English: Halstead: Trackbed of the former Colne Valley Railway The Colne Valley Railway opened as far as Halstead in 1860 with the extension along here to Sible and Castle Hedingham following a year later. In 1961, exactly 100 years after the line opened, closure of the line to passenger traffic took place. Freight traffic lingered for another four years before the line closed entirely with the track being lifted in 1966. From a mapping point of view the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 scale shows three parallel dashed lines along here, the centre black one representing this non-accessible route of the old railway with two red lines representing footpaths running alongside it on the far sides of the hedges seen here.