Kidlington railway station

Kidlington
A Class 47 Poole - Manchester service passes the still extant Kidlington station in April 1980.
Location
Place	Kidlington
Area	Cherwell
Grid reference	SP483148
Operations
Original company	Oxford and Rugby Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	GWR Western Region of British Railways
Platforms	3
History
1852	Station opens as Woodstock Road
1890	Bay platform built; Station renamed Kidlington
1954	Closure of branch line to Woodstock
1964	Station closes
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

Kidlington railway station opened in 1852 on the Oxford and Rugby Railway to serve the adjacent Oxfordshire village of Kidlington, and act as a railhead for the town of , 2.5 miles (4.0 km) away. It became a junction station in 1890 upon the opening of the , and served the area for over 100 years before falling victim to the programme of closures initiated by the Beeching Report in 1964. Following many proposals for its reopening, a new station to serve Kidlington opened in October 2015 at Oxford Parkway on the Oxford to Bicester Line.

Although the Oxford and Rugby Railway opened in 1850, it was a further two years before the Brunelian station building was completed. Originally named Woodstock Road, the station was inconveniently-sited at the northern end of Kidlington, around 20 minutes walk from the village centre. The station, a conventional two-platform stopping place with modest goods facilities, defied the railway convention that station buildings were usually sited on the platform nearest the settlement that they were purporting to serve. In this case, Kidlington village was to the east, whereas the station buildings were constructed on the western side, leaving the station effectively back-to-front. This can apparently be explained by the fact that the station was opened to serve and not Kidlington, then a small village of around 2,400 inhabitants clustered around a church located over 1 mile (1.6 km) away from the station.

When originally opened, the station was provided with a small goods yard and run-round loop for goods traffic on the down side. In addition, it was likely that two sidings had been installed: one to serve the loading dock to the rear of the down platform, and one connected to a goods shed of typical Great Western Railway design. The 57 feet (17 m) by 40 feet (12 m) shed was constructed out of yellowish brickwork and had five bays with brick pilasters.