Last Friday, I too met Monika’s boy. As you will have read in Nick Forman’s article, ‘Something to celebrate’, his proper title is the Rev Dr Mark Betson, National Public Policy Advisor for the Church of England. He knows Winchelsea well, both professionally and personally, as his family live in Three Oaks, not far as the crow flies.
And then on Sunday, along with our friends and neighbours, Sergio and I gathered at Winchelsea train station. The occasion was to celebrate the new timetable, which now includes hourly trains from our little station and crucially Three Oaks, who have no other public transport.
At the centre of our group was John Spencer, who has spent many years fighting for this moment, a campaign that was launched 17 years ago, along with a Three Oaks resident. Also there was Michael Foster, our ex MP, who back in 2005 was the first to realise what the closure of these routes would mean and Roger Blake, who fights for all small communities up and down the country, at railfuture.org.uk
I’ve talked to you before about the extraordinary people who live in Winchelsea. In his previous life John was a surgeon. Not the flamboyant, performative kind, who needs to take centre stage; he is the exact opposite. John is measured, precise and thorough and these are the qualities that have sustained him over these years.
Magnanimous in deed and generous in gesture, he credits all the volunteers who help maintain the station and the children from the local schools, whose artwork decorates it, above himself.
And so we gathered, with the aim of riding to Three Oaks and having a drink at the pub, just because we could. John got his much deserved round of applause, as did Michael Foster. He was also given the beautiful gift of an original 1d Winchelsea train ticket.
I waved them off, on a packed platform and headed back into town. I was meeting James Stewart at the Pet Service, the culminating event of Winchelsea’s Celebrating Creation Festival, (see his piece, ‘All things bright and beautiful’).
And this is where these three stories collide: Nick’s, James’ and mine. As we sat in the churchyard last Sunday afternoon, eleven minutes up the tracks, on Three Oaks platform, who was waiting for John, but the very resident with whom he had started the campaign all those years ago…Monika Betson, Mark’s Mum.
What a small and sometimes wonderful world we live in!
Postscript: John and Monika’s campaign is not over, it’s just in abeyance. If we don’t continue to use our local stations, residents commuting, tourists visiting, cyclists using National Cycle Route 2 and walkers on the 1066 trail, the fight will have to start all over again.
Image Credits: Natasha Robinson .