Cheltenham Spa St. James railway station was a station in the town of

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

History

The first station was opened by the

Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway The Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway was a railway company intended to link Cheltenham, Gloucester and Swindon, in England. It was authorised in 1836 but it found it very hard to raise money for the construction, and it opened only a p ...

(C&GWU) on 23 October 1847, as ''Cheltenham''. It was the terminus of the final section of that company's line from a junction with 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 ...

(GWR) at , which had opened in stages: to (and

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

) on 31 May 1841; to on 12 May 1845, and finally to Cheltenham on 23 October 1847. In the meantime, the C&GWU had been purchased by the GWR on 1 July 1843. Originally, the station was laid to the

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union ( C ...

, but this was converted to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in E ...

in May 1872. On 9 September 1894 it was replaced by another station also named ''Cheltenham'', on a nearby site, slightly to the east, which had two curved semi-island platforms; two more were added later. An imposing brick-built station building was constructed with a covered carriage approach fronting St. James' Square, whilst a

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...

was constructed to the north of the site in a

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

capable of accommodating 475 wagons. In 1904 the station was able to handle goods, passengers, parcels, furniture vans, carriages, portable engines, machines on wheels, livestock, horse boxes, prize cattle vans and private carriages; there was a crane capable of lifting . The station was renamed twice, to ''Cheltenham St. James'' on 11 May 1908, and ''Cheltenham Spa St. James'' on 1 February 1925. It was from this station that the GWR inaugurated the Cheltenham Flyer on 9 July 1923 which ran to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

via . The

express Express or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * '' Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * '' The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid Music * ''Express'' ...

covered the between Swindon and London in 56 minutes 47 seconds at an average speed of on 6 June 1932, then the fastest-timed train in the world. Although the GWR had absorbed the

Midland and South Western Junction Railway The Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR) was an independent railway built to form a north–south link between the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway in England, allowing the Midland and other companies' tr ...

(MSWJR) at the

1923 Grouping The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

, the MSWJR trains from ,

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon unitary authority area had a population ...

and

continued to run to the LMS (ex-

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

) station at Cheltenham (Lansdown). It was not until the

British Railways 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 ...

period that these were eventually diverted to the former GWR stations at St. James and Malvern Road, this occurring from 3 November 1958, but less than three years later, on 9 September 1961, the services along the MSWJR line ceased entirely. Closure of the route from followed on 15 October 1962. The remaining services using St. James were insufficient to make the station's retention a viable proposition and, as Birmingham to Gloucester services could not use it, Cheltenham Spa St. James station closed to passengers on 3 January 1966, with the remaining passenger services being diverted to the less-convenient Cheltenham Spa (Lansdown). General freight ceased at the same time, but coal continued until 31 October 1966; by this time the station was worked as a long siding from Malvern Road East Signal Box after the closure in June of that year of St. James's Box.

Route

Present day

Waitrose Waitrose & Partners (formally Waitrose Limited) is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still se ...

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

now stands on the site of St. James station. A plaque has been affixed to the entrance of the store by Cheltenham Civic Society to commemorate the now-demolished terminus. Prior to the construction of the superstore, which opened in 2002, the trackbed was used as a cyclepath linking the town with Cheltenham Leisure Centre, and so when

planning permission Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building per ...

for the redevelopment of the station site was granted, a condition was imposed that the developer construct a new pedestrian bridge to ensure continued access to the remaining trackbed. The bridge follows a section of former railway embankment which was removed to provide road access to the new store. St James House also occupies part of the site.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * {{Coord, 51.901904, -2.083468, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SO944225), display=title Disused railway stations in Gloucestershire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1847 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1894 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1894 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Transport in Cheltenham 1847 establishments in England