Milcote
Milcote station was located on the Oxford, Worcester and
Wolverhampton Railway's single line branch from Honeybourne to Stratford Upon
Avon and was opened on the 12th July 1859. In 1915 Milcote was just inside the
county boundary which passed through the very southern end of the goods
yard.
As was the case with other stations on the then signle
branch line, Milcote was built with just the one platform until May 1908 when
the line was doubled. The original platform was by nature short and had the
goods yard and its facilities immediately adjacent to the platform's end.
Rather than remodelling the goods yard the cheapest alternative for the GWR was
to resite the platforms the other side of the crossing.
Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith record in their book
'Stratford Upon Avon to Cheltenham' the records for the movement of goods
traffic and passengers over three decades from 1903 to 1933. These records
showed the passenger numbers in 1903 were 5077. By 1913 they had grown to 7126
with a further increase to 9399 in 1923 but by1933 these numbers had fallen
back to 5151.
Parcel traffic showed a similar pattern. In 1903 the station
forwarded 1844 parcels, growing to 4943 in 1913, and further growth in 1923 to
4806 but again a fall in number to 1919 by 1933. The year 1923, which saw the
station's busiest time, saw the station with five members of staff being
employed.
Interestingly, the tonnage of goods forwarded from the
station didn't follow this pattern as numbers actually fell from 1903 onwards.
Whilst in 1903 the figure was 1333 tons, the following three decades saw much
lower figures, being respectively 575, 534 although tonnage did recover to 692
tons in 1933.
General goods received commenced at 301 tons in 1903 with
increases over the next two decades to 449 tons and 485 tons respectively
before falling to 195 tons in 1933. The station, being located in a rural area
without much industry, handled very little coal and coke. Tonnage received
started from 14 tons in 1903 growing slightly to 16 tons in 1913 before falling
back to 7 tons for both 1923 and 1933.
The passenger service was withdrawn on 3rd January 1966
whilst the goods yard had closed a year before Long Marston's on 1st July
1963.
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