After this period, "residual" Beeching closures took place: Bridport to Maiden Newton in 1975, [71] Alston to Haltwhistle in 1976, [72] and Woodside to Selsdon in 1983. [73] See also [ edit ] Marples was not a minister in the next Conservative Government, that of Edward Heath, 1970-4, and he retired at the 1974 general election. Later that year he became a life peer as Baron Marples of Wallesey. The report starts by quoting the brief provided by the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, from 1960: "First, the industry must be of a size and pattern suited to modern conditions and prospects. In particular, the railway system must be modelled to meet current needs, and the modernisation plan must be adapted to this new shape" [20] and with the premise that the railways should be run as a profitable business. [21] Upon returning to ICI, Beeching was appointed liaison director for the agricultural division and organisation and services director. He later rose to become deputy chairman from 1966 to 1968. In the 1965 Birthday Honours [17] it was announced that he would be made a life peer, and he was created Baron Beeching, of East Grinstead in the County of Sussex on 7 July 1965, [18] in the same year he became a director of Lloyds Bank.

The fall and rise of Britain's railways: Part 5". Rail UK. 2 October 2013 . Retrieved 20 December 2021. The closure of the Severn Valley Branch is often erroneously attributed to the "Beeching Cuts". Although its closure followed the publication of the first "Beeching Report", it was included in his Report as " under Consideration for Closure before the Formulation of the Report". More stations are reopening, some lost lines have services again and even this government is spending hundreds of millions on feasibility studies to revive the age of the train. Before 31 January 2020, pro-EU civil servants loomed large in the Tory consciousness. The likes of Ivan Rogers and the late Jeremy Heywood became folk villains for Brexiteers. Now, Conservative sights are trained on a man whose government career ended in 1965: Richard Beeching, the one-time chairman of British Railways.The old station approach in the village of Upton, Oxfordshire, is now a cul-de-sac called Beeching Close. [29] Dudley, G.; Richardson, J. J. (2000). Why Does Policy Change: Lessons from British Transport Policy 1945–1999. London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203645871. ISBN 978-0-415-16918-9. OCLC 44914294.

a b "British Transport Commission (Chairman)". Hansard. House of Commons. 21 March 1961. Vol. 637 cc. 223–343. Underpinning Beeching's proposals was his belief that there was too much duplication in the railway network: "The real choice is between an excessive and increasingly un-economic system, with a corresponding tendency for the railways as a whole to fall into disrepute and decay, or the selective development and intensive utilisation of a more limited trunk route system". [29] Of the 7,500 miles (12,100km) of trunk route, 3,700 miles (6,000km) involves a choice between two routes, 700 miles (1,100km) a choice of three, and over a further 700 miles (1,100km) a choice of four. [30] In Scotland, only the Central Belt routes and the lines via Fife and Perth to Aberdeen were selected for development, and none were selected in Wales, apart from the Great Western Main Line as far as Swansea. East West Rail link second phase plans submitted". BBC News. 27 July 2018 . Retrieved 22 October 2019. Early in 1975 he suddenly fled to Monte Carlo just before the end of the tax year, fearing that he would otherwise be liable for a substantial tax bill. He was eventually able to return to London in 1977 but continued to live in the south of France and died in Monte Carlo in 1978 [1].Hugh Miller Macmillan". Macmillan Memorial Lectures. Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018 . Retrieved 29 January 2019.

a b "Beeching Report Proposes Closing Nearly a Third of Britain's 7,000 Railway Stations". The Times. No.55661. 28 March 1963. p.8. Protests resulted in the saving of some stations and lines, but the majority were closed as planned. Beeching's name remains associated with the mass closure of railways and the loss of many local services in the period that followed. A few of these routes have since reopened. Some short sections have been preserved as heritage railways, while others have been incorporated into the National Cycle Network or used for road schemes. Others have since been built over, have reverted to farmland, or remain derelict with no plans for any reuse or redevelopment. Some, such as the bulk of the Midland Metro network around Birmingham and Wolverhampton, have since been incorporated into light rail lines.The top catholic exorcist Dom Robert Petit-Pierre claimed the exorcisms he had to perform at the Astors huge estate and Wards cottage, contained the most potent satanic entities he had ever come across, including the spirits of several murdered boys. See also: History of rail transport in Great Britain Banchory railway station on the Deeside Railway, Scotland, in 1961. The station closed in 1966. Clough, D. (2013). Dr Beeching's Remedy: A Cure for a Century of the Railway's Ills. Hersham: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-3542-3. OCLC 818450710.

Yet revisionists say Beeching is unfairly maligned. He did, after all, recommend that withdrawn rail services should be replaced by buses and warned of the upheaval to come. He noted that “changes of the magnitude of those proposed will inevitably give rise to many difficulties affecting railway staff, the travelling public, and industry”. Ian Hislop comments that history has been somewhat unkind to "Britain's most hated civil servant", by forgetting that Beeching proposed a much better bus service that ministers never delivered, and that in some ways he was used to do their "dirty work for them". Hislop describes him as "a technocrat [who] wasn't open to argument to romantic notions of rural England or the warp and weft of the train in our national identity. He didn't buy any of that. He went for a straightforward profit and loss approach and some claim we are still reeling from that today". [65] Beeching was unrepentant about his role in the closures: "I suppose I'll always be looked upon as the axe man, but it was surgery, not mad chopping". [66] They Shall Grow Not Old - Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (223a - Kenneth Beeching)". Irish Brigade . Retrieved 14 June 2021. For those whose stations fell to Beeching’s axe, the reality is bleaker. “I remember years ago listening to the Steve Wright show on Radio 1,” Eddie Fisher, a volunteer pushing for the reopening of the line at Fleetwood, told the Observer on 1 February. “A caller came on and Wright hadn’t heard of the town he came from, so he asked if it was a big place. And the way he defined ‘big’ was ‘does it have a train station?’ If you live in a place, these things matter.”

Contents

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-war-crimes-rewarded-un-handshakes Carscapes: The Motor Car, Architecture and Landscape in England’ by Kathryn Morrison and John Minnis. Published by Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, in association with English Heritage . Route Selection - East West Rail". Archived from the original on 28 July 2013 . Retrieved 17 March 2013. The authors were fortunate in being able to make good use of his diaries and other personal papers – over thirty boxes – at Churchill College, Cambridge. They also used other primary sources in the Post Office and National Archives. A final chapter covers Marples’ life from his poor relationship with McMillan’s successor, Ted Heath, until his death in 1978.