Kingham railway station
Encyclopedia
Kingham railway station in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

 is between the Oxfordshire village of Kingham
Kingham
Kingham is a village and civil parish in the Cotswolds about southwest of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.-History:The Church of England parish church of Saint Andrew has a 15th century Perpendicular Gothic west tower. The remainder of the church was rebuilt in 1852-1853...

 and the Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire 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....

 village of Bledington
Bledington
Bledington is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, located about four miles south-east of Stow-on-the-Wold and six miles south-west of Chipping Norton...

, to which it is closer. It is also the closest station to the town of Chipping Norton.

The station is on the Cotswold Line
Cotswold Line
The Cotswold Line is an railway line between and in England.-Route:The line comprises all or part of the following Network Rail routes:*GW 200 from Oxford*GW 310 from Wolvercot Junction*GW 300 from Norton Junction*GW 340 from Worcester Shrub Hill...

 and is served by First Great Western
First Great Western
First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....

 trains.

History

When the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton railway was a company authorised on 4 August 1845 to construct a railway line from the Oxford and Rugby Railway at Wolvercot Junction to Worcester, Stourbridge, Dudley, and Wolverhampton, with a branch to the Grand Junction Railway at Bushbury...

 was extended from to Wolvercot Junction (north of ) on 4 June 1853, there was no station between and . On 10 August 1855, a branch line to was opened by the Chipping Norton Railway
Chipping Norton Railway
The Chipping Norton Railway opened in 1855, first linking the town of Chipping Norton with the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway.-History:...

, and a station, known as Chipping Norton Junction, was opened at the junction of the branch with the OW&W; this branch was purchased by the OW&W in 1859. The OW&W amalgamated with other railways on 1 July 1860 to form the West Midland Railway; this in turn amalgamated 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...

 on 1 August 1863. In the meantime, a second branch line from Chipping Norton Junction, the Bourton-on-the-Water railway, had opened on 1 March 1862; that railway was absorbed by the GWR on 1 February 1874.

On 1 June 1881 the first section of the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway
Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway
The Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway is a former railway in the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, England.-Origins and development:...

 was opened; this connected the branch to the Cheltenham & Great Western Union
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...

 line at Lansdown Junction, Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...

; and on 6 April 1887 a second section was opened, connecting the Chipping Norton branch to the Oxford and Rugby Railway at . 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...

 took over the B&CDR on 1 July 1897, but for nearly twenty years, through trains running between and needed to reverse at Chipping Norton Junction.

The reversal was inconvenient for trains which did not need to call at Chipping Norton Junction, so for their benefit the GWR built a bridge to carry through trains between Banbury and Cheltenham over the Oxford and Worcester
Worcester Shrub Hill railway station
Worcester Shrub Hill railway station is one of two railway stations serving the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England. It is managed by London Midland, and it is also served by First Great Western....

 line; it opened to goods trains on 8 January 1906 and to passenger trains on 1 May 1906. The station was renamed Kingham on 1 May 1909.

Upon the opening of this new link, a new express train service began to use the line, including the new flyover, once a day in each direction. This train, unofficially known as the Ports to Ports Express, was a collaboration between the North Eastern Railway
North Eastern Railway (UK)
The North Eastern Railway , was an English railway company. It was incorporated in 1854, when four existing companies were combined, and was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923...

, the Great Central Railway
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...

 and the GWR, which from 1 May 1906 ran between and via , , , , and ; in August 1906 it was extended to serve , via the Barry Railway
Barry Railway Company
The Barry Railway Company was a coal pit owner developed and owned railway company, formed to provide an alternate route for the sea export of coal mined in the South Wales valleys to the existing monopoly of the Taff Vale Railway and Cardiff Docks...

; in July 1909 a through coach to and from Hull was introduced. It ran non-stop between Banbury and , but even so, took 82 minutes for this 44.75 miles (72 km) stretch. It was suspended during World War I, reinstated on 12 July 1919 and extended to in 1920; on the outbreak of war in September 1939, the service was again suspended, but when reintroduced in October 1946, it used a different route between Banbury and Newport.

In 1953, rationalisation was carried out which resulted in the closure of the East and West signal boxes and the singling of the line between them for working purposes. The remaining track between the boxes formed the base of a self-contained triangle for turning engines. By this time, the line to King's Sutton was only open for freight and a token passenger service operated to Chipping Norton.

British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

ways withdrew passenger services from Kingham to Cheltenham and Chipping Norton in 1962 and freight services in 1964. British Rail designated the Oxford and Worcester line "The Cotswold Line". Passenger traffic has increased in the 1990s and 2000s.

Locomotive depot

A small depot was constructed in 1881 for the Cheltenham extension; this was in the Chipping Norton branch fork, and had a 22 feet (6.7 m) turntable, which was too small for a tender locomotive to be turned. This was replaced by a 44 in 9 in (13.64 m) turntable early in the twentieth century, large enough for a "Dean Goods" 0-6-0 tender engine
GWR 2301 Class
The Great Western Railway 2301 Class or Dean Goods Class is a class of British 0-6-0 steam locomotives.Swindon railway works built 260 of these goods locomotives between 1883 and 1899 to a design of William Dean...

; however the depot closed in 1906. It was rebuilt, reopening again in 1913, as a sub-shed of Worcester, but the turntable was later removed, and the depot finally closed in December 1962.

Routes

External links

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