Crowcombe Heathfield railway station

Crowcombe Heathfield railway station is a station on the West Somerset Railway, a heritage railway in Somerset, England. It is situated 2 miles (3.2 km) from the village of Crowcombe.

History

Crowcombe Heathfield station was first opened on 31 March 1862 when the West Somerset Railway was opened from Norton Junction to Watchet. The railway was operated by the Bristol and Exeter Railway which became a part of the Great Western Railway in 1876, but the West Somerset Railway remained an independent company until 1922 when it too was absorbed by the Great Western.^[1] Nationalisation in 1948 saw it become a part of the Western Region of British Railways.

When the station first opened there was just one platform, on the east side of the line, but aloop line and second platform were opened in 1879. On 1 December 1889 the station was renamed as plain “Crowcombe” to avoid confusion with Heathfield (Devon) on the Moretonhampstead branch in Devon. The loop was extended in 1934 to cope with long holiday trains running to Minehead but British Rail closed the railway on 4 January 1971.^[2]

The station reopened on 9 June 1979; the West Somerset Railway was now a heritage railway operating steam and diesel trains from Minehead to and Bishops Lydeard. It was still known as Crowcombe for a while but the name was returned to Crowcombe Heathfield in 1991. Only a single line was operated through the station until May 1994 when the loop was reinstated.^[2]

Description

The station stands at the highest point on the line, just under 400 feet (120 m) above sea level.^[3]

The station has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building.^[4] The railway workers' cottages and station master's house, together with the main station building, are the only original structures left. The upper half of the signal box which was put into use in 1994 was originally situated at Ebbw Vale. A display of permanent way can be found on the western platform and includes a portion of 7 ft 0 ¹⁄₄ in (2,140 mm) broad gauge “baulk road” as was originally used on the line.^[2]

Films made at Crowcombe

Several films and television programmes have been shot at Crowcombe:

• A Hard Day's Night (1964) featured The Beatles and was filmed in 1964 at London Marylebone station and on the Taunton to Minehead branchline. A scene in which the band ran alongside a train was filmed near Crowcombe.^[5]
• The The Flockton Flyer (1976-7) was a children’s television drama series about a preserved railway that was filmed on the West Somerset Railway and included scenes filmed at many stations including Crowcombe Heathfield.^[6]
• The Land Girls (1997) was filmed on the West Somerset Railway and Crowcombe Heathfield featured as Bamford station.^[5]
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1988), a BBC television mini-series, where the four Pevensie children arrived at the start of the film after being evacuated by train from London.^[7]

Services

Trains run between Minehead and Bishops Lydeard at weekends and on some other days from March to October, daily during the late spring and summer, and on certain days during the winter.^[8]

References

External links

• Crowcombe Heathfield Station on www.wsr.org.uk