Corsham Railway Station
Corsham railway station served the town of Corsham in Wiltshire, England, between 1841 and 1965. History The station was on the Great Western Railway main line from London to Bristol and was opened when the Chippenham to Bath section opened in June 1841. The station was situated in a cutting to the south of the town, with the main station building at the top of the cutting on the town side. There were small shelters with canopies on each of the two platforms. Passengers accessed the up platform using a path, and the down platform from the footbridge. The Station Hotel was situated alongside the main station building. Corsham had extensive and much-used sidings on both sides of the track to the west of the station, with a goods shed and a loading dock. The main goods traffic was stone from the quarries under Box Hill, which was brought to the lineside by a tramway system of gauge. The sidings led right up to the mouth of Box Tunnel, whose eastern portal is less than from th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Corsham
Corsham is a historic market town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It is at the south-eastern edge of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 national route, southwest of Swindon, southeast of Bristol, northeast of Bath and southwest of Chippenham. Historically, Corsham was a centre for agriculture and later, the wool industry, and remains a focus for quarrying Bath Stone. It has several notable historic buildings; among them the stately home of Corsham Court. During the Second World War and the Cold War it became a major administrative and manufacturing centre for the Ministry of Defence, with numerous establishments both above ground and in disused quarry tunnels. The parish includes the villages of Gastard and Neston, which is at the gates of the Neston Park estate. History Corsham appears to derive its name from ''Cosa's hām'', "ham" being Old English for homestead, or village. The town is referred in the Domesday book as ''Cosseham''; the letter 'R' appears t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the northeast and Berkshire to the east. The county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the county town of Trowbridge. Within the county's boundary are two unitary authority areas, Wiltshire and Swindon, governed respectively by Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys. Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles (which together are a UNESCO Cultural and World Heritage site) and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its medieval cathedral. Swindon is the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838 with the initial route completed between London and Bristol in 1841. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who chose a broad gauge of —later slightly widened to —but, from 1854, a series of amalgamations saw it also operate standard-gauge trains; the last broad-gauge services were operated in 1892. The GWR was the only company to keep its identity through the Railways Act 1921, which amalgamated it with the remaining independent railways within its territory, and it was finally merged at the end of 1947 when it was nationalised and became the Western Region of British Railways. The GWR was called by some "God's Wonderful Railway" and by others the "Great Way Round" but it was famed as the "Holiday ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Great Western Main Line
The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the original route of the first Great Western Railway which was merged into the Western Region of British Railways in 1948. It is now a part of the national rail system managed by Network Rail with the majority of passenger services provided by the current Great Western Railway franchise. The line has recently been electrified along most of its length. The eastern section from Paddington to was electrified in 1998. Work to electrify the remainder of the route started in 2011 with an initial aim to complete the work all the way to Bristol by 2016, but in that year the section through Bath to Bristol Temple Meads was deferred with no date set for completion because costs had tripled. History The line was built by the Great Western Railway ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chippenham Railway Station
Chippenham railway station is on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) in South West England, serving the town of Chippenham, Wiltshire. It is down the line from the zero point at and is situated between and on the GWML. The Wessex Main Line diverges from the GWML to the southwest of Chippenham and runs to via . It is managed by Great Western Railway, which also operates all the trains that call. Only two platforms at the station remain in use; the platform by the main entrance is now disused. History The main line of the Great Western Railway (GWR) was authorised in 1835, and opened in stages: the section from westward to Chippenham opened on 31 May 1841. The final section of the line, between Chippenham and Bath, opened on 30 June 1841. Chippenham was soon served by other lines. The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) was authorised in 1845 and the first section opened on 5 September 1848; this ran from Thingley Junction, west of Chippenham, to , and the WS&WR ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bath Spa Railway Station
