Talk:Disused railway stations (Bristol to Exeter Line)

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[edit] Oldmixon

The article states: "Situated just south of the road bridge by Uphill Junction, Oldmixon Station was built but never opened. The landowner made building the station a condition of allowing the railway to be built - but forgot to insist that trains stop there! The platform mounds were still visible in the 1960's"

I have also heard this tale, but I am highly sceptical about it as I have never found any reference to it in a railway history book. The land owner was the one that had "Devil's Bridge" named after him, and I assumed that it was actually at the other end of the cutting, where Bleadon & Uphill was finally opened. It would be easier to build it here than to make the cutting wider to accommodate any platforms, and the cutting runs right up to the Broadway bridge at Uphill Junction. As for the "earth mounds", where are/were these? There was a loading platform and siding for a small quarry on the east side of the line just north of the old Toll Road bridge at Bleadon & Uphill, but this was never a passenger station. Geof Sheppard 07:34, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Regarding the earth mounds, look at http://www.bristol-rail.co.uk/images/johnthorn5.jpg Notice how the last four or five telegraph poles look shorter because thay are set on the 'platforms' Jolly47roger 11:22, 26 August 2007 (UTC

Further to the above, I was at Weston Grammar School in the early '60s. I remember the platform mounds there then. The 'tale' was told by our history master (Mr Hill) who lived on Bleadon Hill. If there had been no evidence - and the site in question was only half a mile away - we would have pointed that out to him.Jolly47roger

I have taken a good look at the mounds in question. next to the Broadway bridge they are at window height, and then rise up quickly &ndash say over 120 feet – to the full height of the cutting. The earliest photogrpahs of the site were taken in 1891/2 by Rev. Malan; while he comments on the size of Devil's Bridge and passes on some local gossip about sheep walking on the parapet, he does not appear to mention the private station. None of the pictures clearly show the site that you talk about, but the shape of the ground does seem to match what is still there today. The pictures can be seen at The National Archives and many of them are reproduced in Broad gauge Finale (Wild Swan Publications, 1985, ISBN 0 906867 31 2).

I am still waiting to be convinced that this station is anything more than an "urban myth" Geof Sheppard 07:29, 10 September 2007 (UTC)