Brill railway station
Encyclopedia
Brill railway station was the terminus of a small railway line in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, England, known as the Brill Tramway
Brill Tramway
The Brill Tramway, also known as the Quainton Tramway, Wotton Tramway, Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad and Metropolitan Railway Brill Branch, was a six-mile rail line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England...

. Built and owned by the Duke of Buckingham
Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos GCSI, PC , styled Earl Temple until 1839 and Marquess of Chandos from 1839 to 1861, was a British soldier, politician and administrator of the 19th century...

, it was later operated by London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Metropolitan Railway
Metropolitan railway
Metropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...

, and in 1933 briefly became one of the two north-western termini of the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

, despite being 45 miles (72.4 km) and over two hours travelling time from the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

.

Approximately of a mile (1.2 km) north of Brill
Brill
Brill is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, close to the boundary with Oxfordshire. It is about north-west of Long Crendon and south-east of Bicester...

, the station was opened in March 1872 as the result of lobbying from local residents and businesses. As the line was cheaply built, ungraded
Land grading
Grading in civil engineering and construction is the work of ensuring a level base, or one with a specified slope, for a construction work such as a foundation, the base course for a road or a railway, or landscape and garden improvements, or surface drainage...

, and used poor quality locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s, services were very slow, taking 1 hour 45 minutes to travel the six miles (10 km) from Brill to the junction station
Junction station
Junction station usually refers to a railway station situated or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines...

 with mainline services at Quainton Road
Quainton Road railway station
Quainton Road railway station was opened in 1868 in undeveloped countryside near Quainton, Buckinghamshire, from London. Built by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, it was the result of pressure from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham to route the railway near his home at Wotton House and to open a...

. Although serving a lightly populated area and little used by passengers, the station was a significant point for freight traffic, particularly as a supplier of milk from the dairy farms of Buckinghamshire to Aylesbury
Aylesbury
Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. However the town also falls into a geographical region known as the South Midlands an area that ecompasses the north of the South East, and the southern extremities of the East Midlands...

 and London. A brickworks
Brickworks
A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....

 was also attached to the station, but it proved unable to compete with nearby rivals and closed within a few years of opening.

During the 1890s, plans were made to extend the tramway to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, but the scheme was abandoned. Instead, the operation of the line was taken over by the Metropolitan Railway in 1899, and the line became one of the railway's two north-western termini. It was upgraded and better quality locomotives were introduced, reducing the journey time to Quainton Road by almost two-thirds.

In 1933, the Metropolitan Railway was taken into public ownership and became the Metropolitan Line
Metropolitan Line
The Metropolitan line is part of the London Underground. It is coloured in Transport for London's Corporate Magenta on the Tube map and in other branding. It was the first underground railway in the world, opening as the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863...

 of London Transport
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...

. The management of London Transport aimed to reduce goods services, and it was felt that there was little chance of the more distant parts of the former Metropolitan Railway ever becoming viable passenger routes. The line was closed on 30 November 1935, and all buildings and infrastructure at Brill associated with the line were sold at auction and subsequently demolished. The site of the station is now a light industrial development known as the "Tramway Business Park".

Wotton Tramway

On 23 September 1868, the small Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway was an English railway located in Buckinghamshire, England operating between Aylesbury and Verney Junction.-History:...

 (A&BR) opened, linking the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

's station at Aylesbury
Aylesbury railway station
Aylesbury railway station is a railway station in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England and is a major stop on the London to Aylesbury Line from Marylebone station via Amersham. It is 37.75 miles from Aylesbury Station to Marylebone Station...

 to the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...

's Oxford to Bletchley line
Varsity Line
The Varsity Line is an informal name for the railway route that formerly linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated successively by the London and North Western Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and British Railways...

 at Verney Junction
Verney Junction railway station
Verney Junction was a railway station at a junction serving four directions between 1868 and 1968 and from where excursions as far as Ramsgate could be booked...

. On 1 September 1894, London's Metropolitan Railway
Metropolitan railway
Metropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...

 (MR) reached Aylesbury, and shortly afterwards connected to the A&BR line, with local MR services running to Verney Junction from 1 April 1894. Through trains from the MR's London terminus at Baker Street
Baker Street tube station
Baker Street tube station is a station on the London Underground at the junction of Baker Street and the Marylebone Road. The station lies in Travelcard Zone 1 and is served by five different lines...

 began on 1 January 1897.

Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, had long had an interest in railways, and had served as Chairman of the London and North Western Railway from 1852 until 1861. In the early 1870s, he decided to build a light railway
Light railway
Light railway refers to a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail". This usually means the railway uses lighter weight track, and is more steeply graded and tightly curved to avoid civil engineering costs...

 to transport freight from his estates in Buckinghamshire to the A&BR's line at Quainton Road
Quainton Road railway station
Quainton Road railway station was opened in 1868 in undeveloped countryside near Quainton, Buckinghamshire, from London. Built by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, it was the result of pressure from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham to route the railway near his home at Wotton House and to open a...

