Chiseldon Camp Halt was a small railway station on the

Midland and South Western Junction Railway The Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR) was an independent railway built to form a north–south link between the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway in England, allowing the Midland and other companies' tr ...

line, south of Swindon 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.

History

Chiseldon Chiseldon is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It takes its name from the Old English cisel dene, or gravel valley, being noted in the Domesday Book as ''Chiseldene''. The village lies on the edge of ...

village was provided with a station when the line opened as the Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway in 1881, and during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

a long siding was built from the station to the military camp at

Draycot Foliat Draycot Foliat is a hamlet in Wiltshire, England, on the back road between Chiseldon to the north and Ogbourne St. George to the south. The nearest major town is Swindon which is about north. A notable feature is the small airstrip with its mo ...

. In 1930, with the M&SWJR having been taken over by the Great Western Railway and with greater competition from road transport, a halt was opened on the main line itself about half a mile from the camp. The station was a single platform with a shelter, and it was unstaffed and run from Chiseldon station. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

the Americans were stationed in large numbers at the then-named Chiseldon Camp and the line was extensively used for military transportation, as it linked the Midlands to the south. But traffic on the M&SWJR fell steeply after the War and the line closed to passengers in 1961, with goods facilities withdrawn from this section of the line at the same time. No trace of the station now remains; the rail route is part of the

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...

Route

Sources

* ''Wiltshire Railway Stations'', Mike Oakley, Dovecote Press, Wimborne, 2004,

References

{{Closed stations Wiltshire Disused railway stations in Wiltshire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1930 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1961