Banburyshire Rambles Photo-Journal

I pause in the embankment of the disused East-West Junction Railway, which once traced a route from Evesham, through Stratford, towards Towcester and Northampton – linking together the radial rail routes of London and Birmingham. Today, though, it’s a hive of activity as newly hatched songbirds sing for the attention of their parents.

I’ve come to this point because the railway embankment stands about a metre above the surrounding land, giving a good view across towards Lower Boddington. From here HS2 will be seen emerging from the escarpment at Aston le Walls, falling down across a viaduct to cross Highfurlong Brook, and then diving into the plain at the point shown in this scene as it continues towards Wormleighton.

To the right the embankment will be up to ten metres high, leading from where the track cuts twenty-five metres into the escarpment; to the left, as it passes the road into Boddington the cutting is three metres below the current ground level. At the point this scene, rather than the neat steep-sided embankment from which this scene is taken, HS2’s embankment will be around three hundred metres wide, and heaped up on either side of the track, in order to accommodate all the spoil from those excavations – obscuring the view to Boddington.