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This article from
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Walk this way
Natural variety is the spice of life on the track which links St Aubin and Corbiere
IN the United Kingdom, where the railway line closures begun in the 1960s by Dr Richard Beeching have left many miles of disused track, planners have come up with the concept of the 'linear park'.
Old railway lines, minus rails, sleepers, signal equipment and so on, have been converted into refuges for wildlife and places where people can walk, cycle or ride for mile upon uninterrupted mile.
As is so often the case, Jersey pioneered this idea. Our 'linear park' is the Railway Walk, the wide path which links St Aubin and Corbiere.
Of course, had it not been for the Jersey Railway and its ultimate demise, the walk would never have come into existence.
In September 1870 the first leg of that railway, between St Helier and St Aubin, was opened amid great celebration. The Jersey Eastern Railway, linking St Helier and Gorey, was also constructed in the 1870s, but it was not until 1884 that the line between St Aubin and Corbiere was completed and opened.
It took a further year to make through-traffic from St Helier to the far west possible because, strange as it may seem, the new line was a different gauge from the one linking St Aubin and town.
By the 1920s, private cars and public buses began to threaten the future of the railways. In 1936 the station at St Aubin suffered a serious fire, which also destroyed much of the rolling stock, and soon afterwards the Jersey Railway ceased operating.
During the Occupation the St Helier-Corbiere link was reopened by the Germans as a military railway, but it was closed finally after the end of the war in 1945. However, after the rails had been torn up, the old train route from St Aubin to Corbiere was retained for pedestrians and a programme of planting was begun at the sides of the track.
Islanders and visitors have long appreciated the tranquillity and safety of what became known as the Railway Walk. Those who make the gentle four-mile climb all the way from St Aubin to the western terminus above Corbiere are treated to conditions which change quite dramatically along the way.
From St Aubin to Pont Marquet the walkside flora is varied and often faintly exotic as the track makes its way through the deep valleys that the railway engineers were obliged to follow.
From Pont Marquet onwards much of the walk is bordered by conifers, although there are frequent glimpses of the Blanches Banques dunes, La Moye golf course, the sweep of St Ouen's Bay and the gorse-rich heathland on the approach to Corbiere.
As a bonus, lucky walkers also catch a glimpse of a red squirrel or two.
It takes less luck to spot La Table des Marthes, a giant slab of granite near the Corbiere end of the line which, it is said, was once used as a place for signing contracts.
Apart from the occasional cyclist flouting Railway Walk rules and a few road crossings, the whole stretch keeps walkers well away from traffic, noise and the bustle of modern life.
This article first appeared in the Jersey Evening Post as part of the Pride in Jersey series, marking the Island's 1204-2004 celebrations.
author - Rob Shipley
This article updated: 2004/01/08 12:15:46
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| ......Daily Ditons...... |
N’tcheurt pon mouothinne d’ite.
There’s no danger of the plague attacking such riff-raff.
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