Shiplake railway station is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in the village of

Lower Shiplake Shiplake consists of three settlements: Shiplake, Shiplake Cross and Lower Shiplake. Together these villages form a civil parish situated beside the River Thames south of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. The river forms the parish boun ...

(formerly Lashbrook) in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, England. The station is on the Henley-on-Thames branch line that links the towns of

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...

and Twyford. It is down the line from Twyford and measured from . It is served by local services operated by

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 ...

. The station has a single platform, which is used by trains in both directions. There is a 50-space car park, but no station building other than a simple shelter. The station is unmanned, and tickets must be purchased on the train. The station was built in the village of Lashbrook in 1857, but named for the main village of Shiplake. The village of Shiplake, with the parish Church and grand manor houses of Shiplake Court and Shiplake House is actually over a mile away to the south of Shiplake Station. Victorian developers and their commuting commercial customers however then chose to build new houses close to the station, and the hamlet of Lashbrook grew rapidly and eventually changed its name to Lower Shiplake in the early twentieth century. In June 1914, it is said suffragettes were intending to burn Shiplake Church, but on realising it was such a distance from the station of the same name, burned Wargrave Church down instead. A

camping coach Camping coaches were holiday accommodation offered by many railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted to ...

was positioned here by the Western Region from 1956 to 1963.

Service

In normal service, there is a regular service between Henley-on-Thames station and Twyford station, with all trains calling at Shiplake station. Passengers for Paddington and Reading must change at Twyford. Trains operate twice an hour during the day, with less frequent services in the early morning and late evenings. Trains run to the same basic frequency seven days a week, but start and finish times for the service differ by day of the week. During the

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thre ...

, held every July, a special timetable is operated with additional trains. During the period of the regatta, not all trains stop at Shiplake station. The platform can hold 7 coaches.

Level crossing

There is a

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

north of the station that, despite being well signalled, has been the site of a numerous accidents and near misses over the years. The crossing had no barriers until March 2013, when

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

had automatic half-barriers installed. In October 2014, safety cameras described by locals as 'looking like robots' were controversially installed to monitor the crossing.

References

External links

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{{Railway stations in Oxfordshire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Oxfordshire DfT Category F2 stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1857 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway 1857 establishments in England