Banburyshire Rambles Photo-Journal

Paul Mobbs’ photographic record of his walks around ‘Banburyshire’ and ‘The Irondowns’, and occasionally, as part of his work around Britain, the areas beyond.


‘Last Chance (HS)To See’ – Scene 12:

‘Radstone Hamlet, North’

A view from the old byway to Halse and Stuchbury

11th May 2018


Crossing the countryside from the northwest, from either Halse or Greatworth and Stutchbury, the old byways bring you to Radstone. With the arrival of HS2 this level approach into the the hamlet along the ridgeline will be fundamentally transformed.

Radstone, a Doomsday Book hamlet, is about to be transformed to an extent not seen since land inclosure a few centuries ago. HS2 will past to the southwest with a cutting large enough to swallow the area of the hamlet itself – six metres below the current ground level at its deepest point.

Walk through the hamlet and you come to a black-painted steel overbridge. This is the route of the former Great Central Railway, which travels roughly the same route across England – and is still largely intact. This exemplifies the differing level of environmental impacts from the HS2 engineering project, and one of its principal and far cheaper alternatives, reinstating the former Great Central route corridor.