Bath Spa railway station is the principal station serving the city of Bath in South West England. It is on the Great Western Main Line, down the line from the zero point at between to the east and to the west. Its three-letter station code is BTH. The station is managed by Great Western Railway, who operate all trains at this station. History Bath Spa station was built in 1840 for the Great Western Railway by Brunel and is now a Grade II* listed building. It is in an asymmetrical Tudor style with curving gables on the north bank of the Avon where the line curves across from the southern bank to the station and then back again. Opened on 31 August 1840, the station was named ''Bath'' and was renamed ''Bath Spa'' in 1949 to distinguish it from station, which did not have its name altered from Bath until 1951. The station has wide spacing between the platforms because it was built with two broad gauge carriage sidings between the platform lines. The original station featu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Box Tunnel
Box Tunnel passes through Box Hill on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) between Bath and Chippenham. The tunnel was the world's longest railway tunnel when it was completed in 1841. Built between December 1838 and June 1841 for the Great Western Railway (GWR) under the direction of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the straight tunnel descends on a 1 in 100 gradient from its eastern end. At the time the tunnel's construction was considered dangerous due to its length and the composition of the underlying strata. The west portal is Grade II* listed and the east portal is Grade II listed. Ammunition was stored near the tunnel during World War II, reusing mine workings. During the 2010s, the tunnel was modified and the track lowered to prepare it for electrification. History Background During the 1830s, Isambard Kingdom Brunel developed a plan for a railway running east–west between London and Bristol. The Great Western Main Line, would maintain either level ground or gentle gradien ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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General Strike 1926
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reductions and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. Some 1.7 million workers went out, especially in transport and heavy industry. The government was well prepared, and enlisted middle class volunteers to maintain essential services. There was little violence and the TUC gave up in defeat. Causes From 1914 to 1918, the United Kingdom participated in World War I. Heavy domestic use of coal during the war depleted once-rich seams. Britain exported less coal during the war than it would have in peacetime, allowing other countries to fill the gap. This particularly benefited the strong coal industries of the United States, Poland, and Germany. In the early 1880s, coal production was a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Restoring Your Railway
The Beeching cuts were a reduction of route network and restructuring of British Rail in the 1960s. Since the mid-1990s there has been significant growth in passenger numbers on the railways and renewed government interest in the role of rail in UK transport. Some closed stations have reopened, and rail passenger services been restored on a few lines where they had been removed. Some former British Rail lines have become heritage railways. Completed reopenings London * Snow Hill tunnel, south of Farringdon station, completely closed in the 1960s, was reopened for passengers in 1988 as part of Thameslink, providing a link between the Midland Main Line and the former Southern Railway via London Blackfriars station. South East * The Chiltern Main Line was redoubled in two stages between 1998 and 2002, between Princes Risborough and Aynho Junction. * The Romsey to Eastleigh link, closed to regular passenger services in 1969, reopened in 2003 along with the intermed ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michelle Donelan
Michelle Emma May Elizabeth Donelan (born 8 April 1984) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since September 2022. She previously served as Minister of State for Higher and Further Education from 2020 to 2022, and Secretary of State for Education for two days during the July 2022 UK government crisis. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Chippenham in Wiltshire since 2015. Early life and education Michelle Emma May Elizabeth Donelan was born in April 1984 and grew up in Whitley, Cheshire. At the age of 15, Donelan spoke at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool, having decided to be a politician at the age of six. Donelan was educated at The County High School, Leftwich, before graduating from the University of York with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and politics. While at university, she was involved in York Student Television. Career Before the election ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Former Great Western Railway Stations
A former is an object, such as a template, gauge or cutting die, which is used to form something such as a boat's hull. Typically, a former gives shape to a structure that may have complex curvature. A former may become an integral part of the finished structure, as in an aircraft fuselage, or it may be removable, being using in the construction process and then discarded or re-used. Aircraft formers Formers are used in the construction of aircraft fuselage, of which a typical fuselage has a series from the nose to the empennage, typically perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. The primary purpose of formers is to establish the shape of the fuselage and reduce the column length of stringers to prevent instability. Formers are typically attached to longerons, which support the skin of the aircraft. The "former-and-longeron" technique (also called stations and stringers) was adopted from boat construction, and was typical of light aircraft built until the a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |