark
on the west side of the city. Note the narrow bike lane marked with a
blue sign to the right of the station.

The restored Bitton Station on
the Avon Valley Railway.

          Nevertheless, the Midland Railway (MR) route from Bath to its junction with the B&GR at Mangotsfield operated for 100 years. In the late 1960s, the line closed, except for a short spur inside Bath city limits. Bristol and Bath grew, and suburban communities expanded outwards from both cities. In 1972 the tracks on the line were taken up. That same year a local group formed to reclaim the Bath-Bristol route for use as a possible commuter rail route and as a nostalgic steam tourist line on weekends, centered on the rural Bitton station 2/3 of the way to Bath. Before the end of the year, the tracks began to be put back in

place. By 1979 trains were again running on a portion of the MB, but not commuter trains. The line was reborn as the Avon Valley Railway (AVR), which runs nostalgic steam trains on an isolated section of the MB spur centered at Bitton station. Over 100,000 tourists come to ride the AVR annually (operations: March through December). Currently the AVR offers six-mile round-trips east (& downhill toward Bath) from Oldland Common station past Bitton station to a point just beyond the first (of six original) bridges across the Avon.

Family Cycle Outing ON Route 4 THE Bristol-Bath Railway Path.
Photo credit: Nick Turner Sustrans.

The Bristol-Bath Railway Path at Mangotsfield Junction. Route 4 runs
from Bath (left fork as shown) to
Bristol (straight ahead). A second
bike route diverges here (right
fork), following the abandoned
Bristol & Gloucester Railway
north into Gloucestershire.

extraordinary success, with heavy usage in at either end of the line within the cities and suburbs of it namesake cities. The middle section of the route is less heavily used, except around the AVR tourist railway at trains times and close to the towns of Staple Hill, Mangotsfield, and Warmley. The asphalt path is well maintained. Most of the time the route is 3 meters (about 10 feet) wide, wider than Brunel’s competing GWR, and wide enough to permit easy passing of pedestrians and other cycles. There are some bridges and crossings that are narrower, and one area where horses are also permitting on the path.
          The route attracts plenty of long-distance riders, as it is a key section of

National Route 4, the marked cycle path that runs east across Britain from St. David’s in southwestern Wales to London crosses through some of Britain’s most beautiful rural landscapes, and through some of its most congested conurbations. Since 1979 the Sustrans bike path system has grown to become the National Cycle Network: 10,000+ miles of pathways marked, mapped, and maintained for cyclists, walkers, commuters, school children, and most anybody who likes the out-of-doors. There are bike routes almost everywhere in Britain and Northern Ireland.

CLICK TO SEE MAP OF
BRISTOL–BATH RAILWAY PATH

We ride the path in Part Two.
FOR MORE EASY CYCLING IN WESTERN ENGLAND, SEE:
THE KENNET & AVON CANAL
CYCLING COUNTRY LANES FROM GLOUCESTER TO BRISTOL.
 

Bristol and Bath are easily reached as a day trip from
HOME AT FIRST’S lodgings throughout THE COTSWOLDS and in LONDON.