Berkeley railway station served the town of Berkeley in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The station was on the Sharpness Branch Line, part of the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

(MR), which connected the Bristol and Gloucester Railway main line at Berkeley Road station with the docks at Sharpness.

History

The

's Gloucester & Berkeley New Docks branch, from Berkeley Road station to the docks at Sharpness, was authorised in 1872. On the same day, the Severn Bridge Railway was authorised, which would connect the Berkeley branch to the

Severn and Wye Railway The Severn and Wye Railway began as an early tramroad network established in the Forest of Dean to facilitate the carriage of minerals to watercourses for onward conveyance. It was based on Lydney, where a small harbour was constructed, and open ...

and Great Western Railway (GWR) at . The branch line was opened to freight traffic in August 1875 with passenger services starting a year later. The station opened for passengers on 1 August 1876. Before the

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

was built, Berkeley had been served by Berkeley Road, which was originally called "Dursley and Berkeley Road" and opened in 1844. It was two miles east of the town. Berkeley station was marginally more convenient: about a mile north of the town. The Sharpness branch became a through-route from 1879 with the opening of the

Severn Railway Bridge The Severn Railway Bridge (historically called the Severn Bridge) was a bridge carrying the railway across the River Severn between Sharpness and Lydney in Gloucestershire, England. It was built in the 1870s by the Severn Bridge Railway Co ...

, connecting Sharpness with the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to ...

side of the

Severn Estuary The Severn Estuary ( cy, Aber Hafren) is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England and South Wales. Its high tidal range, approximately , means that it has been at the centre of discussions in t ...

and enabling through services between Berkeley Road and

Lydney Town railway station Lydney Town railway station is a railway station on the Dean Forest Railway in Lydney in Gloucestershire. History The station which is situated in the centre of Lydney opened with rather basic facilities on 23 September 1875, these facilities ...

, some of which ran on to Lydbrook. Children from Berkeley attending school in Lydney were among the passengers. Upon the opening of the Severn Bridge on 17 October 1879, the Severn Bridge Railway amalgamated with the Severn & Wye Railway, to form the Severn & Wye & Severn Bridge Railway. This got into financial difficulties in 1883, and on 1 July 1894, was sold jointly to the GWR and MR; the Sharpness branch was transferred to the joint committee at the same time. The branch line was double track and the station building, built of brick, was on the down platform. There was a goods shed and a small goods yard just before the station on the line in from Berkeley Road. The line was later singled and the up platform (for trains towards Berkeley Road) was then redundant. Through-services to Lydney on the line ceased abruptly in October 1960 when the Severn Railway Bridge was damaged beyond economic repair in a shipping accident. The station closed on 2 November 1964, when passenger services ceased on the Sharpness branch; goods facilities were withdrawn two years later. The station buildings were demolished though the stationmaster's house remains. A

gantry crane A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, us ...

was installed over a single remaining siding in the former goods yard to allow the loading of nuclear fuel flasks from

Berkeley nuclear power station Berkeley nuclear power station is a decommissioned Magnox nuclear power station situated on the bank of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, England. The ongoing decommissioning process is being managed by Nuclear Decommissioning Authority subs ...

which saw regular, if infrequent, use. The power station was decommissioned in 1989 but the siding and crane remain in place. The track through the site remains as the Sharpness docks link is still open for very occasional freight services.

Station masters

* circa 1881 Henry James Mabbett

Services

References

{{coord, 51.70081, -2.45656, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:npemap.org.uk-enwiki, display=title Stroud District Former Severn and Wye Railway stations Disused railway stations in Gloucestershire Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1876 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964 Beeching closures in England