Bradford-on-Avon railway station is a railway station on the

Wessex Main Line The Wessex Main Line is the railway line from Bristol Temple Meads to Southampton Central. Diverging from this route is the Heart of Wessex Line from Westbury to Weymouth. The Wessex Main Line intersects the Reading to Taunton Line at and th ...

in between and , serving the town of

Bradford on Avon Bradford-on-Avon (sometimes Bradford on Avon or Bradford upon Avon) is a town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England, near the border with Somerset, which had a population of 9,402 at the 2011 census. The town's canal, historic buildings, s ...

(the station name is hyphenated, unlike the name of the town), in

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 ...

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 is south east of . The station was originally conceived by the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway, but was not built until after the company was purchased by the

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 ...

in 1850 and did not open until 1857.

History

Bradford on avon train station 1876929 5084dd83

The new station buildings were completed by 1850, and also included a goods shed, although the railway tracks were not added until later. The main station was built to the most elaborate of the standard designs used by Brunel, resembling a lodge or estate house of the period, but used local

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...

, rather than the more commonly used

bricks and mortar Bricks and Mortar (foaled March 2, 2014) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who was named the American Horse of the Year in 2019. After winning four of six starts at age three, he missed most of his four-year-old campaign due to illness. At a ...

Initial plans

A branch line serving Bradford on Avon was initially planned as part of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR), a broad gauge railway, supported by the

(GWR), also a broad gauge railway, in preference to the plans of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), a standard gauge railway, which wanted to expand its territory westwards. The proposed line was to run between Weymouth and Bristol. The WS&WR was authorised by Act of Parliament in June 1845, and

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...

, already the engineer of the GWR, was appointed engineer of the new railway. The development of the WS&WR was part of the Gauge Wars.

Operation

Financial difficulties slowed the progress of the WS&WR and only twelve miles of the line had been completed when construction was halted. The GWR took control of the WS&WR in a bid to complete the line, but soon wanted to abandon plans to build the branch lines, including the Bradford on Avon branch, to reduce costs. This aroused local opposition from local investors and a lawsuit in 1852 compelled the GWR to complete the Bradford branch. The station finally opened in 1857, with a service of five trains each day each way.

Technical developments

With the development of signalling systems by the GWR, a signal box, with a 30-lever frame, was built to the west of the station and goods shed in 1877. At the same time another signal box, controlling the Greenland Mills level crossing to the east of the station. Although the station was conceived in the gauge wars of the 1840s, the line was finally converted to standard gauge between 18 and 22 June 1874.

Decline in traffic

The goods yard was closed to traffic in 1964, but was used for coal deliveries for another year. In 1966 the signal box was closed and demolished.

Services

Bradford-on-Avon - SWR 159007 meets GWR 158798

References

{{Wiltshire railway stations Bradford-on-Avon Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1857 Railway stations in Wiltshire Railway stations served by Great Western Railway DfT Category E stations