Clavering Hundreds Loop
| Berden | Hazel End | Clavering |
History
-
the
imaginary ten mile long loop would start from a London facing junction north of
Bishop Stortford follow the upper reaches of the River Stort with stations at
Hazel End (for the village of Farnham, the name is used to avoid confusion),
Manuden, Berden (Little
London),
and Clavering. It then uses the valley of the Wicken Water to reach a Cambridge
facing junction north of Newport. Population peaked in 1851 (3,000) and declined
there after by 1901 to
2,215. Hopefully a loop would stabilise the population at about 2,500.
The economy is arable (peas, beans, wheat, potatoes, sugar beet, and barley)
farming with watercress beds and mills.
There
might have been outbound mineral traffic as there were three pits in the valley
working the underlying
chalk,
a "lime quarry" near Hazel End and deep stretch of
clean sand
south of Little London near Berden. A strong dose of modellers licence has been
applied. I've assumed mineral traffic kept the loop open and the passenger
service was rationalised with bus stop shelters and a railbus then a class 121
bubble car. The layouts are set in the late 1990s with passenger service
operated by
Anglia Railways using a bubble car and goods by various rail freight operators.
Manuden
agricultural