Grafton and Burbage railway station served the villages of Burbage and

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and

West Grafton West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

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. The station was 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 ...

. It opened in May 1882 as the northern terminus of the southern section of the Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway and became a through station when the line from

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

was completed through a new

Marlborough station Marlborough Station is a CTrain light rail station in Calgary, Alberta. It serves the Northeast Line (Route 202) and opened on April 27, 1985, as part of the original northeast line. The station is located in the median of 36 Street NE, located ...

and 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 ...

's Savernake station in February 1883. In 1883, a northwards extension, the Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway, opened from Swindon Town to

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

, with further northward extension to a junction with the

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 ...

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...

Andoversford Andoversford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England, about east of Cheltenham. The village is on the River Coln, parallel to the A40.The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 555. In 2019 ...

opening in 1891, enabling through trains from the Midlands to the south. The SM&AR and the S&CER amalgamated in 1884 to form the M&SWJR. In 1898, a new section of line, called the Marlborough and Grafton Railway, was opened between the M&SWJR station in Marlborough and Grafton & Burbage station, with an intervening stop at a high level station at Savernake. This removed the need for M&SWJR trains to run on the GWR lines, though junctions to the GWR line heading both east and west were retained north of Grafton station. Grafton and Burbage station was sited at West Grafton on a double-track section of the line. It had a small main building on the down platform (towards Andover), with a large signalbox that controlled what had become a complex junction. The up platform had a wooden shelter. There was a small goods yard to the north of the station. Station signs on the platforms referred to it as "Grafton" station; in timetables and on other printed material, however, it always appeared as "Grafton and Burbage". As a whole, traffic on the M&SWJR fell steeply after 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 opposin ...

and the line closed to passengers in 1961, with goods facilities withdrawn from this section of the line at the same time. The station building has now been incorporated into a larger residential house, with the space between the platforms where the track ran forming part of the garden.

Routes

References

* ''Wiltshire Railway Stations'', Mike Oakley, Dovecote Press, Wimborne, 2004, {{Closed stations Wiltshire Disused railway stations in Wiltshire Former Midland and South Western Junction Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1882 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1961