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Stratford on Avon Station
Stratford Upon Avon has had three standard gauge stations
associated with the GWR or companies under its influence, two termini of
branches and one through station, the current station, which itself has been
subject to alterations to its layout over the years. Initially two branch lines
served the town each with their own terminus. The first station to open was
just south of the current station at Sancta Lane being the site of the
OWWR´s (Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway) branch terminus
which was only operational for a very brief period of time, from 12 July 1859
to 24 July 1861. The second station located on the Birmingham Road, opened on
9th October 1860, was just to the north of the current station and served the
Stratford Railway Company's branch line from Hatton to Stratford Upon Avon, a
spur off the GWR's Oxford to Birmingham route. The obvious advantage of joining
the two branch lines was quickly recognised and the current station was opened
on 24 July 1861 with the Birmingham Road station being relegated to goods
traffic and the occasional excursion traffic, the latter ceasing in 1869.
The Alcester Road station was built as a two platform station
with possibly a bay platform located in a similar position to the current
platform 3. The Birmingham Road station remained open as a goods facility until
it too succumbed to the competition of road traffic on 6 May 1968. In the early
part of the century, probably related to the GWR's decision to open a new main
line route to the West of England, the station was rebuilt and upgraded to
incorporate a third through platform on the up side of the station although it
is known it handled local services from Honeybourne and Hatton. The third
platform required the demolition of the up platform's building and the creation
of an island platform which shortened platform 2 at the Alcester Road end to
provide access to platform 3. Today with the closure of the line to the south
of Stratford Upon Avon the physical layout remains the same but history has
turned full circle as the town is now effectively served by a terminal
station.
The GWR, as with all the railway companies, extensively promoted
places to visit by their railway services and Stratford upon Avon and other
areas within Warwickshire were no exception. Robert Ferris has transcribed some
extracts from contemporary GWR books and these can be read by clicking
here. Whilst a number of books have been
written on the Great Western Railway's route to the West of England with some
information on Stratford on Avon station, the most definitive work is contained
in articles written by John Copsey and Chris Turner in two issues of the Great
Western Railway Journal, No 52 Autumn 2004 and No 53 Winter 2005. Despite
extensive use of their iterations in the captions of the photographs, many near
verbatim, these two articles cover a significant amount of detailed information
not included on the website. People wishing to learn more about the operations
at Stratford on Avon station and shed should therefore seek to obtain copies of
the two volumes published by Wild Swan of 1-3 Hagbourne Road, Didcot, Oxon,
OX11 8DP, Telephone 01235 816478.
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