Toddington railway station
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Toddington railway station serves the village of Toddington in
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. Since 1984 it has been the main base of operations for the
heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physica ...
Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWR, GWSR or Gloucs-Warks Steam Railway) is a volunteer-run heritage railway which runs along the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border of the Cotswolds, England. The GWSR has restored and reope ...
. The station is located on the
Honeybourne Line The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWR, GWSR or Gloucs-Warks Steam Railway) is a volunteer-run heritage railway which runs along the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border of the Cotswolds, England. The GWSR has restored and reo ...
which linked Cheltenham and and which was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1906. The station was a centre of fruit and milk traffic, but receipts dwindled after a railwaymen's strike in 1955. The station closed to passengers in 1960, although the line itself remained open for freight and diversionary use until 1976; the track was lifted in 1979-80.


History

On 9 July 1859, the
Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) was a railway company in England. It built a line from Wolvercot JunctionThe nearby settlement is spelt ''Wolvercote'' and a later station on the LNWR Bicester line follows that spelling. ...
opened a line from to . The OW&W became the
West Midland Railway The West Midland Railway was an early British railway company. It was formed on 1 July 1860 by a merger of several older railway companies and amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 August 1863. It was the successor to the Oxford, Worc ...
in 1860 and was acquired by Great Western Railway in 1883 with a view to combining it with the
Birmingham to Stratford Line The North Warwickshire Line (also known as the Shakespeare Line) is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom. It runs from Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, now the southern terminus of the line, a ...
to create a high-speed route from the Midlands to the
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. The GWR obtained authorisation in 1899 for the construction of a double-track line between Honeybourne and Cheltenham and this was completed in stages by 1908. Toddington station was opened on 1 December 1904. It was built as a railhead for fruit traffic, with a fruit packing shed being provided in the
goods yard A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are l ...
in addition to the
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 ...
. The shed was long and comprised a goods crane. The goods yard was the largest on the line and accommodated three main sidings which were each capable of holding 30 wagons. Two more sidings led into the fruit shed. The fruit was processed in a nearby trading estate established by T W Beach & Sons in 1883, where it was put into tins and shipped out again; coffee was also dealt with in a similar way. A temporary 29-lever signal box was brought into service to welcome the first train, the 06.43 from which arrived at 07.10. This was replaced in January 1905 at a cost of £236 (or £ in ) for the extension of the line to . A footbridge was provided in 1912 to link the two platforms; the main station building stood on the up platform, behind which was a dock from which large quantities of milk were dispatched. Opposite the main building on the down platform was a small passenger waiting shelter and a large
water tank A water tank is a container for storing water. Water tanks are used to provide storage of water for use in many applications, drinking water, irrigation agriculture, fire suppression, agricultural farming, both for plants and livestock, chemi ...
which drew its supply from the Stanway Estate. The station was lit by acetylene gas lamps until 1917 when
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became difficult to obtain. The first through passenger excursions to call at Toddington began in August 1906 following the opening of the line through to Cheltenham. Initially, they were a Mondays-only service from to and to , but became more regular following the opening of the
North Warwickshire Line The North Warwickshire Line (also known as the Shakespeare Line) is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom. It runs from Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, now the southern terminus of the line, a ...
in July 1908. Nearby
Stanway House Stanway House is a Jacobean manor house, located near the village of Stanway in Gloucestershire, England. The manor of Stanway was owned by Tewkesbury Abbey for 800 years then for 500 years by the Tracy family and their descendants, the Earls ...
, the residence of the
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, attracted a number of visitors by rail, one of the most famous of whom being
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. Passenger tickets sold at Toddington fell from 11,580 in 1913 to 6,050 in 1933; during the same period goods forwarded and received dropped from 5414 tons to 1802 tons. Fruit traffic was badly affected by a 1954 strike by railwaymen, which turned fruit growers towards road transport. Toddington closed to passenger traffic on 7 March 1960, leaving the goods yard in use until 2 September 1967 after which the weigh house and fruit packing shed were demolished. With the line remaining open to goods and diversionary traffic, the platforms were cut away by April 1968 to facilitate the out-of-gauge loads which used the route. Closure of the line along with the signal box at Toddington came on 22 October 1976 and the track was lifted in 1979-80.


Stationmasters

*Thomas Marsden 1904 - 1931 (formerly station master at Presthope) *T.D. Lane 1931 - 1944 *Raymond Breeze 1944 - 1950 *Edgar Archibald Tredwell from 1956 (formerly station master at Blockley)


Present day

The
Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWR, GWSR or Gloucs-Warks Steam Railway) is a volunteer-run heritage railway which runs along the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border of the Cotswolds, England. The GWSR has restored and reope ...
took a lease of Toddington yard from 24 March 1981, with the first working party on site on 28 March. After site clearance, the first track was laid and a compound was built alongside the goods shed which was used by a small business. The signal box was included in the compound, although its
lever frame Mechanical railway signalling installations rely on lever frames for their operation to interlock the signals, track locks and points to allow the safe operation of trains in the area the signals control. Usually located in the signal box, the ...
had been purchased and removed by the
Gwili Railway The Gwili Railway (Welsh: ''Rheilffordd Gwili'') is a Welsh heritage railway, that operates a preserved standard gauge railway line from the site of Abergwili Junction (near Carmarthen) in southwest Wales along a section of the former Carmarth ...
a few days earlier just as the lease negotiations were being finalised. Toddington's first locomotive, a
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D615 0-6-0 diesel shunter, was delivered on 30 May 1981, to be followed by GWR 2800 Class 2807 from
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on 20 June 1981. During the next four years, the station site was transformed with the thorough refurbishment of the station building, reinstatement of the platform and restoration of the signal box with a new frame from Earlswood Lakes. Double track was laid through the station towards Stanway Viaduct to the north and extensive sidings were laid to accommodate a large collection of locomotives and
rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...
. The goods shed was taken over and converted into a workshop and office, whilst a
water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towers often operate in conju ...
was brought in from Ashford. The station was inspected by Major Rose of
Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate Established in 1840, His Majesty's Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) is the organisation responsible for overseeing safety on Britain's railways and tramways. It was previously a separate non-departmental public body, but from 1990 to April 2006 it ...
on 21 March 1984 and authorisation was given for operation of a 2-coach
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train over a ¼-mile section of track as far as Didbrook Bridge. The official reopening of the station took place on 22 April 1984 when Nicholas Ridley, the local MP, cut the tape on
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. By 2003, the line had been extended south to . In late-2005/early-2006, a start was made to relay track north towards , and the first of this section, as far as , re-opened in March 2011.


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * {{Transport in Gloucestershire Heritage railway stations in Gloucestershire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1904 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1960 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1984 Stanway, Gloucestershire