Adlestrop railway station

Adlestrop
Adlestrop station in 1961.
Location
Place	Adlestrop
Area	Cotswold
Coordinates	51°56′10″N 1°39′33″W / 51.9360°N 1.6591°W / 51.9360; -1.6591Coordinates: 51°56′10″N 1°39′33″W / 51.9360°N 1.6591°W / 51.9360; -1.6591
Grid reference	SP235264
Operations
Original company	Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway Western Region of British Railways
Platforms	2
History
4 June 1853	Station opens as Addlestrop and Stow Road
1 March 1862	Station renamed Addlestrop
1 July 1883	Station renamed Adlestrop
3 January 1966	Station 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

Adlestrop railway station was a railway station which served the village of Adlestrop in Gloucestershire, England, between 1853 and 1966. It was on what is now called the Cotswold Line. The station was immortalised in the poem Adlestrop by Edward Thomas after his train stopped there on 24 June 1914.

Adlestrop station was opened on 4 June 1853 by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&W) as part of the 40 mi (64 km) section of the Cotswold Line from Wolvercot Junction to Evesham. The line was originally mixed gauge single track throughout with a narrow gauge passing loop at Charlbury. The line through Adlestrop was dualled on 2 August 1858, after the sections between Wolvercot - Handborough and Handborough to Charlbury were respectively doubled on 18 November 1853 and 1 August 1854. The station had a broad gauge passing loop, but the only broad gauge train to use it was the inspection special, two days before opening. Adlestrop served the rural villages of Oddington and Adlestrop, for which Adlestrop House was the major feature.

Facilities for goods traffic were on the Up side (the side for passengers toward London): a 100 ft (30 m) loading bank which could hold four wagons, a 65 ft (20 m) goods shed with a 30 long cwt (1,500 kg) crane where a further three wagons could be held, with capacity for a further thirteen on the Worcester side of the shed. A signal box was added in 1907, which controlled access to the goods shed as well as to the refuge siding on the Down side which held 46 wagons. A 5-ton weighbridge was located on the Up side near the goods shed and main station building; this was replaced in 1938 by a 10-ton model which cost £160 (£NaN in 2017). The Down platform was 396 ft (121 m) long, while the Up platform was shorter at 270 ft (82 m). The main station building on the Up platform was timber-built and originally designed by Brunel, with the construction being completed by John Fowler. On the Down side a wooden waiting shelter was provided, behind which was the station house constructed in alternating courses of red and grey bricks.