Teddy Bear Crossing on the West Somerset Railway

Teddy Bear Crossing is located half a mile east of Williton, where a footpath between Torweston Farm and Sampford Mill Farm crosses the West Somerset Railway.  An assortment of teddy bears have been tied to a metal pole.  They have been there for some years and when I visited in February 2024 they were looking very bedraggled.   No one seems to know who started putting them there or when.  The selection of teddies has varied over the years and I understand that occasionally someone (West Somerset Railway staff or volunteers?) carries out a cull of the most worn out bears.  One of the current bears was put there in memory of steam enthusiast Ray Harvey, who died on 2nd April 2016.

Teddy Bear Crossing, February 2024

Teddy Bear Crossing, February 2024

Teddy Bear in memory of Ray Harvey

The Tragic Death of Amos Cann of Exford

On the afternoon of 9th March 1891, 24 year old Amos Cann, who lived on at Greenland Farm in Exford with his father Richard Cann, travelled down to Porlock to deliver 2 horses to a purchaser.  When he arrived in Porlock it was snowing, but rather than stay the night in there he decided to walk back to Exford.  He set off from Porlock at around 7.30pm.  He never arrived home.  Once they realised he was missing, local people went out searching for him but his frozen body wasn't found until 26th March, in a snowdrift a mile or so from his home.  His overcoat was found a quarter of a mile from his body.  He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene's Church in Exford.  It wasn't known whether he died on 9th or 10th of March, so his tombstone just says he died in March 1891.  

The epitaph on Amos's headstone is as follows:

"You that are young, behold and see                                                                                            How quickly death has conquered me.                                                                                           Its fatal stroke it was too strong.                                                                                                     It cut me off while I was young:                                                                                                      The God above He knows for why                                                                                               That in my youth I was to die."

Amos Cann's gravestone in Exford Churchyard