Milcote railway station

Milcote
The station site in 2005, showing the remains of the up platform. The trees are 97 years old.
Location
Place	Milcote
Area	Stratford-on-Avon
Coordinates	52°09′43″N 1°45′08″W / 52.1620°N 1.7522°W / 52.1620; -1.7522Coordinates: 52°09′43″N 1°45′08″W / 52.1620°N 1.7522°W / 52.1620; -1.7522
Grid reference	SP170515
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 (from 1908; previously 1)
History
12 July 1859	First station opened
May 1908	1st station closed; 2nd station opened
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

Milcote railway station was a station on the Great Western Railway line between Stratford-upon-Avon and Honeybourne, which in 1908 became part of the Great Western Railway's new main line between Birmingham and Cheltenham.

The station's site, in the far south-western corner of Milcote parish and about 3 miles (5 km) south-west of the GWR station in Stratford, was dictated by the fact that this was the first point south of the River Avon at which the line crossed a public road. This was, and is, a very lightly populated district, and at the time of the station's opening there was scarcely another building in sight. Most of Milcote's passenger traffic must have been expected to be to or from the nearby villages of Weston on Avon and Welford on Avon. The station's nameboards at the time of its eventual closure read "Milcote for Weston and Welford".

The first Milcote station was opened on 12 July 1859 by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway as one of two intermediate stations on the branch, the other being at Long Marston. It consisted of a station building, a single passenger platform, and two goods sidings, all on the south side of the road linking Weston and Clifford Chambers, which crossed the line here via a level crossing. A signal box was added in 1891–92: previously the station's signals and points appear to have been operated from a frame either on the platform itself or inside the main station building. In 1908 the Great Western Railway doubled the line between Stratford and Honeybourne as part of its new through route between Birmingham and Cheltenham via Stratford, and a new two-platformed station was built on the north side of the crossing. The original building, with its station master's house, was retained.