Braunston and Willoughby railway station was a station on the former

Great Central Main Line The Great Central Main Line (GCML), also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR), is a former railway line in the United Kingdom. The line was opened in 1899 and built by the Great Central Railw ...

. It served the small village of Willoughby which it was located next to, and the larger but more distant village of

Braunston Braunston is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, next to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 1,759. Braunston is situated just off the A45 main road and lies between the to ...

. The station opened with the line on 15 March 1899.

History

The station was one of the standard island platform design typical of the London Extension, though here it was the less common "embankment" type reached from a roadway (the A45

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

Daventry Daventry ( , historically ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority in Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 Census Daventry had a population of 28,123, making ...

road), that passed beneath the line. The station was situated close to the village of

Willoughby, Warwickshire Willoughby is a village and civil parish about south of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. The village is about northwest of Daventry in neighbouring Northamptonshire and the eastern boundary of the parish forms part of the county boundary. Willou ...

, and was originally known as ''Willoughby for Daventry'' although Daventry itself was some five miles to the south east in

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

and already had a station of its own on another line (the London & North Western

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 industri ...

from to ).

, also in Northamptonshire, lay between the two, some two miles away and also served by the same

LNWR The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lond ...

branch that ran through Daventry, but it was Braunston that was found to be providing the new Great Central station with the bulk of its usage. This was reflected in a renaming on 1 January 1904 to ''Braunston and Willoughby for Daventry'' (the ''for Daventry'' was eventually dropped in 1938). Braunston and Willoughby station closed to passengers and goods on 1 April 1957 and the line itself closed on 5 September 1966. The station buildings had already been removed in 1961-2 although the platform remained for a while longer. Today there is little left to see at the site. The twin bridges over the A45 have been removed and the abutment walls substantially lowered. The stationmaster's house remains, however. A short distance to the south of the station was the 13-arch Willoughby Viaduct crossing the

River Leam The River Leam (), anciently Leame, etc, is a river in England which rises at Hellidon Hill in Northamptonshire then flows through Warwickshire, including the town of Leamington Spa, named after it. It then flows into the River Avon near Warwi ...

: this viaduct has now gone. The other line passing through the area - the former LNWR Weedon to Leamington Spa branch line, via Daventry, closed on 15 September 1958.

Route

References

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External links

Warwickshire Railways entry on this station
{{coord, 52.29953, -1.23301, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SP524671), display=title Disused railway stations in Warwickshire Former Great Central Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1899 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1957 1899 establishments in England 1957 disestablishments in England