Semington Halt railway station was the railway station serving

Semington Semington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is about south of Melksham and about northeast of Trowbridge. The parish includes the hamlets of Little Marsh and Littleton.

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 Devizes Branch Line, in between Holt Junction and Seend.

Opening

Semington Halt station opened in 1857 for the residents of Semington, during a time when the Great Western Railway was increasing the number of halts in the South West. After completion of the eastern section of track, the Devizes line was a main line from London to Bristol, which meant passing through

. However the Devizes line lost to competition and returned to a branch line in 1900.

Closure

Semington 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 ...

that bypassed the Devizes branch line in order to reduce the London to Bristol distance by five miles. The entire branch line was closed in 1966 under the

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

and the halt was destroyed in 1970, along with the rest of the line. The site of the station is now a private residence.

References

Great Western Railway - Devizes Branch

The borough of Devizes: Town, castle and estates British History Online

Railways British History Online
{{Closed stations Wiltshire Disused railway stations in Wiltshire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1857 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Beeching closures in England 1857 establishments in England

Opening

Closure

See also

References