.
The first stage of the route, known as the Wotton Tramway
Brill Tramway
The Brill Tramway, also known as the Quainton Tramway, Wotton Tramway, Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad and Metropolitan Railway Brill Branch, was a six-mile rail line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England...

, was a 4 miles (6.4 km) line from Quainton Road via Wotton
Wotton railway station
Wotton railway station was a small station in Buckinghamshire, England, built by the Duke of Buckinghamshire in 1871. Part of a private horse-drawn tramway designed to carry freight from and around his lands in Buckinghamshire, Wotton station was intended to serve the Duke's home at Wotton House...

 to a coal siding at Kingswood
Kingswood, Buckinghamshire
Kingswood is a hamlet of 30 dwellings on the South side of the A41 from Waddesdon to Bicester and between the villages of Ludgershall and Grendon Underwood in Buckinghamshire, England. Kingswood is also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district. Parish matters are currently administered via a...

, and opened on 1 April 1871. Intended for use by horse trams
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...

, the line was built with longitudinal sleepers
Baulk road
Baulk road is the name given to a type of railway track or 'rail road' that is formed using rails carried on continuous timber bearings, as opposed to the more familiar 'cross-sleeper' track that uses closely spaced sleepers or ties to give intermittent support to taller rails...

, to avoid horses tripping.

Extension to Brill

Lobbying from the nearby town of Brill
Brill
Brill is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, close to the boundary with Oxfordshire. It is about north-west of Long Crendon and south-east of Bicester...

 for the introduction of passenger services on the line led to an extension from Wotton to a new terminus at the foot of Brill Hill, north of the hilltop town of Brill itself, in March 1872. Two mixed train
Mixed train
A mixed train is a train that hauls both passenger and freight cars or wagons. In the early days of railways they were quite common, but by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. As the trains provided passengers with very slow service, mixed trains have...

s each day ran in each direction. With the extension to Brill opened the line was renamed the Brill Tramway. The Duke bought two Aveling and Porter
Aveling and Porter
Aveling and Porter was a British agricultural engine and steam roller manufacturer. Thomas Aveling and Richard Thomas Porter entered into partnership in 1862, developed a steam engine three years later in 1865 and produced more steam rollers than all the other British manufacturers combined.-The...

 traction engine
Traction engine
A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...

s modified to work as locomotives, each with a top speed of 8 miles per hour (3.6 m/s), although a speed limit of 5 miles per hour (2.2 m/s) was enforced.

The Duke died in 1889. In 1894, the trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...

s of his estate
Estate (law)
An estate is the net worth of a person at any point in time. It is the sum of a person's assets - legal rights, interests and entitlements to property of any kind - less all liabilities at that time. The issue is of special legal significance on a question of bankruptcy and death of the person...

 set up the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company (O&ATC) with the intention of extending the line from Brill to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, but the extension beyond Brill was never built. The MR leased the Brill Tramway from 1 December 1899, although the line continued to be owned by the O&ATC.

Services and facilities

Brill was a small town of 1,400 people when the line opened, and owing to the town's hilltop setting the station was of a mile (1.2 km) from Brill itself. Brill railway station was small, with a single low platform. On its opening, there was one station building, which served as the freight depot, passenger terminal, and ticket office. Next to it was a siding that led to a cattle pen. After the 1899 transfer of services to the Metropolitan Railway, the MR introduced a single Brown Marshall
Brown, Marshalls and Co. Ltd.
Brown, Marshalls and Co. Ltd. were a company that built railway carriages, based in Saltley, Birmingham, in the UK. They were formed in 1840. In 1866 they built the original coaches for the Talyllyn Railway, which are still in use, and in 1873 built two bogie coaches for the Ffestiniog Railway....

 passenger carriage on the line; at this time, a small wooden hut was added to the station to serve as a ticket office and waiting room and a short section of platform was raised to conventional height to allow access to the higher doors on the new carriage.

Passenger services

From 1872 to 1894 the station was served by two passenger trains per day, and from 1895 to 1899 the number was increased to three per day. Following the 1899 transfer of services to the Metropolitan Railway, the station was served by four trains per day until its closure in 1935. Limited by poor quality locomotives and ungraded
Land grading
Grading in civil engineering and construction is the work of ensuring a level base, or one with a specified slope, for a construction work such as a foundation, the base course for a road or a railway, or landscape and garden improvements, or surface drainage...

