The lost Banbury to Cheltenham direct railway
B&CDR
A short quote below about the line from the pages of wikipedia,
The full information can be found here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banbury_and_Cheltenham_Direct_Railway
The Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway (B&CDR) was a railway company through the Cotswolds in England that built a line between points near Banbury and Cheltenham. Its principal objective, as well as a general rural rail service, was the conveyance of iron ore from the East Midlands to South Wales.
The B&CDR opened its western section, from Bourton-on-the-Water to a junction near Cheltenham, in 1881, and its eastern section, from Chipping Norton to a junction at Kings Sutton, near Banbury, in 1887. The company was always short of money, and the timescale of construction was correspondingly lengthy. When the extensions opened, the Great Western Railway worked the B&CDR line and the two earlier branches as a single railway throughout.
The company sold its undertaking to the GWR in 1896, receiving about a quarter of the capital it had expended on the construction. The line had difficult gradients and curvature, and much of the route was single track. Between 1951 and 1962 the passenger service was withdrawn in stages, and all of the line except a short stub at Kings Sutton was closed in 1964, followed by complete closure in 1969.
I have been looking into this old branch line for quite some time using both Google maps satellite view and old maps that show where everything was before closure.
A great resource for old maps is the national library of Scotland site https://maps.nls.uk/ here you will find not only all the old ordnance survey maps but also a very cool side by side feature that shows you both the old map and modern satellite view.
We begin our journey just south of the present day station of Kings Sutton on the London to Birmingham line where the B&CDR branched off on its way from Banbury to Cheltenham.
I will be finishing my journey at Rollright holt. This is because after this very little of interest remains apart from Chipping Norton tunnel but the entrance area is often flooded and so dangerous to approach when visiting solo
A personal view that some may challenge I’m sure.
My first stop is to the site of where the line branched off from the current main line.
To access this area is not quite as easy as you would expect and the only (legal) way I could find was to park my car at Nell bridge lock and walk along the tow path to the location of the old bridge that used to span the Oxford canal.
Nell bridge lock is a pretty lock with the keepers cottage so I spent some time here watching the boats pass through. Further along I passed an interesting camp site called the pig place where you can purchase pork products and sit on the various settees that are positioned on the bank to watch the world go by, I then passed a field of cows that seemed surprised to see a person walking passed.
After what seemed a long time and passing under the M40 overpass I could see the bridge remains in the distance.
As I got closer I could see that although the arches over the canal had been removed the rest of the bridge was still in one piece, also to my surprise was the fact that some kind person has made a ladder up the bridge face so that you can walk on the top of the bridge, I then continued towards the current main line but before I got to there I discovered another bridge deep in the woods but totally complete. A few more metres on and I was at the spur site where some old railway fencing and posts remain. I bumped into a group from the wildlife trust doing a survey and after a brief chat with them I started making my way back to the car.
The next site was that of Milton Halt as nothing remains at the site of Adderbury station.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Halt_railway_station
This was going to be an interesting visit, I could see through my research that there was nothing left of the old halt (it was a very basic wooden structure and pagoda shed) but there is a bridge that remains intact and looking at the old mapping I could see that iron stone was quarried in the area and a spur line was created here with some buildings and so I hoped something remained.
Checking on the facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2910800972572940 some people had indeed found an old engine shed and I hoped this was still standing.
After taking some photos of the bridge and halt site (indeed nothing remained) I started to make my way towards the iron stone junction area. The first part of this was easy as the public footpath/right of way went in the right direction. However it soon veers off in the wrong direction and so I had to make my way along the old track bed. This was very challenging as it was very overgrown and full of stinging nettles that were over 4ft high in places. I made it to the iron stone junction but no sign of the engine shed so I pushed on.
I nearly got to the point of giving up when through the trees the engine shed came into view, All I had to do now was to get to it through even higher stinging nettles. Many stings later I was at the shed. As you can see from the photos it is still standing (just) and the window frames etc are still in place (I particularly liked the design and shape of these).
Mission complete I made my way (slowly) back to the car.
The next site to visit was Bloxham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloxham_railway_station
Unfortunately there is no remains of the station to be seen but there is the bizarre tale and remains of Dr Hyde’s bridge.
Here is an extract from some councils meeting notes:
“Dr Hyde’s Footbridge. This structure appears to date from 19th century and is an arched ironwork bridge 18 metres (60ft) in span with railway sleepers set across it. It was a private footbridge across the new railway line for use by Dr Hyde who lived in The Cottage opposite the site.”
So it would appear that because of the location of the new railway cutting the BCDR had to install a bridge so that the doctor could cross over to attend his patients in the village. Below is a photo of Dr Hyde on “his” bridge.
When the line was closed this whole area was filled in.
However Dr Hyde’s bridge bizarrely was never removed from the site and is still in place today standing a couple of metres above the new ground level, The area is very overgrown and so unless you knew it is there you would never see it.
Getting to the bridge was even harder that getting to the Milton engine shed but I persevered and captured the photos below. I really like the design of this bridge especially the “Sun” end plates.
It is a shame more people don’t get to see this unique structure.
Next to visit was Hook Norton.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_Norton_railway_station
I was very much looking forward to visiting Hook Norton as there are quite a few remains to visit here, The first is the site of the station.
Unfortunately the station is long gone and the area is now a housing estate but the station hotel building is still here and is currently a private house.
The large bracket that would have held the hotel sign is still in place and using an old photo I was able to recreate it with a modern day view as below.
Old photos,
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There was a long pause in this project as life got in the way as it does and finding spare time is not always easy.
The next site to explore was the remains of the Hook Norton viaduct.
In its day it must have been an impressive site as per the photos below.
Today the remains (support columns) are easy to find, Simply leave your car on Park Hill and follow the footpath into the woods where you will find them, They are completely obscured until you enter the woods and the first one I found was the first support which is very low on its plinth with two guiding walls still in place. Standing on the track bed you can imagine what the view must have been like crossing onto the viaduct from here.
Some plate work for the supports are still in place but most metal work is long gone leaving these giants to succumb to nature, The thickness of the vines gave me Ankor Wat vibes in there appearance.
I managed to find four of the pillars and took the photos below
Next up was the Hook Norton Tunnel, The northern entrance appears to be on private land but the southern one can be accessed via the nature reserve by cow lane bridge. Getting to it in the height of summer however was not so straight forward, The stinging nettles were very high and the progress slow but some time later (and many stings as I had foolishly worn shorts) I made it to the tunnel.
It is bricked in these days and with good reason as there are large cracks appearing all over the entrance so I would think the integrity of the tunnel is prone to collapse.
Apparently the tunnel is quite short at just over 400 yards long but many problems had to be overcome in its construction.
Onwards to the next stop on the line Rollright Halt,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollright_Halt_railway_station this was a very small stop with just a platform and tin hut none of which remains today. I did however try to reproduce the angle of the old photo below compared to today. It is not an exact match as the path of the road is straighter than the old track in the photo but I think it is near enough.
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