STRAWBERRY LINE TIMES – FEATURE: the Victorian guide to the Strawberry Line when Axbridge had 700 souls and you had to pay 4d in Cheddar for a ‘taxi’ to visit the Gorge and Caves (and Wells had two railway stations) What was it like to visit the Strawberry Line in 1899? Using an 1899 guidebook Rupert […]

HARRY MOTTRAM FREELANCE JOURNALIST: how a family business helped to save the Welsh language back in the 1960s and has built a thriving publishing firm today (in a business trend that is at odds compared to the declining print industry in England)

Harry Mottram reports The Welsh printing company Y Lolfa based in Tal-y-bont has expanded its machine range by bringing in a digital press to complement its litho offering. Established back in 1967 by Robat Gruffudd to help drive the revival of the Welsh language the firm has seen slow and steady growth in line with […]

STRAWBERRY LINE TIMES – FEATURE: how a national asset has been transformed from a railway to part of the National Cycle Network (but there’s still plenty more work to do to link it up to Wells and beyond)

The Strawberry Line has changed but there is still much more to do for it to reach its potential writes Harry Mottram. This article was written in 2015 Trains still run near the Strawberry Line – just. Despite the closure in the 1960s there are places where the sound of steel on steel can still […]

RAPSCALLION MAGAZINE – FEATURE: can a white man play the part of a black Aboriginal in a play? (Plus why Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play was not ‘for their country’s good’ for the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders as it led to death, apartheid and the stolen generation)

The original inhabitants of Australia were almost wiped out by disease, massacres and aguably genocide. Harry Mottram cast as the aborigine in a play reflects on their troubled history and modern attempts to right the wrongs of the past. Cast as the Aborigine in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s drama Our Country’s Good may seem ridiculous since I […]

STRAWBERRY LINE TIMES – PHOTO: when Mrs Young taught the children of Cheddar back in the day (but the question is – which day?)

Shirley Hudd supplied this photo to the Strawberry Line Times in 2012 – it shows some of the children in Cheddar First School back in the day. But which day? This class of fifty five look out at the camera smiling ins some cases, grimacing in others – but all with the warm glow of youth. […]

AXBRIDGE ROXY COMEDY: Video of Isaac Kean performing at the venue in November 2017

Axbridge Roxy Comedy: video of Isaac Kean at the pilot night in November 2017. Follow Isaac on Facebook. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCebxHHRnvQ The next comedy night is on Thursday 24th May 2018. More info at www.harrymottram.co.uk

STRAWBERRY LINE TIMES – FEATURE: Axbridge Square pictured in the 1970s before all the changes took place and an earlier photo of the Oakhouse Hotel (where you could buy petrol back in the day)

Axbridge Square has been the site of a Saxon fort or burh, essentially a fortified town with its own mint and garrison in pre-Norman Britain, and a car park in the 1970s. Images here of the town’s square reveal one of its less glorious moments when Vauxhalls, Fords and Bedford vans filled every spare inch. […]

COMEDY AT THE AXBRIDGE ROXY – VIDEO: the performance poet Ross Bryant filmed at the Roxy in January (the next comedy night is on Thursday 24th May so book your tickets now!) 

The poet Ross Bryant was filmed at the Axbridge Comedy Night in January 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFx3OYCPv9I To see the film visit Harry Mottram’s site on YouTube. Ross was hit during the evening with comeic poems about doors and insects amongst other subjects. For more about Ross visit https://rossbryantpoetry.wordpress.com And follow him on Twitter at @rossbryantpoet, Instagram and […]