Chambers Crossing Halt railway station was a

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

-framed

railway halt A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a Rail transport, railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passenger train, passengers, freight rail transport, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one r ...

on the

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

section of the

Honeybourne Line The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWR, GWSR or Gloucs-Warks Steam Railway) is a volunteer-run heritage railway which runs along the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border of the Cotswolds, England. The GWSR has restored and reope ...

. The station was located two miles south-west of Stratford upon Avon. The site of the station is now part of the Stratford greenway and may in future form part of the

Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWR, GWSR or Gloucs-Warks Steam Railway) is a volunteer-run heritage railway which runs along the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border of the Cotswolds, England. The GWSR has restored and reo ...

's northern extension from .

History

The section of the

from to was opened by the

Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) was a railway company in England. It built a line from Wolvercot JunctionThe nearby settlement is spelt ''Wolvercote'' and a later station on the LNWR Bicester line follows that spelling. ...

on 9 July 1859, but it was over forty years before Chambers Crossing Halt was opened on 17 October 1904 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 ...

. A single platform was built to the south of the

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

over a lane which ran from

Weston-on-Avon Weston-on-Avon is a village in Warwickshire, England. The population of the Civil Parish taken at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 170. It is about south-west of the town of Stratford-upon-Avon. History Originally in Gloucester ...

Clifford Chambers Clifford Chambers is a village and former civil parish two miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon town centre, in Warwickshire, England. It is on the B4632 road and one mile south of the A3400. It consists of 150 houses and the population of the par ...

. A crossing keeper's cottage had been built here in around 1899 and by the time the halt opened, the crossing was gated and protected by signals. The gates were operated by a

ground frame Mechanical railway signalling installations rely on lever frames for their operation to interlock the signals, track locks and points to allow the safe operation of trains in the area the signals control. Usually located in the signal box, the ...

on the west side of the line to the north of the crossing. When the line was doubled in 1908, the frame was relocated to the opposite site of the crossing, adjacent to the keeper's cottage. A second platform was added on the Up side around this time at a cost of £75 (). The platforms, each of which was for the steam railmotor service, had no passenger facilities, only lamps and the

running in board A running in board is a large sign showing the name of the railway station on which it is found. The signs are intended to inform passengers of their location when on a train entering the station, possibly while still moving at speed. Some signs ...

s. The timetable for April 1910 shows that Chambers Crossing Halt was served by seven railmotors in each direction between Honeybourne and Cheltenham, with some running to and from . An additional service ran from Honeybourne to and back. Due to low patronage and the outbreak of the First World War, the station, along with two other halts opened on the same date ( and ) closed on 17 July 1916 as a wartime economy measure. It is thought unlikely that there are any

photographs A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now created ...

of the station in existence due to its short lifetime and its unremarkable appearance. Freight services continued to pass through the station until November 1976 when the line itself was closed. The tracks between the current Stratford station and Honeybourne were taken up in 1979.

Present day

The trackbed between and lay disused for ten years until 1989 when, in a joint venture between

Sustrans Sustrans is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United Kin ...

and

Warwickshire County Council Warwickshire County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Warwickshire in England. Its headquarters are located at Shire Hall, Market Square, in centre of the county town of Warwick. Politically the county is ...

, it was made into the ''Stratford Greenway'' for

cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

and walking. The crossing cottage survives as a private residence. The long-term aspiration of the

, a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

formed in 1976 to keep the Honeybourne Line open, is to reopen the line as far as Stratford from its base at .

References

Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chambers Crossing Halt railway station Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1904 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1916 Disused railway stations in Warwickshire Former Great Western Railway stations