Listen to the track:
On the fringes of Wembury Parish but still important was the Yealmpton branch line. This is a song about the old branch line from Plymouth out through Billacombe, Elburton Cross and Brixton Road to Steer Point, where some passengers continued by boat across the estuary. It recalls a time when rail and river travel joined into one journey: part work, part pleasure, part escape. The line carried quarry traffic, parcels and people, and though it has gone, its stations and the feeling of that journey still linger in memory. I was trying to get a Devon Chattanooga choo choo feel !!
Where the Line Met the Tide
Verse 1
From Plymouth out through Billacombe,
Past Elburton Cross we’d ride,
By Brixton Road the hedges thinned,
Toward Steer Point and the tide,
Stone and parcels, folk and bags,
Work and pleasure side by side,
A little branch with bigger dreams
That ran where rail met tide.
Chorus
Billacombe, Elburton, Brixton Road,
Steer Point waiting wide,
Out from Plymouth, smoke and steam,
Then onward by the tide,
Rail to river, town to creek,
Boat where rails ran dry,
A little journey, plain and true,
Beneath the South Hams sky.
Verse 2
Some went out for trade and work,
Some just for air and light,
And some took boat for Newton Ferrers
Where the water opened bright,
The buses came, the years moved on,
The old line slipped from sight,
But still those station names roll on
Like wheels into the night.
Chorus
Billacombe, Elburton, Brixton Road,
Steer Point waiting wide,
Out from Plymouth, smoke and steam,
Then onward by the tide,
Rail to river, town to creek,
Boat where rails ran dry,
A little journey, plain and true,
Beneath the South Hams sky.
Final Chorus
Billacombe, Elburton, Brixton Road,
Steer Point waiting wide,
Out from Plymouth, smoke and steam,
Then onward by the tide,
Rail to river, town to creek,
Boat where rails ran dry,
A little journey, plain and true,
Beneath the South Hams sky.
Beneath the South Hams sky.
Beneath the South Hams sky.
Beneath the South Hams sky.