, cheaply laid track which followed the contours of the hills, and with five intermediate stops to pick up and set down goods, passengers and livestock, trains ran very slowly; in 1887 trains needed 1 hour 45 minutes to travel the six miles from Brill to the junction station
Junction station
Junction station usually refers to a railway station situated or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines...

 at Quainton Road. Improvements to the line carried out at the time of the transfer to the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad, and the use of the MR's better quality rolling stock, reduced the journey time from Brill to Quainton Road to between 32 and 36 minutes.

Serving a lightly populated area, and with trains travelling only marginally quicker than walking pace, Brill station was relatively little used by passengers; in 1932, the last year of private operation, Brill station (and the nearby halt at Wood Siding
Wood Siding railway station
Wood Siding railway station was a small halt in Bernwood Forest, Buckinghamshire, England. It was opened in 1871 as a terminus of a short horse-drawn tramway built to assist the transport of goods from and around the Duke of Buckingham's extensive estates in Buckinghamshire and to connect the...

) saw only 3,272 passenger journeys and raised only £191 (about £ as of ) in passenger receipts.

Goods facilities

Although little used by passengers, Brill station was valuable as a relatively rapid link between the dairy farms of Buckinghamshire and the markets of Aylesbury and London; around 30 carts per day would deliver milk to Brill station for the first train each morning. There was also a small amount of coal traffic to the station; Brill coal dealer George Green received three coal wagons per month. In addition, a storehouse at the station held beer supplied by the breweries of Brackley
Brackley
Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Oxford and miles form Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the intersecting trade routes between London, Birmingham and the English Midlands and between Cambridge and Oxford...

 and Aylesbury. Bricks and tiles from the brick and tile factories of Brill were used in the construction of Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...

, near the eastern end of the Brill Tramway, between 1874 and 1889.

In 1885 the Duke of Buckingham opened a modern brickworks near Brill station, with a dedicated siding, and in 1895 his heir William Temple-Gore-Langton, 4th Earl Temple of Stowe
William Temple-Gore-Langton, 4th Earl Temple of Stowe
William Stephen Temple-Gore-Langton, 4th Earl Temple of Stowe , known as William Gore-Langton until 1892, was a British Conservative politician....

, expanded the brickworks, which became the Brill Brick & Tile Works, using the Brill Tramway to deliver bricks to the mainline at Quainton Road. With the connection to Oxford and the upgrading of the rail line abandoned, Brill Brick & Tile Works was unable to compete with the nearby brickworks at Calvert
Calvert, Buckinghamshire
Calvert is a village in Buckinghamshire, England, near the village of Steeple Claydon.Originally named after a wealthy local family, the village was founded as a hamlet in the Victorian era to house workers for the brick works that were constructed in the area. The works have since been closed and...

, and soon closed. The building was taken over by the Fenemore workshop, making hay loaders
Loader (equipment)
A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material into or onto another type of machinery .-Heavy equipment front loaders:A loader A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material (such as asphalt,...

, before being converted into a timber yard
Lumber yard
A lumber yard is a retail location for lumber and wood related products used in construction and/or home improvement projects. Lumber yards can also provide services such as the use of a planer and other large machines....

 in the 1920s.

Closure

On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan Railway, along with London's other underground railways except for the small Waterloo & City Railway, was taken into public ownership as part of the newly formed London Passenger Transport Board
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...

 (LPTB). Thus, despite it being 45 miles (72.4 km) and over two hours travel from the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

, Brill station became a terminus of the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 network. Frank Pick
Frank Pick
Frank Pick LLB Hon. RIBA was a British transport administrator. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1902, he worked at the North Eastern Railway, before moving to the Underground Electric Railways Company of London in 1906...

, Managing Director of the Underground Group
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited , known operationally as The Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a circular tunnel by the use...

 from 1928 and the Chief Executive of the LPTB, aimed to move the network away from freight services, and saw the lines beyond Aylesbury via Quainton Road to Brill and Verney Junction as having little future as financially viable passenger routes, concluding that over £2,000 (about £ as of ) would be saved by closing the Brill Tramway. As a consequence, the LPTB decided to withdraw all passenger services beyond Aylesbury. The Brill Tramway was closed on 1 December 1935; the last services ran on 30 November.

Upon the withdrawal of London Transport services the lease expired, and the railway and stations reverted to the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company. With no funds and no rolling stock of its own, the O&ATC was unable to operate the line, and on 2 April 1936 the entire infrastructure of the line was sold at auction. The former goods shed at Brill sold for £7 10s (about £ as of ), and a railway-owned house attached to Brill station fetched £350 (about £ as of ). All buildings in Brill associated with the railway station have been demolished, and the station site is now a light industrial site known as the "Tramway Business Park".

Further reading

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