History

The first station was opened by the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway

Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway

The Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway was a broad gauge railway that linked the Great Western Railway at Swindon, Wiltshire, with Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England...

 (C&GWU) on 23 October 1847, as Cheltenham. It was the terminus of the final section of that company's line from a junction with 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...

 (GWR) at , which had opened in stages: to (and Cirencester

Cirencester Town railway station

Cirencester Town railway station was one of three railway stations which formerly served the town of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England; the others were and .-History:...

) on 31 May 1841; to on 12 May 1845, and finally to Cheltenham on 23 October 1847. In the meantime, the C&GWU had been purchased by the GWR on 1 July 1843. Originally, the station was laid to the broad gauge

Broad gauge

Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...

, but this was converted to standard gauge

Standard gauge

The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

 in May 1872.

On 9 September 1894 it was replaced by another station also named Cheltenham, on a nearby site, slightly to the east, which had two curved semi-island platforms; two more were added later. An imposing brick-built station building was constructed with a covered carriage approach fronting St. James' Square, whilst a 204 ft (62.2 m) goods shed

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 alongside a track with possibly just a canopy over the door...

 was constructed to the north of the site in a yard capable of accommodating 475 wagons. In 1904 the station was able to handle goods, passengers, parcels, furniture vans, carriages, portable engines, machines on wheels, livestock, horse boxes, prize cattle vans and private carriages; there was a crane capable of lifting 8 long ton. The station was renamed twice, to Cheltenham St. James on 11 May 1908, and Cheltenham Spa St. James on 1 February 1925. It was from this station that the GWR inaugurated the Cheltenham Flyer

Cheltenham Spa Express

The Cheltenham Spa Express is a British named passenger train service from Paddington station, in London, to Cheltenham Spa, in Gloucestershire, via Reading, Kemble, Stroud, Stonehouse and Gloucester...

 on 9 July 1923 which ran to London via . The express

Express train

Express trains are a form of rail service. Express trains make only a small number of stops, instead of stopping at every single station...

 covered the 77.3 miles (124.4 km) between Swindon and London in 56 minutes 47 seconds at an average speed of 81.7 miles per hour (131.5 km/h) on 6 June 1932, then the fastest-timed train in the world.

Although the GWR had absorbed the Midland and South Western Junction Railway

Midland and South Western Junction Railway

The Midland and South Western Junction Railway was, until the 1923 Grouping, an independent railway built to form a north-south link between the Midland and London and South Western Railways allowing the Midland and other companies' trains to reach the port of Southampton.-Formation:The M&SWJR...

 (MSWJR) at the 1923 Grouping

Railways Act 1921

The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...

, the MSWJR trains from , Swindon

Swindon Town railway station

Swindon Town railway station was on the Midland and South Western Junction Railway at Swindon in Wiltshire. The station was sited in the Old Town area about one-and-a-half miles from the Great Western Railway's Swindon Junction.- History :...

 and Cirencester

Cirencester Watermoor railway station

Cirencester Watermoor railway station was on the Midland and South Western Junction Railway at Cirencester in Gloucestershire. The station opened on 18 December 1883 as the terminus of the Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway line from Swindon Town. That line then amalgamated with the Swindon,...

 continued to run to the LMS

London, Midland and Scottish Railway

The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...

 (ex-Midland Railway

Midland Railway

The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....

) station at Cheltenham (Lansdown)

Cheltenham Spa railway station

Cheltenham Spa railway station is in Gloucestershire, England, on the Bristol-Birmingham main line. It is managed by First Great Western and is about one mile from the town centre.-History:...

. It was not until the British Railways period that these were eventually diverted to the former GWR stations at St. James and Malvern Road, this occurring from 3 November 1958, but less than three years later, on 9 September 1961, the services along the MSWJR line ceased entirely. Closure of the route from followed on 15 October 1962. The remaining services using St. James were insufficient to make the station's retention a viable proposition and, as Birmingham to Gloucester

Birmingham and Gloucester Railway

The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway is a railway route linking Birmingham to Gloucester in England.It is one of the world's oldest main line railways and includes the famous Lickey Incline, a dead-straight stretch of track running up the 1-in-37 gradient of the Lickey Ridge...

 services could not use it, Cheltenham Spa St. James station closed to passengers on 3 January 1966, with the remaining passenger services being diverted to the less-convenient Cheltenham Spa (Lansdown)

Cheltenham Spa railway station

Cheltenham Spa railway station is in Gloucestershire, England, on the Bristol-Birmingham main line. It is managed by First Great Western and is about one mile from the town centre.-History:...

. General freight ceased at the same time, but coal continued until 31 October 1966.; by this time the station was worked as a long siding

Rail siding

A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line or branch line or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end...

 from Malvern Road East Signal Box after the closure in June of that year of St. James's Box.

Route

Present day

A Waitrose

Waitrose

Waitrose Limited is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. Its head office is in Bracknell, Berkshire, England...

 supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

 now stands on the site of St. James station. A plaque has been affixed to the entrance of the store by Cheltenham Civic Society to commemorate the now-demolished terminus. Prior to the construction of the superstore, which opened in 2002, the trackbed was used as a cyclepath linking the town with Cheltenham Leisure Centre, and so when planning permission

Planning permission

Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...

 for the redevelopment of the station site was granted, a condition

Planning condition

In the United Kingdom a planning condition is a condition placed on grants of planning permission by local planning authorities. Such conditions permit development to go ahead only if certain conditions are satisfied. Conditions include time limits on development, undertakings regarding...

 was imposed that the developer construct a new pedestrian bridge to ensure continued access to the remaining trackbed. The bridge follows a section of former railway embankment

Embankment (transportation)

To keep a road or railway line straight or flat, and where the comparative cost or practicality of alternate solutions is prohibitive, the land over which the road or rail line will travel is built up to form an embankment. An embankment is therefore in some sense the opposite of a cutting, and...

which was removed to provide road access to the new store.