Dinton railway station is a disused railway station which formerly served Dinton 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. It was situated on the

West of England Main Line The West of England line (also known as the West of England Main Line) is a British railway line from , Hampshire, to in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter; the line intersects with the Wessex Ma ...

from

London Waterloo station Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of t ...

to Exeter. It was opened in 1859 and closed to passengers in 1966 and to general goods traffic in 1967. In the First World War, it was the junction for the

Fovant Military Railway Dinton railway station is a disused railway station which formerly served Dinton in Wiltshire, England. It was situated on the West of England Main Line from London Waterloo station to Exeter. It was opened in 1859 and closed to passengers in ...

. The station was about ½ mile from the centre of the village.

History

The station was opened on 2 May 1859 by the

Salisbury and Yeovil Railway The Salisbury and Yeovil Railway linked Salisbury (Wiltshire), Gillingham (Dorset) and Yeovil (Somerset) in England. Opened in stages in 1859 and 1860, it formed a bridge route between the main London and South Western Railway (LSWR) network a ...

, which became part of the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

in 1878. In the

1923 grouping The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

the L&SWR became part of the Southern Railway, but in 1948 nationalisation it was transferred to British Railways Southern Region and in 1963 to BR Western Region. BR withdrew local passenger trains and closed the station on 7 March 1966, although goods traffic continued until 18 April 1967. Following closure, several sidings were retained for access to the various Ministry of Defence depots nearby, together with a section of the former up line westwards to a depot at Chilmark. These were taken out of use in 1994 and most of the track has been removed. The former Up platform remains in existence, complete with the station buildings, which are now a private residence. The Waterloo to Exeter route is now a single line through Dinton, with being the nearest station.

Services

The station was served by trains on the London Waterloo to Exeter line.

Fovant Military Railway

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 ...

, several military camps were built to the south of Dinton covering an area from

Compton Chamberlayne Compton Chamberlayne is a small village and civil parish in the Nadder Valley in south Wiltshire, England, about west of Salisbury. The Nadder forms the northern boundary of the parish; to the south are chalk hills. It is bisected by the A30 r ...

to Sutton Mandeville, centred on

Fovant Fovant is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, lying about west of Salisbury on the A30 Salisbury-Shaftesbury road, on the south side of the Nadder valley. History The name is derived from the Old English ''Fobbefunt ...

on the

A30 road The A30 is a major road in England, running WSW from London to Land's End. The road has been a principal axis in Britain from the 17th century to early 19th century, as a major coaching route. It used to provide the fastest route from Lond ...

. In 1915, a railway was built from Dinton station to the camps at Fovant; the line was two and a half miles in length and had a ruling gradient of 1 in 35. It was opened on 15 October 1915. After the War ended the Fovant camps were used major demobilization centre and Dinton station handled thousands of soldiers. The demobilization work ended on 16 January 1920, and the branch was handed over to the

on 26 April 1920. They operated a twice-weekly freight train until the military camps closed on 23 November 1920. The station itself closed on 18 December 1920, although it was re-opened the following year, to assist in the removal of the camps, and was finally closed in 1924.

Bibliography

Notes References * - Total pages: 208 * - Total pages: 224 {{Closed stations Wiltshire Disused railway stations in Wiltshire Former London and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1859 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Beeching closures in England