Chalcombe Road Halt railway station

Chalcombe Road Halt
Location in 1988
General information
LocationChacombe, Cherwell
England
Grid referenceSP490442
Platforms2
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyGreat Central Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Central Railway
Post-groupingLondon and North Eastern Railway
London Midland Region of British Railways
Key dates
1 June 1900Culworth Junction-Banbury line opened
17 April 1911Station opened
6 February 1956Station closed[1]
4 September 1966Culworth Junction-Banbury line closed

Chalcombe Road Halt was a railway station on the link line between the Great Central Railway and the Great Western Railway's Birmingham - London line, leaving the Great Central at Culworth Junction to connect with Banbury Junction. The station, which served the nearby Northamptonshire village of Chacombe, opened in 1911 and closed in 1956.

History

In 1893, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) obtained Parliamentary approval for the extension of its line from Annesley in Nottingham to London. The final section of the extension saw the line connect with Metropolitan Railway's line at Quainton Road before returning to MS&LR metals at Finchley Road and continuing to Marylebone. Negotiations with the Metropolitan regarding running rights over its line came to deadlock prompting Sir William Pollitt, the MS&LR's general manager, to reach agreement with the Great Western Railway in March 1896 for a route to London via Banbury which would avoid the Metropolitan.[2]

The link line, which ran for a distance of 8.25 miles (13.28 km), was opened without formality on 1 June 1900. The route had no intermediate stations but soon became an important freight route with 60,796 wagons exchanged between the MS&LR (now known as the Great Central) and the Great Western within the first six months of operation; by 1904 this figure had risen by 50%. Two passenger services each way were initially provided by the Great Western, with the Great Central later supplementing this service with three additional trains in each direction.[3] The link was subsequently used for cross-country services, including Aberdeen to Penzance, Oxford to Leicester and Newcastle to Bournemouth.[4]

The line crossed the Northamptonshire–Oxfordshire county boundary five times between Eydon Road Halt and Banbury; at its closest approach to Chacombe, it was on the Oxfordshire side of the boundary, within the parish of Cropredy.[5] A small halt (situated between Chacombe and Coton Farm) was opened on 17 April 1911 and named Chalcombe Road Halt.[6] Serving a rural area, the halt closed on 6 February 1956, and the line itself closed on 4 September 1966.[7]


Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Banbury
Line closed, station open 		  Great Central Railway
Banbury branch 		  Eydon Road Halt
Line and station closed

References

  1. ^ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford, ISBN 1-85260-508-1, p. 57.
  2. ^ Dow, George (1962). Great Central: Volume 2 Dominion of Watkin 1864-1899. Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Limited. pp. 288–289.
  3. ^ Dow, George (1965). Great Central: Volume 3 Fay sets the pace 1900-1922. London: Ian Allan. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-7110-0263-0.
  4. ^ Virgin Trains Media, "Virgin Trains offers Aberdeen to Penzance from just 4p a mile", 12 August 2003. Archived 16 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Sheet 145 Banbury (Map). 1" = 1 mile. One Inch Seventh Series. Ordnance Survey. 1956. § 49 44.
  6. ^ 'Parishes: Cropredy', A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 10: Banbury hundred (1972), pp. 157–175. Date accessed: 7 September 2008.
  7. ^ Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (November 2006). "Figure 90". Aylesbury to Rugby. Midland Main Lines. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-904474-91-8.

52°05′42″N 1°17′10″W / 52.09488°N 1.28616°W / 52.09488; -1.28616