Pans Lane Halt railway station was a railway station serving the southeast of the town of

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century ...

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, between 1929 and 1966. The station was on the Devizes branch line, between

Devizes station Devizes railway station was the railway station serving Devizes in Wiltshire, England between 1857 and 1966. The station was on the Devizes branch line, between Pans Lane Halt and Bromham & Rowde. Early plans The idea of having a railway s ...

and the Reading-Taunton line.

Opening

The station, originally named ''Pans Lane Bridge Halt'', opened on 4 March 1929 for the residents of south Devizes, but more importantly for the nearby

Roundway Hospital Roundway Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in the parish of Roundway near Devizes, Wiltshire, England. It was originally called the Wiltshire County Lunatic Asylum and later the Wiltshire County Mental Hospital. It opened in 1851 and closed in ...

, during a time when 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 ...

was increasing the number of halts in the South West. The station name was simplified to ''Pans Lane Halt'' later in 1929. After completion of the eastern section of track, the Devizes line was a main line from London to Bristol. However, the line lost out to competition and reverted to branch line status, although it was used as a back-up line to the West Country in case of emergency.

Closure

Much like Devizes station, Pans Lane Halt suffered from reduced traffic after the completion of the

Stert and Westbury Railway The Stert and Westbury Railway was opened by the Great Western Railway Company in 1900 in Wiltshire, England. It shortened the distance between London Paddington station and , and since 1906 has also formed part of the Reading to Taunton line fo ...

line, which by-passed Devizes to shorten the London to Bristol journey by 5 miles. Pans Lane Halt station was closed on 18 April 1966 and the entire Devizes Branch Line in the same year under the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...

. The station was largely destroyed in 1970, although the clay-surfaced platform and retaining sleepers, stone walling, and the brick chimney stack belonging to the permanent way hut situated at the down end of the platform, survived until the site was infilled and used for gardens. The road bridge, rebuilt in the 1960s, over the line near the halt is still in use today but the past presence of a track is no longer visible after infilling in the late 1980s.

References

External links

Great Western Railway Devizes Branch
at Well House Consultants
The Borough of Devizes
at British History Online
Railways
at British History Online {{Closed stations Wiltshire Disused railway stations in Wiltshire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1929 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Beeching closures in England Devizes