An Old Bridge, The Flying Scotsman (video) and Hoglets.

You might be wondering what an old bridge, The Flying Scotsman and hoglets have in common. I'll explain.

The Bridge
We moved house now around two years ago.The house has a large garden and at the bottom of the garden there is an old stone bridge. It kind of hides away in plain view really.

The bridge used to be used by local farmers to get their tractors and trailers from one side of the railway to another. Although these days it's far too narrow for modern farm machinery to use.

The ramp at the other side has been removed completely so you couldnt use it even if you wanted to. We cut the grass and our two dogs have notice other users of the bridge. More on that later.

There are some lovely views of open country side from the top of the bridge.

The Flying Scotsman

Any Yorkshireman worth his salt will tell you straight away that the Scotsman was made in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England 1923. Its takes in famous name from a service that used to run from Scotland to England. My grandtfather used to tell me it was the first train to run on the late but never early line. That the LNER line to everyone else. Most famously is was the first steam locomotive to hit 100mph.

As part of its 100th birthday it did a tour of the country as a passenger train. We found out it was coming to our part of the country and when we checkd the route we discovered it would be going under the bridge at the bottom of our garden. We were quite shocked as usually only goods trains use the line.

After hours of waiting we were very lucky to get this footage of the train going under the bridge at the bottom of our garden.

Hoglets

So where do the Hoglets come into it? Well our two dogs were very quick to realise the hedgehogs and baby hoglets use the bridge in the summer to cross from the farmers fields at the rear to our garden and back again. We have no idea why.

They are most easy to find on the bridge as there is nowhere for them to hide. Weve put a gate to stop the dogs going on there. As soon as the hoglets are over the bridge its easy for them to find places to hide.

The image is low quality from a video I shot of the hoglet enjoying water and dog biscuits we'd put out. We dont feed the adults but we are told its good to help the babies.