Eynsham railway station

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Coordinates: 51°46′35″N 1°22′43″W / 51.77644°N 1.37874°W / 51.77644; -1.37874
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Eynsham
Eynsham Station in 1972 after closure
General information
LocationEynsham, West Oxfordshire
England
Coordinates51°46′35″N 1°22′43″W / 51.77644°N 1.37874°W / 51.77644; -1.37874
Grid referenceSP430088
Platforms2
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyWitney Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Western Railway
Post-groupingGreat Western Railway
Key dates
14 November 1861 (1861-11-14)Opened
May 1944Passing loop and second platform built
18 June 1962Closed to passengers
26 April 1965Closed to goods
2 November 1970Line closed

Eynsham railway station served the Oxfordshire town of Eynsham and the Eynsham Sugar Beet Factory on the Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway between Oxford and Witney.

History[edit]

The Witney Railway, including Eynsham station, opened on 14 November 1861.[1][2][3] It was originally a single platform station, but was the Witney Railway's principal intermediate station.[4][5] The contractor who built the line, Malachi Bartlett, erected single-storey wooden station building in the same style as that at the line's other stations at South Leigh and Witney.[6] It was weather-boarded and had a Welsh slate hip roof with a shallow pitch and broad eaves.[6] In 1892 the Great Western Railway added a signal box next to the station building, very similar to that at Fairford.[4][5][6] A large Cotswold stone goods shed stood at the Fairford end of the platform, a few yards from the signal box.[4][7]

The station had a goods yard that handled significant goods traffic. It had two sidings (later three) and a 11⁄2-ton crane. The largest traffic was coal, for which the third siding was added in 1878 north of the goods shed.[6] In its heyday in the 1920s, Eynsham station was handling up to 12,000 tons of freight a year, while passenger bookings averaged 14,000 annually over the same period.[4] There was a large sugar beet factory 40 chains (800 m) east of the station that had three sidings. It opened in 1927 but was not successful and closed in 1931.[8] In the Second World War the factory became a Royal Army Service Corps depot. Afterwards it became a storage depot for the Colonial Development Corporation, then the premises of J. Harding (Eynsham) and finally a depot for British Leyland.[5][9][10]

In May 1944 a 22-chain (440 m) passing loop and second platform and platform were added to the station, increasing capacity on the single-track line for troop and armaments movements in preparation for the Normandy landings. The loop and platform were on the Down side, and the original became the Up platform.[4][5][11] The station also handled agricultural traffic and wagonloads of bones for the local glue factory.[4] At the Oxford end of the station was a level crossing where the line crossed the Stanton Harcourt road.[4]

Armed robbery[edit]

In the early hours of Monday 5 December 1927 two armed and masked thieves, Frederick Browne and William Kennedy, held up the station.[12] Browne had formerly lived in Eynsham and was on the run from the police after having shot dead a policeman, PC Gutteridge, in Essex in September 1927; Kennedy was also wanted, as Browne's accomplice.[12] Browne drove along the line from near South Leigh to Eynsham.[12] There a porter, Frederick Castle, arrived by motorcycle, discovered the thieves and challenged them. They held Castle at gunpoint and tied him to a chair in the stationmaster's office.[12] Castle had no key to the safe so Browne and Kennedy tried unsuccessfully to detach it from the floor.[12] They moved Castle from the stationmaster's office to the building housing the ground frame, then escaped with tobacco and the stationmaster's typewriter.[13] Both were arrested the following January and, after trial at the Old Bailey, were hanged in May 1928 for the murder of PC Gutteridge.[13]

Closure[edit]

The Western Region of British Railways closed the station to passenger traffic on 18 June 1962 and to goods on 26 April 1965.[1][2][3][14] An enthusiasts' special organised by the Locomotive Club of Great Britain called at the closed station in April 1970.[15] BR closed the line to goods traffic on Monday 2 November 1970, after which the local council asphalted over the level crossing "with almost indecent haste".[16]


Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
South Leigh
Line and station closed 		  Great Western Railway
Witney Railway 		  Cassington Halt
Line and station closed

The site since closure[edit]

A section of the trackbed between Eynsham and the Siemens plant on Wharf Road has been converted into the B4449 road to Stanton Harcourt and Standlake.[15] Eynsham station site is now covered by buildings and an access road to an office building known as "Station Point",[15] having previously been the site of Oxford Instruments headquarters opened in 1984.[10][17] The 1944 sectional platform was dismantled in 1984 by the Great Western Society and is now at Didcot Railway Centre.[15][18][19] The goods shed survived until 1987 as a scenery workshop for the Oxford Playhouse.[17][19][20]

The station has been proposed for reopening or a site to the north of the town as part of a project to restore the railway to Carterton via Witney, as well as to serve a new proposed settlement called Salt Cross Garden Village. The new site would also be next to a proposed park and ride site.[21][22]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b Butt (1995), p. 93.
  2. ^ a b Quick (2009), p. 168.
  3. ^ a b Clark (1976), Eynsham.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Jenkins (1985), p. 83.
  5. ^ a b c d Simpson (1997), p. 173.
  6. ^ a b c d Mitchell, Smith & Lingard (1988), fig. 23.
  7. ^ Mitchell, Smith & Lingard (1988), fig. 24.
  8. ^ Jenkins (1985), p. 62.
  9. ^ Mitchell, Smith & Lingard (1988), fig. 22.
  10. ^ a b Crossley & Elrington (1990), pp. 127–142.
  11. ^ Mitchell, Smith & Lingard (1988), fig. 25.
  12. ^ a b c d e Jenkins (1985), p. 63.
  13. ^ a b Jenkins (1985), p. 65.
  14. ^ Clinker (1988), p. 46.
  15. ^ a b c d Stretton (2006), p. 83.
  16. ^ Jenkins (1985), p. 120.
  17. ^ a b Waters & Doyle (1992), p. 95.
  18. ^ Mitchell, Smith & Lingard (1988), fig. 31.
  19. ^ a b Jenkins (1985), p. 146.
  20. ^ Mitchell, Smith & Lingard (1988), fig. 28.
  21. ^ Miranda Norris (2 February 2022). "Campaigners welcome fresh hope for Oxford to Witney railway". Witney Gazette. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  22. ^ "About Witney Oxford Transport Group". Witney Oxford Transport Group. Retrieved 9 February 2022.

Sources[edit]

  • Baggs, A.P.; Blair, W.J.; Chance, Eleanor; Colvin, Christina; Cooper, Janet; Day, C.J.; Selwyn, Nesta; Townley, Simon C. (1990). "Eynsham – Economic History". In Crossley, Alan; Elrington, C.R. (eds.). A History of the County of Oxford. Victoria County History. Vol. 12: Wootton Hundred (South) including Woodstock. pp. 127–142. ISBN 978-0-19722-774-9.
  • Jenkins, Stanley C (1985) [1975]. The Witney & East Gloucestershire Railway (Fairford Branch). Locomotion Papers. Vol. 86. Tarrant Hinton: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-853613-16-8.
  • Mitchell, Victor E.; Smith, Keith; Lingard, Richard (April 1988). Branch Line to Fairford. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 0-906520-52-5.
  • Quick, Michael (2009) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (4th ed.). Oxford: Railway & Canal Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5. OCLC 612226077.
  • Simpson, Bill (1997). A History of the Railways of Oxfordshire. Vol. Part 1: The North. Witney: Lamplight Publications. ISBN 978-1-89924-602-1.
  • Stretton, John (2006). Oxfordshire; A Second Selection. British Railways Past and Present. Vol. 55. Kettering: Past & Present Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85895-203-1.
  • Waters, Laurence; Doyle, Tony (1992). Oxfordshire. British Railways Past and Present. Vol. 15. Wadenhoe: Silver Link Publishing. ISBN 978-0-94797-187-8.

External links[edit]

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