Nancegollan railway station located in

Nancegollan Nancegollan ( kw, Nansigolen) is a village in the civil parish of Crowan in west Cornwall, England. Nancegollan is on the B3303 road and south-east of Leedstown. The railway line from Helston to Hayle passed through the village (closed in 1964 ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

served an important agricultural district and was also the railhead for the

fishing port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

Porthleven Porthleven () is a town, civil parish and fishing port near Helston, Cornwall, England. The most southerly port in Great Britain, it was a harbour of refuge when this part of the Cornish coastline was infamous for wrecks in the days of sail. The ...

History

The station opened on 9 May 1887 when the

Helston Railway The Helston Railway is a heritage railway in Cornwall which aims to rebuild and preserve as much as possible of the former GWR Helston Railway between Nancegollen and Water-Ma-Trout on the outskirts of Helston. It is operated by the Helston ...

opened the line between and on 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 ...

mainline to . The line was operated by the

and absorbed by that company on 2 August 1898. Originally it had a single passenger platform on the upside and a goods loop without a platform; the connections were operated by a ground frame. In 1937 the facilities were considerably extended, with a full crossing facility for passenger trains and longer platforms on both lines, as well as a loop line behind the up platform and a large goods yard. In 1941 the station's goods sidings were further modified and extended in connection with airfield construction in the locality, and a new signal box with a lever frame that had been relocated from the

Cornish Main Line The Cornish Main Line ( kw, Penn-hyns-horn Kernow) is a railway line in Cornwall and Devon in the United Kingdom. It runs from Penzance to Plymouth, crossing from Cornwall into Devon over the famous Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash. It directly ...

at St Germans. A second, metal, bridge was also built at this time to carry the road over the new goods yard access lines. A

camping coach Camping coaches were holiday accommodation offered by many railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted to ...

was positioned here by the Western Region from 1958 to 1962. Due to the line's "uncoloured" classification, heavy locomotives such as GWR Classes 43XX 2-6-0 Tender Engine and 51XX 2-6-2T Tank Engines were allowed as far as Nancegollan only. Although larger locomotives did run past Nancegollan in the branch's dying days the Class 22s ran on the branch even though they were a GWR blue classification, higher than the branch line. In April 1957, Nancegollan won £10 (£238.65 in today's money) in the

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways Western Region Station Gardens Competition. The branch was closed for passengers on 5 November 1962. Goods traffic continued for a further two years, finally ceasing on 5 October 1964; the track was lifted by mid-1965.

Station Masters

The following people are known to have been Station Masters at Nancegollan Station, with approximate dates show. *S.J. Jeffery, Station Master (? - July 1955 - December 1957) *A. Knight, Station Master (? - ?) * T. Williams, Station Master (January 1958 - ?)

The site today

Today the site of Nancegollan is an industrial estate. There are plans for the

to extend the line into Nancegollen at some point.

Gallery

File:Old railway bridge - geograph.org.uk - 192446.jpg, The bridge at Nancegollen is still standing. File:Where the railway ran - geograph.org.uk - 192448.jpg, The site of Nancegollen station still with a lamp poking through the shrubbery File:Nancegollan station site geograph-3793496-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg, The site of the station in 1973, nine years after it closed File:Nancegollan Station Lamp.jpg, A Station lamp that can now be seen in a garden.

References

{{Reflist Disused railway stations in Cornwall Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1887 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1962