Left on the coastal shelf

as OUR coastal towns decline as a result of a lack of investment from theresa May & Co (helpfully giving billions of our hardearned money to Brussels), so another newspaper took the opportunity to poke fun at the devon town of dawlish.

this is why I love the place . . . My father, a cable worker from Lydbrook, and my mother (formerly a maid in Paignton) took us on our annual holidays in the early 1950s from Lydbrook Junction to dawlish for the first two weeks of a usually rainsoaked august.

What excitement. a train from Lydbrook Junction to Monmouth troy via symonds Yat, Hadnock Halt and Monmouth May Hill along the Wye Valley and from Monmouth troy to Pontypool Road, thence by express to the glorious West Country.

We stayed with a friend (nellie), who had worked in service with my mother, in a council house in dawlish (a tight fit, but a great time).

seeing the trains coming round the coast with smoke billowing before entering the first of the five tunnels to teignmouth was an unforgettable sight. Usually the fair was in town, and my father (who was nearly deaf) loved the sights and sounds.

When we left, the tears came to my eyes as the train headed past the famous red cliffs back home to the glorious Forest of dean.

and I have yet to mention devonshire cream!

Of course, the tories destroyed much of our railway system in the 1960s — you could not make the above journey today. dr gErald morgan,

address supplied.