Judging from their very clear responses, Icklok and Spitfire will probably recognise the my fury at L and CR theft - and others like them. Not only is there irreparable physical damage done to a real local (and international) resource, but the context in which it is placed has gone for ever.
If we are to give whatever opportunity there may be of resurrecting the L and CR - certainly the remaining stretches of it 'off the moor' - as a walking route from Moorswater to the Caradon mines and quarries - every single remnant like the granite level crossing gates, granite milestones (some inscribed with the name of their location - I now daren't reveal where this is) needs urgent protection.
The theme of my presentation at Liskeard Museum on 29 April was the need to reinterpret the last years of the L and CR, those under GWR ownership, in the light of 'new' documentation and the [/i]physical[i] remains from that period. The reason, quite simply, is that the end for the 'Caradon branch' may not have come in 1917 as most writers seem to think. If the physical evidence is being stolen, we may not be able to rewrite these 'lost years'. Scoggan e-mailed me a picture he had taken a few days before my talk of a bonfire of GWR post and wire fencing that had survived along the Duchy woodlands at High Wood since 1909. The fencing was evidence of the GWR's huge £170 000 investment in the Caradon line in 1909. What will go next?
We can only wish Iain Rowe all the luck in the world for his new job as Caradon Heritage District Manager - and keep our eyes open for the
2 mileposts that have vanished from the High Wood stretch.
Sorry about the rant, all.