Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway

The Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway was an independent English railway company that connected the Oxfordshire towns of Watlington and Chinnor to the main line railway network of the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Princes Risborough. It opened in 1872.

The company was always short of money and was obliged to sell the line to the GWR in 1883; investors sustained a considerable loss.

Road vehicle competition led to a decline in usage and upon nationalisation of the railways in 1948 the line was subject to a review of its future; passenger operation ceased in 1957. A large cement works at Chinnor kept the stub of the line in use until 1989, when it closed. A heritage railway group took it over and operates successfully as the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway.

Watlington suffered in the early part of the nineteenth century from poor road communications, at a time when transport and trade were becoming important, and other settlements were flourishing. The road network was very poor:

Watlington is a small town, the streets of which are narrow, and the houses, with a few exceptions, mean and ill-built. The nearest navigable stream is at the distance of 6 miles; a circumstance fatally adverse to the prosperity of the place. Here is no staple manufacture of any consequence... In addition to the remoteness of water-conveyance, the badness of the neighbouring roads, which are perhaps the worst in the county, acts prejudicially on commercial speculation.

According to the 1851 census, the population of Watlington then was 1,884.

As the nineteenth century progressed it became increasingly obvious that good communications were essential for economic and commercial prosperity, and a railway was a key part of that.

The first railway scheme involving Watlington was put forward about 1861, for a line from the Great Western Railway at Cholsey, through Wallingford, Benson, Watlington and Chinnor to Princes Risborough. This scheme was not adopted, but a more moderate proposal followed, only to build from Cholsey to Wallingford, and put to 1863 session of Parliament, but it was withdrawn by its promoters.

It was resubmitted at the end of 1863 for the next Parliamentary session, now including Cholsey to Wallingford and Watlington. The line, called the Wallingford and Watlington Railway, was authorised on 25 July 1864 with capital of £80,000. Getting the subscriptions to pay for the construction proved to be difficult, partly due to the difficult economic situation of the country at the time, but a contract was let for line from the GWR main line to Wallingford in the Spring of 1865.

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