Fencote railway station

Fencote railway station was a railway station on the Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway in England.

Fencote
Fencote railway station, October 2008
Location
Place	Hatfield
Area	Herefordshire
Coordinates	52.2274°N 2.5856°W / 52.2274; -2.5856
Grid reference	SO601589
Operations
Original company	Leominster and Bromyard Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Platforms	2
History
1 September 1897 (1897-09-01)	Station opened
September 1949	Unstaffed
15 September 1952	Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Opening

Opened as part of the final section of the Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway, the railway was bought out of bankruptcy by the Great Western Railway in 1888, who completed the line in 1897.[1]

Closure

After the Second World War, and with the greater use of the motorbus and private cars, traffic on the line fell considerably. Unstaffed as a station from September 1949, the line closed to regular passenger services on 15 September 1952.[2]

On 26 April 1958 a special train organised by the Stephenson Locomotive Society ran from Worcester via Bromyard to Leominster, calling at Rowden Mill, Fencote and Steen's Bridge. The 50 society members and passengers rode on the last train that would run on the complete track before it was removed. The Worcester to Bromyard section, kept open for the storage of disused and soon to be scrapped railway wagons, was closed under the Beeching Axe in 1964.[3]

Present

In 1980, Fencote was bought by an ex-railway employee and restored as a private residence. The signal box has since been restored, and sections of the track either side of station have been re-installed.[3] In 1984, neighbouring station Rowden Mill was bought and restored. Both sites are occasionally open for public access and viewing, but without operational trains.[3]

References

1. "The Worcester, Bromyard & Leominster Railway". Herefordshire County Council. Archived from the original on 27 January 2013. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
2. Leslie Oppitz. "The Lost Railway". BBC Hereford and Worcester. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
3. "Bromyard to Leominster". Geoff Pages. Retrieved 13 June 2012.

Further reading

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2004). Worcester to Hereford. Middleton Press. figs. 34-36. ISBN 9781904474388. OCLC 862604858.

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Steens Bridge Line and station closed		Great Western Railway Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway		Rowden Mill Line and station closed