Moulsford railway station was on the original route of the Great Western Railway, being one of three intermediate stations provided when the line was extended from to in 1840.

History

The Great Western Railway was built and opened in stages. It had opened as far as Reading on 30 March 1840; on 1 June 1840 it was opened to Steventon, with three intermediate stations, the northernmost of which was Wallingford Road; it was possibly named Moulsford originally, being renamed by December 1840. Butt 1995, pp. 165, 240 Wallingford Road station was located on the eastern side of the Reading–Wallingford main road (the present-day

A329 road A3, A03 or A.III may refer to: * A3 paper, a paper size defined by ISO 216 Biology * A3 regulatory sequence, a sequence for the insulin gene * Adenosine A3 receptor, a human gene * Annexin A3, a human gene * ATC code A03 ''Drugs for functi ...

), about a mile to the north of

Moulsford Moulsford is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire. Before 1974 it was in the county of Berkshire, in Wallingford Rural District, but following the Berkshire boundary changes of that year it became a part of Oxfordshire. Moulsford i ...

village, and slightly further from the village of

Cholsey Cholsey is a village and civil parish south of Wallingford in South Oxfordshire. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded Cho ...

, which lies to the north. Being on the western side of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

it was then in Berkshire; the boundaries were redrawn in 1974 placing the station site two miles inside present-day Oxfordshire. On 2 July 1866, a branch line to was opened by the Wallingford & Watlington Railway, and on the same day Wallingford Road station was renamed Moulsford. Mitchell & Smith, fig. 57 Whilst the junction for the branch was at Moulsford station, the branch line track ran parallel to the main line for three-quarters of a mile before curving away. The Wallingford & Watlington Railway never reached the second-named town, and it was absorbed by the GWR in 1872. In 1892, during quadrupling of the main line, the junction for Wallingford was resited down the line to the north-west, closer to the point of divergence, and a new station built there. Moulsford station closed on 29 February 1892, being replaced the same day by the new station which was known as Cholsey and Moulsford, being significantly closer to Cholsey than to Moulsford. Some of the original station buildings can still be seen at the site of Moulsford railway station. To the south-east of the former station site is

Moulsford Railway Bridge Moulsford Railway Bridge, also known locally as "Four Arches" bridge, is a pair of parallel bridges located a little to the north of Moulsford and South Stoke in Oxfordshire, UK. It carries the Great Western Main Line from Paddington, London t ...

, a stone-faced brick bridge which crosses the

, having four

skew arch A skew arch (also known as an oblique arch) is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and its ...

es. MacDermot, vol. I, part I, p. 101

Services

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

Area around former Moulsford station on a navigable 1946 O.S. map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moulsford Railway Station Disused railway stations in Oxfordshire Former Great Western Railway stations Great Western Main Line Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1840 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1892