John Kirkpatrick 2006
In celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The GWR company was created in 1833 with Brunel as its engineer, and construction was completed in 1886.
Alex Cumming: Alex Cumming – Bright String of Pearls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiC8UjM_x8o
Your Majesty, I present to you a gift that’s rare and fine In all the Tower of London no brighter jewel could shine A string of pearls laid out for you, it’s fitting for a Queen And threaded along a railway line, and polished in the steam Chorus: Oh a Bright String of Pearls laid out across the country From the capital down to Cornwall, from the city to the shore The finest towns are newly crowned with even greater glory For the Great Western Railway joins them up for evermore. From Paddington down to Bristol it’s as smooth as a bowling green With bridges and tunnels and viaducts, the sweetest ever seen Through Slough and Reading and Didcot, rolling on to Swindon Town That’s where we built our railway works, the jewel in our crown We’ve branches go up to Oxford and to Gloucester and to Wales And right across to Fishguard where the Irish ferry sails Down through Frome and on to Yeovil, and to Weymouth, and to Chard How all these places prosper now they have a railway yard! Chippenham next, and onwards, there’s a test for an engineer! With arches and embankments, riding high for two miles clear And Box the largest tunnel for trains, it’s nearly two miles long And to enter Bath in the finest style, we moved the canal along There’s eleven short miles to run from Bath to Bristol Temple Meads Two viaducts, seven tunnels, and five bridges is all it needs! From there we’ll fly to Taunton, down to Exeter and the sea And along the coast to Dawlish, and in Plymouth then we’ll be You rattle across the Royal Albert Bridge and Cornwall comes in view Through Truro down to old Penzance, and so our journey’s through So there we are, Your Majesty, you darlingest of girls Laid out across the counties is your bright string of pearls