Masbury railway station was a small isolated station on the

Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, also known as the S&D, SDJR or S&DJR, was an English railway line connecting Bath (in north-east Somerset) and Bournemouth (now in south-east Dorset but then in Hampshire), with a branch from Evercreech ...

's main line between Evercreech Junction and Bath. It was situated to the north of Shepton Mallet and near the summit of the line as it crossed the Mendip Hills. The station opened in 1874 and closed with the rest of the line under the Beeching Axe in March 1966.

Maesbury Railway Cutting Maesbury Railway Cutting () is a 2 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest between East Horrington and Gurney Slade in Somerset, notified in 1995. It was part of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. This is a Geological Con ...

is a two

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

geological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle o ...

between East Horrington and Gurney Slade and a

Geological Conservation Review The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) is produced by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee and is designed to identify those sites of national and international importance needed to show all the key scientific elements of the geological ...

site because it exposes approximately 135 metres of strata representing the middle and upper Lower

Limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

Shales Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especiall ...

and the basal Black Rock Limestone. Both formations are of early Carboniferous (Courceyan) age. It lies close to the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

Maesbury Castle. The station was never heavily used, and from 1938 it was reduced to a "halt" status. A feature of the station was a substantial stone-built stationmaster's house on the main northbound platform. The front of the house, which is still standing and in private hands, features a fanciful carving of Maesbury Castle as a medieval castle: in fact, Maesbury is an

fort nearby. There is about a half-mile of ramparts and views to

Glastonbury Tor Glastonbury Tor is a hill near Glastonbury in the English county of Somerset, topped by the roofless St Michael's Tower, a Grade I listed building. The entire site is managed by the National Trust and has been designated a scheduled monument. T ...

. The station is located mostly on private land but a public footpath crosses it. In May 2013 an online appeal was launched by the

Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust The Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust (S&DRHT) is a heritage railway line in Somerset, England, that runs on a restored section of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The line is approximately 1 mile long and operates from Midsomer N ...

to raise £500,000 by 30 September 2013 to purchase the station. The trust eventually raised only £80,000 by the deadline, and the site was sold to another party. The site is now in private hands so visitors are asked to respect the fact that it is a family home. Plans are in progress to restore the station to its original state, including rebuilding the signal box and renovating the platforms and waiting rooms.

References

* ''Somerset Railway Stations'', by Mike Oakley, Dovecote Press, 2002.

External links

Station profile
at somersetanddorsetrailway.co.uk

Disused railway stations in Somerset Former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1874 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Beeching closures in England {{SouthWestEngland-railstation-stub