Blunsdon railway station
{{Short description|Railway station in Wiltshire, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}
{{more citations needed|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox station
| name = Blunsdon
| type = Station on heritage railway
| image = Hudswell Clarke saddle tank Tubby at Blunsdon.jpg
| caption = Hudswell Clarke saddle tank Tubby at Blunsdon
| address = Tadpole Lane, Swindon SN25 2DA
| borough = Wiltshire
| country = England
| coordinates = {{coord|51.60702|-1.84362|type:railwaystation_region:GB|display=inline,title}}
| grid_name = Grid reference
| grid_position = {{gbmapscaled|SU109897|25|SU109897}}
| platforms = 1
| original = Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway
| pregroup = Midland and South Western Junction Railway
| postgroup = Great Western Railway
| years = 1 September 1895
| events = opened
| years2 = 22 September 1924{{cite book|last=Quick|first=M E|title=Railway passenger stations in England, Scotland and Wales – a chronology|year=2002|publisher=Railway and Canal Historical Society|location=Richmond|page=85|oclc=931112387}}
| events2 = closed for passengers
| years3 = 1 August 1937
| events3 = closed for goods
}}
{{Swindon railway map/collapse}}
Blunsdon railway station is a station on the Swindon and Cricklade Railway, a heritage line in Wiltshire, England. The first station on the site was built in 1895 to serve the villages of Blunsdon St Andrew and Broad Blunsdon, north of Swindon, and closed in 1937.
History
Blunsdon was one of the last stations to be opened by the Midland and South Western Junction Railway in 1895, on a line that had opened in 1883.
Its site was in Purton parish, next to the overbridge carrying a lane between Purton and the villages of Blunsdon St Andrew and Broad Blunsdon.{{Cite web |date=1900 |title=Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, Wiltshire X.6 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/106026010 |access-date=13 January 2023 |website=National Library of Scotland}} It was little more than a single-platform halt, and milk was the main traffic. It had a short curved siding, used for such traffic as fertiliser and other agricultural goods. The platform was south of the bridge, while the siding and goods yard were to the north.
The station was also one of the first on the line to be closed. Regular passenger trains stopped calling in 1922, leaving one passenger train service stopping at Blunsdon on a Sunday until 1924. The station closed completely on 1 August 1937 when goods traffic ceased.{{Cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol4/pp280-293 |title=A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 4 |date=1959 |publisher=University of London |editor-last=Crittall |editor-first=Elizabeth |series=Victoria County History |pages=280–293 |chapter=Railways |access-date=13 January 2023 |via=British History Online}}
Heritage railway
{{unreferenced section|date=November 2024}}
The site became the headquarters of the Swindon and Cricklade Railway in the late 1970s because it offered the best road access to the trackbed between Swindon and Cricklade. By that time, almost every trace of the original station had gone, and the present structures – several of them relocated from other closed railways – are all new.
Blunsdon station offers attractions including the Swindon and Cricklade railway shop, cafe, toilets and car parking.
Route
{{Heritage rail start}}
{{rail line|route=Swindon & Cricklade Railway |previous={{stnlnk|Hayes Knoll}} |next={{stnlnk|Taw Valley Halt}} |col={{Heritage rail colour|line=Swindon and Cricklade Railway}} }}
{{Disused Rail Insert}}
{{rail line|route=Midland and South Western Junction Railway
Swindon & Cheltenham Extension Railway |next={{stnlnk|Moredon Halt}} |previous={{stnlnk|Cricklade}} |col={{MSWJ colour}} }}
{{s-end}}
References
- Wiltshire Railway Stations, Mike Oakley, Dovecote Press, Wimborne, 2004, pp. 17–18, {{ISBN|1-904349-33-1}}
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category| Blunsdon railway station}}
- [http://www.swindon-cricklade-railway.org/blunsdon.php Information about Blunsdon station on the Swindon and Cricklade Railway website.]
{{Wiltshire railway stations}}
Category:Heritage railway stations in Wiltshire
Category:Former Midland and South Western Junction Railway stations