"Once steam gets in your blood it stays with you", John Leach.

When it turns up on time, travelling by train is wonderful way to explore Britain's countryside. There are now more heritage trains in Britain than in the whole of the rest of the world. In the first of two programmes that use the train to explore rural Britain, Helen Mark makes a magnificent journey up the Severn Valley.

She begins at Bewdley Station in rural Worcestershire. She meets lifelong railway enthusiast John Leach, who has agreed to accompany her on the arriving steam train that will wind its way north along the river Severn to Bridgnorth. The 16-mile line from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth has been lovingly restored by volunteers and is now commercially run by Severn Valley Railway.
Severn Valley Railway.

Helen's first chance to hop off the train is at Arley Station from where she takes the short stroll to the oldest privately run Arboretum in the country. Upper Arley Arboretum boasts some of the country’s most magnificent trees and Helen meets Michael Binyon, agent of the R D Turner Charitable Trust, which owns the estate in which the arboretum is found. Two trees in particular take Helen’s breath away: a layered beech that covers upwards of a third of an acre and the largest Crimean Pine in the British Isles.
Upper Arley Arboretum

Helen then takes a short ride up to the Country Park Halt, a station found in the centre of the remarkable and beautiful Severn Valley Country Park. Ranger Pete Casterton explains the park was built in the 1980s on the site of an old colliery. It’s a remarkable turnaround for what was little more than a gathering of slag heaps.
Severn Valley Country Park
Bridgnorth District Council

Hailing the train the old fashioned way with her arm, Helen takes the final leg of her train journey to Bridgnorth. This is where the vision to restore the Seven Valley railway was born and is one of the most beautifully presented stations in the country.

A ten minute walk from the station takes Helen to the beautifully located Daniels Mill, hidden beneath one of the Severn Valley Railway’s viaducts. Mill owner Allan George was one of the original members of the Severn Valley Railway restoration group, but has since turned his love and energy to the restoration of the mill, parts of which have stood on this site since the 15th century.
Daniels Mill