Shiplake railway station

Shiplake railway station is a railway station in the village of Lower Shiplake (formerly Lashbrook) in Oxfordshire, England. The station is on the Henley-on-Thames branch line that links the towns of Henley-on-Thames and Twyford. It is 2 miles 60 chains (4.4 km) down the line from Twyford and 33 miles 61 chains (54.3 km) measured from London Paddington.

Shiplake
Location
Place	Shiplake
Local authority	South Oxfordshire
Coordinates	51.511°N 0.883°W / 51.511; -0.883
Grid reference	SU776797
Operations
Station code	SHI
Managed by	Great Western Railway
Number of platforms	1
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	92,580
2015/16	91,314
2016/17	92,632
2017/18	86,700
2018/19	90,468
History
Key dates	Opened 1 June 1857 (1 June 1857)
Original company	Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
1 June 1857	Twyford to Henley-on-Thames branch opened
1 June 1857	Station opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Shiplake from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

It is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway.[1]

The station has a single platform, which is used by trains in both directions. There is a 50-space car park, but no station building other than a simple shelter. The station is unmanned, and tickets must be purchased on the train.[1]

The station was built in the village of Lashbrook in 1857, but named for the main village of Shiplake. The village of Shiplake, with the parish Church and grand manor houses of Shiplake Court and Shiplake House is actually over a mile away to the south of Shiplake Station. Victorian developers and their commuting commercial customers however then chose to build new houses close to the station, and the hamlet of Lashbrook grew rapidly and eventually changed its name to Lower Shiplake in the early twentieth century. In June 1914, it is said suffragettes were intending to burn Shiplake Church, but on realising it was such a distance from the station of the same name, burned Wargrave Church down instead. A camping coach was positioned here by the Western Region from 1956 to 1963.[2]

Service

In normal service, there is a regular service between Henley-on-Thames station and Twyford station, with all trains calling at Shiplake station. Passengers for Paddington and Reading must change at Twyford. Trains operate twice an hour during the day, with less frequent services in the early morning and late evenings. Trains run to the same basic frequency seven days a week, but start and finish times for the service differ by day of the week.[3]

During the Henley Royal Regatta, held every July, a special timetable is operated with additional trains. During the period of the regatta, not all trains stop at Shiplake station.[4]

The platform can hold 7 coaches.[5]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Wargrave		Great Western Railway Henley-on-Thames branch		Henley-on-Thames

Level crossing

There is a level crossing north of the station that, despite being well signalled, has been the site of a numerous accidents and near misses over the years.[6][7] The crossing had no barriers until March 2013, when Network Rail had automatic half-barriers installed.[8]

In October 2014, safety cameras described by locals as 'looking like robots' were controversially installed to monitor the crossing.[9]

References

1. "Shiplake (SHI)". National Rail Enquiries. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
2. McRae, Andrew (1998). British Railways Camping Coach Holidays: A Tour of Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. Scenes from the Past: 30 (Part Two). Foxline. p. 95. ISBN 1-870119-53-3.
3. "Twyford to Henley-on-Thames : The Regatta Line" (PDF). First Great Western. 19 May 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
4. "Henley Royal Regatta". National Rail Enquiries. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
5. Yonge, John; Padgett, David (August 2010) [1989]. Bridge, Mike (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 3: Western (5th ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 3A. ISBN 978-0-9549866-6-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
6. "Shiplake crossing crash driver leaves hospital". Reading Post. Trinity Mirror. 18 November 2011. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
7. Millward, David (23 November 2011). "Safety calls at Shiplake railway crossing". Reading Post. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
8. "New technology helps install half barriers at Shiplake level crossing". Network Rail. 18 March 2013. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
9. http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?id=1540246

External links

• Media related to Shiplake railway station at Wikimedia Commons

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