Westmoreland Road goods yard was the main

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 ...

goods station A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are lo ...

for the city of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, situated on the main line between the passenger stations of Oldfield Park and Bath (now Bath Spa). It took its name from Westmoreland Road, by which it stood. The official name of the station is uncertain. Railway historian Colin G. Maggs variously used Westmoreland Goods Yard, Westmoreland Road goods yard and Westmoreland Yard goods depot in his book covering this part of the Great Western Railway line. Westmoreland Road goods yard map

The goods depot was opened in 1877, freeing space at the constrained Bath Spa station site. A small

engine shed The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

was also moved from Bath Spa to Westmoreland in 1880. The goods depot was located on the up side of the line, fronting onto the Lower Bristol Road, opposite the Newark Works of crane makers

Stothert & Pitt Stothert & Pitt was a British engineering company founded in 1855 in Bath, England. It was the builder of various engineering products ranging from Dock cranes to construction plant and household cast iron items. It went out of business in 1989 ...

. Further west on the down side towards

Oldfield Park railway station Oldfield Park railway station is on the Great Western Main Line in South West England, serving the mainly residential areas of southern Bath, Somerset. It is down the line from and is situated between and . It is managed by Great Western Rail ...

, on the other side of Westmoreland Road, was located a goods loop and four sidings, called Bath West. One notable event was the unloading in 1903 of the special train for Buffalo Bill & His Wild West Show. A more frequent event putting heavy demands on the depot was whenever the

Bath and West Show The Royal Bath and West is an agricultural show for the West of England. Held every year at its permanent show ground near Shepton Mallet, Somerset, it is one of a number of County shows in the United Kingdom and is a four-day show. In 2009 and ...

was held in Bath, and horse arrivals for the

Bath Racecourse Bath Racecourse is a thoroughbred horse racing venue on Lansdown Hill, about northeast of Bath, Somerset, England. It is owned and operated by Arena Racing Company. The racecourse is a left-handed oval track of 1 mile 4 furlongs and 25 yards ...

. In April 1942 German

bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...

caused major damage to the goods depot. Until 1911 the yard was controlled by two

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

es, ''Westmoreland East'' and ''Westmoreland West''. In 1911 these were replaced by a single signal box called ''Bath Goods''. The Bath engine shed at Westmoreland closed in February 1961. The goods depot closed in May 1967, but the sidings remained open for full loads until 31 December 1980. In the 1980s the goods depot was redeveloped into an office development called The Square, with the former goods shed converted into one of the office buildings. The down side sidings (Bath West) were developed as a refuse transfer terminal, called Westmoreland Railhead, by

Avon County Council Avon County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Avon in south west England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1974 and was abolished on 1 April 1996 at the same time as the county. The county council was based at Av ...

in the mid-1980s, taking waste to a landfill site in

Calvert, Buckinghamshire Calvert is a village in Buckinghamshire, England, near the village of Steeple Claydon. Originally named after a wealthy local family who had inherited property at Claydon House, Middle Claydon, on condition that they changed their surname to Vern ...

. The refuse transfer terminal remained in operation until 2011 when a new mechanical biological waste treatment plant opened in

Avonmouth Avonmouth is a port and outer suburb of Bristol, England, facing two rivers: the reinforced north bank of the final stage of the Avon which rises at sources in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset; and the eastern shore of the Severn Estuar ...

. A passageway at the western end of Westmoreland Station Road still gives pedestrian access under the railway to Westmoreland Street; in 2018 a review of the

Widcombe Widcombe is a district of Bath, England, immediately south-east of the city centre, across the River Avon. The electoral ward was merged with Lyncombe at the boundary changes effected at the elections held on 2 May 2019; the two places have h ...

public rights of way recommended that it be classified as such.

References

External links

(photo) Two Hall class locos pass Bath goods depot sometime in the 1960sFreight Lease - Bath Westmoreland (site map)
Network Rail, 9 April 2014 {{coord, 51.3781, -2.3672, region:GB_type:railwaystation, display=title Great Western Main Line Disused railway goods stations in Great Britain Disused railway stations in Bath, Somerset