WHEN THE COTSWOLDS BECAME THE MENDIPS

Organising a three-day gala that not only coincided with The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee as well as a major pop festival at Cheltenham Racecourse was always going to be a challenge for the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.

However, the small team behind the June 3-5 Cotswold Festival of Steam pulled out all of the stops to deliver a spectacular show – the first major event of its type on the railway since 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Given the circumstances, to say nothing of the current economic constraints, cost of living rises, and coal cost and supply issues, the festival was considered to be an outstanding success, with more than 3000 passenger tickets sold – an outcome that significantly added to the railway’s Covid-19 recovery income.

Bold statement of return

The theme, Somerset & Dorset Remembered, was to be the Cotswold Festival of Steam event in May 2020, but when it should have taken place, the GW/R, like every other UK heritage railway, was silent with the nation in lockdown. However, if ever a railway needed a bold statement that it is back up and running, then this event was it. The festival saw nine locomotives in steam, not counting those on the Toddington Narrow Gauge Railway.

Both the Mendips and the Cotswolds