Granborough Road railway station (initially Grandborough Road) was a station serving the village of

Granborough Granborough (previously Grandborough) is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It is around north of Waddesdon and south-east of Buckingham. The nearest town is Winslow. The village name is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and means 'g ...

, to the north of

Quainton Quainton (formerly Quainton Malet)Plea rolls of the Court of Common Pleas; National Archives; CP 40/647; 7th entry, with "North" in the margin; the defendant, Richard Longe is of Quenton Malet is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, E ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, England.

History

The station was opened by the

Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway (A&BR) was an English railway located in Buckinghamshire, England operating between Aylesbury and Verney Junction. History The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway Company was incorporated on 6 August 1860, and ...

(A&BR) on 23 September 1868 as part of its route from to where it joined the

Buckinghamshire Railway The Buckinghamshire Railway was a railway company in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England that constructed railway lines connecting Bletchley, Banbury and Oxford. Part of the route is still in use today as the Oxford to Bicester Line. Hist ...

's Oxford to Bletchley line. The line was

single track Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

and worked from the start by 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 ...

, which provided a service of three trains each way daily. The A&BR, which had for some time been in a parlous financial state, was absorbed by the

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

with effect from 1 July 1891. From 2 April 1906, all Metropolitan services north of Harrow South Junction to Verney Junction were run by the

Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway The Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway was a joint railway company that controlled a line extending from Harrow on the Hill in what is now north-western Greater London to Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, England. Owned by the Metrop ...

; this continued until 6 July 1936 when the

London Passenger Transport Board The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...

, which had taken over the Metropolitan in 1933, withdrew local passenger services as an economy measure. Through services ceased entirely on 7 September 1947 and the route closed. Whilst open, this station was accessed via a branch line off the former

Great Central Main Line The Great Central Main Line (GCML), also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR), is a former railway line in the United Kingdom. The line was opened in 1899 and built by the Great Central Railw ...

with the junction being just to the north of

Quainton Road Quainton Road railway station was opened in 1868 in under-developed countryside near Quainton, in the English county of Buckinghamshire, from London. Built by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, it was the result of pressure from the 3rd ...

. The branch line continued through Winslow Road and ended at a terminating platform at

Verney Junction Verney Junction is a hamlet in the parish of Middle Claydon in north Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the route of the former Varsity Line. , the line is disused but is scheduled to be reopened by about 2025 as part of the East West Rail proj ...

. Today very little remains of this station, the

permanent way A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, ...

between Quainton Road and Verney Junction having long ago been lifted. The site is now a farmer's field and although a bit of platform does remain, the track bed itself is now a route for pylons. Despite being over 30 miles from London and not underground, the association with the Metropolitan line means this station is considered to be one of the

closed London Underground stations The London Underground is a public rapid transit system in the United Kingdom that serves a large part of Greater London and adjacent parts of the home counties of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It has many closed stations, while other ...

. It is briefly referred to as such in the 2012

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film ''

Skyfall ''Skyfall'' is a 2012 spy film and the twenty-third in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. The film is the third to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond and features Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, the villai ...

'' when Bond spots the name embedded in a cypher.

Routes

Notes

References

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External links

London's Abandoned Tube Stations – Granborough Road

Granborough Road
at ''Disused Stations'' {{Closed stations Buckinghamshire 1868 establishments in England 1936 disestablishments in England Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1868 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1936 Disused railway stations in Buckinghamshire Former Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway stations Disused London Underground stations Metropolitan line stations