POSTCARD FROM SOMERSET

While taking a tranquil, traffic-free cycle ride through the countryside, Bob Barton discovers that the chocolate box south-western county wasn’t always so peaceful

-  Bob Barton

A "chocolate box" county. A vision of thatched cottages, hollyhock-filled gardens, cream teas served on gingham tablecloths and rolling hills containing nothing scarier than a loud tractor. That's how I used to think of Somerset. I wasn't expecting anti-tank fortifications, hefty barriers against an invading army, nor formidable gun emplacements. Until recently, when I took a leisurely cycle ride from Chard to Ilminster along the National Cycle Network's route 33.

It was once a GWR branch line, built alongside the long-forgotten Chard Canal. That is until Dr Beeching proposed the line's closure, which came in 1964. Now it offers a tranquil, traffic-free ride through the countryside. It wasn't always so peaceful. In World War Two it became part of the Taunton Stop Line, a 50-mile-long obstacle designed to stop Hitler's troops if they decided to invade England. Running from the Bristol Channel to Seaton on the east Devon coast, it had roadblocks and hundreds of pillboxes readied for Allied soldiers or the Home Guard.

The Stop Line Way (01935 829333, visitsouthsomerset.com), as it is called, is four miles long and starts near the old Chard Central station. I was surprised to find this fine railway building intact. Only the trains and track are missing, as it's now a factory shop. Plastic houseplants and soft furnishings are sold under the handsome train shed roof, from where steam trains once departed for Taunton.

I didn't get far along the trail before finding the first wartime defences. Heavy concrete blocks, designed to stop tanks in their tracks. Other blocks, in pairs either side of the track bed, had slots cut into them. These were designed to hold rails that would be put into position if invasion was imminent, completely barring the way.