Shepton Mallet (High Street) railway station

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Shepton Mallet (High Street)
Station in September 1967
Location
Location	Shepton Mallet
Area	Mendip, Somerset
Grid reference	ST622440
Operations
Pre-grouping	East Somerset Railway GWR
Post-grouping	GWR Western Region of British Railways
Platforms	2
History
9 November 1858	Opened as "Shepton Mallet"
1949	Renamed "Shepton Mallet (High Street)"
9 September 1963	Closed to passenger traffic
1969	Closed to goods traffic
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-Z
UK Railways Portal

Shepton Mallet (High Street) was a railway station on the East Somerset Railway, serving the town of Shepton Mallet in the English county of Somerset.

The station opened in 1858 as the interim western terminus of the line from the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway at Witham (Somerset). In 1862, the East Somerset line was extended westwards to Wells and in 1878 a junction was made in Wells with the Cheddar Valley Railway that enabled through running between Witham and Yatton. By this time the line had been taken over entirely by the Great Western Railway.

For most of its life, the station was known simply as "Shepton Mallet", the larger title coming into use in 1949 to differentiate the station in the British Railways era from the town's other station on the unconnected Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The S&DJR station, less conveniently situated for the town centre, had been known as Shepton Mallet (Charlton Road) since 1883.

The station closed to passenger traffic with the withdrawal of services between Yatton and Witham on 9 September 1963. Goods traffic ceased within a year, though goods trains continued to pass through until 1969 with stone from a nearby quarry. The station building did survive as a depot for a cleaning company for some years. However the site now been cleared for redevlopment to take place. The station building however has been dismantled for use by the East Somerset Railway for the planned 'new' station at Shepton Mallet which will be on a new site. See http://www.eastsomersetrailway.com/news/newsitem.php?item=217

[edit] References

• Somerset Railway Stations, Mike Oakley, Dovecote Press, Wimborne, 2002. ISBN 1 904340 09 9