Cirencester Town Station geograph-2986199-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Cirencester Town railway station was one of three railway stations which formerly served the town of

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 ...

, Gloucestershire, England; the others were and .

History

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 ...

was promoted to link the towns 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 ...

and

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

to 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 ...

at ; there was to be a branch from to Cirencester. The line was authorised on 21 June 1836, but took several years to build. The first section to open was that between Swindon and Kemble (where there was no station at first) together with the Cirencester branch; it opened on 31 May 1841. On 12 September 1874 as the first train from Kemble Junction was entering the station the engine ran off the rails. No passengers were injured. On 1 July 1924 the station was renamed ''Cirencester Town''. A fire broke out on 7 April 1948 in the packing office when a stove pipe overheated and ignited the ceiling joists. The damage was confined to ceiling timbers. In 1956 some additions to the station were made by

Howard Cavanagh Howard Earnest Bernard Cavanagh FRIBA (17 August 1910 – 3 August 1960) was an English architect. Career H.E.B. Cavanagh was born in India, the eldest son of Bernard Cavanagh (b. 1877) and Annie. He arrived in London on the P&O ship Mongolia f ...

, architect to the

Western Region of British Railways The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex-Great We ...

. The ticket hall to the left of the main building was rebuilt using

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...

and oak window frames to harmonise with the original. The station closed to passengers on 6 April 1964. The 1841 building, designed by

Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...

, which was listed as Grade II on 23 July 1971, is owned by

Cotswold District Council The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jura ...

. It was reported to be in a poor internal condition in 2016, having been empty since 2012. The original overall roof was removed in 1874.

Routes

References

External links

Cirencester Town Station on navigable 1948 O.S. mapCirencester Town disused railway station photos
Disused railway stations in Gloucestershire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1841 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964 Cirencester Grade II listed railway stations Beeching closures in England Howard Cavanagh railway stations {{Gloucestershire-struct-stub