Kingham railway station

Kingham railway station in Oxfordshire, England is between the Oxfordshire village of Kingham and the Gloucestershire village of Bledington, to which it is closer. It is also the closest station to the town of Chipping Norton.

Kingham
Location
Place	Kingham
Local authority	West Oxfordshire
Grid reference	SP256227
Operations
Station code	KGM
Managed by	Great Western Railway
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	0.181 million
2015/16	0.184 million
2016/17	0.184 million
2017/18	0.184 million
2018/19	0.182 million
History
Key dates	Opened 10 August 1855 (10 August 1855)
Original company	Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
4 June 1853	Evesham to Oxford line opened
10 August 1855	Chipping Norton Railway opened Station opened as Chipping Norton Junction
1 March 1862	Bourton-on-the-Water Railway opened
8 January 1906	Flyover opened
1 May 1909	Station renamed Kingham
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Kingham from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The station is on the Cotswold Line and is served by Great Western Railway trains.

History

When the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway was extended from Evesham to Wolvercot Junction (north of Oxford) on 4 June 1853,[1] there was no station between Adlestrop and Shipton.[2] On 10 August 1855 a branch line to Chipping Norton was opened by the Chipping Norton Railway, 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.[3][4] The OW&W amalgamated with other railways on 1 July 1860 to form the West Midland Railway;[5][6] this in turn amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 August 1863.[7][8] In the meantime, a second branch line from Chipping Norton Junction, the Bourton-on-the-Water railway, had opened on 1 March 1862;[4][9] that railway was absorbed by the GWR on 1 February 1874.[10]

On 1 June 1881 the first section of the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway was opened; this connected the Bourton-on-the-Water branch to the Cheltenham & Great Western Union line at Lansdown Junction, Cheltenham;[11] and on 6 April 1887 a second section was opened, connecting the Chipping Norton branch to the Oxford and Rugby Railway at King's Sutton.[12] The Great Western Railway took over the B&CDR on 1 July 1897,[13][14] but for nearly twenty years, through trains running between Banbury and Cheltenham Spa St. James 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 line; it opened to goods trains on 8 January 1906 and to passenger trains on 1 May 1906.[15] The station was renamed Kingham on 1 May 1909.[3][16][17]

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, the Great Central Railway and the GWR, which from 1 May 1906 ran between Newcastle and Cardiff Central via York, Sheffield Victoria, Leicester Central, Banbury, Gloucester and Newport;[18] in August 1906 it was extended to serve Barry, via the Barry Railway; in July 1909 a through coach to and from Hull was introduced.[19] It ran non-stop between Banbury and Cheltenham South and Leckhampton, but even so, took 82 minutes for this 44.75-mile (72.02 km) stretch. It was suspended during World War I, reinstated on 12 July 1919 and extended to Swansea in 1920;[20] 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.[21][22]

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.[23] The remaining track between the boxes formed the base of a self-contained triangle for turning engines.[23] By this time, the line to King's Sutton was only open for freight and a token passenger service operated to Chipping Norton.[23]

British Railways 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.

In 2015, a car park extension has been added with 100 car spaces, and a new footbridge is being added, with provision for passenger lifts.

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-foot (6.7 m) turntable,[24] which was too small for a tender locomotive to be turned. This was replaced by a 44 ft 9 in (13.64 m) turntable early in the twentieth century, large enough for a "Dean Goods" 0-6-0 tender locomotive;[25] however the depot closed in 1906. It was rebuilt, reopening again in 1913,[16] as a sub-shed of Worcester, but the turntable was later removed, and the depot finally closed in December 1962.[26]

Accidents and incidents

• On 15 July 1966, an express passenger train was derailed due to an unsecured switch blade on a set of points. Eighteen people were injured.[27]

Services

Great Western Railway operate all services at Kingham. The typical off-peak service at the station in trains per hour is:

• 1 tph to London Paddington
• 1 tph to Worcester Foregate Street of which some continue to Great Malvern and Hereford

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Moreton-in-Marsh		Great Western Railway Cotswold Line		Shipton (Charlbury on Sundays)
	Historical railways
Adlestrop Line open, station closed		Great Western Railway Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway		Shipton Line and station open
	Disused railways
Stow-on-the-Wold Line and station closed		Great Western Railway Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway		Sarsden Halt Line and station closed

Notes

1. MacDermot, Vol. I Part II, Chapter X The West Midland Railway, pp. 498, 867
2. Jenkins & Quayle, pp. 34-36
3. MacDermot, Vol. I Part II, p. 524
4. Jenkins & Quayle, p. 60
5. MacDermot, Vol. I Part II, p. 525
6. Jenkins & Quayle, p. 63
7. MacDermot, Vol. I Part II, p. 553
8. Jenkins & Quayle, p. 66
9. MacDermot, Vol. I Part II, pp. 551, 866
10. Hemmings, Chapter Three The Bourton-on-the-Water Railway, p. 37
11. MacDermot, Vol. II, Chapter IX Prosperity and Repose, pp. 338, 603
12. MacDermot, Vol. II, pp. 365, 605
13. Hemmings, Chapter Five The Era of the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway, p. 99
14. MacDermot, Vol. II, p. 338
15. MacDermot, Vol. II, Chapter XI The Great Awakening, pp. 432, 610
16. Hemmings, Chapter Six Under the Great Western, p. 163
17. Marks, Disused Railways website
18. Hemmings, Chapter Six, pp. 138, 163
19. Harris, Chapter Eight Cross Country Inter-Railway Services to 1922, pp. 106–107
20. Harris, Chapter One Great Western Railway and South Wales Railways to 1922, pp. 12–13
21. Allen, p. 101
22. Harris, Chapter Fourteen Cross Country Inter-Railway Services 1923–47, p. 173
23. Cooke, B. (November 1953). "Economy at Kingham". Trains Illustrated. VI (11): 421.
24. Hemmings, Chapter Six, p. 101
25. Hemmings, Chapter Six, p. 125
26. Lyons, Worcester Division, p. 168
27. Vaughan (1989), pp 222-27

References

• Allen, Cecil J (1947) [1946]. Titled Trains of Great Britain (2nd ed.). London: Ian Allan Publishing.
• Harris, Michael (1996). British Main Line Services in the Age of Steam. Yeovil: Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 0-86093-536-1.
• Hemmings, William (2004). The Banbury & Cheltenham Railway. Volume One. Didcot: Wild Swan. ISBN 1-874103-88-7.
• Jenkins, SC; Quayle, HI (1977). The Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway. The Oakwood Library of Railway History. Blandford: Oakwood Press.
• Lyons, ET (1974) [1972]. An Historical Survey of Great Western Engine Sheds 1947 (2nd ed.). Risinghurst: Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 0-902888-16-1.
• MacDermot, ET (1927). History of the Great Western Railway. I Part II (1st ed.). Paddington: Great Western Railway.
• MacDermot, ET (1931). History of the Great Western Railway. II (1st ed.). Paddington: Great Western Railway.
• Marks, Roger (26 March 2006). "Banbury to Cheltenham (GWR)". Disused Railways. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
• Russell, JH (1977). The Banbury and Cheltenham Railway 1887–1962. Headington: Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 0-902888-45-5.
• Vaughan, Adrian (1989). Obstruction Danger. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 1-85260-055-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• Train times and station information for Kingham railway station from National Rail