Laverton Halt railway station

Laverton Halt Railway station is a demolished halt on the Honeybourne Line from Honeybourne to Cheltenham which served the hamlet of Laverton in Gloucestershire between 1905 and 1960. The line through the station is being relaid by the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway and the first service to the site of the halt ran on 30 March 2011.

History

The Honeybourne Line from Stratford-upon-Avon to Cheltenham via Honeybourne was opened by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway on 9 July 1859.^[1][2] The Great Western Railway acquired the OW&W in 1883 with a view to combining it with the Birmingham to Stratford Line to create a high-speed route from the Midlands to the South West.^[3]

Laverton Halt was opened on 14 August 1905.^[4] It was situated half a mile from the village of Laverton, from which it was separated by what is now the B4632 road.^[5] As well as Laverton, the halt served the villages of Buckland, Wormington and Stanton.^[6] To the south of Laverton Halt is Stanway Viaduct, a viaduct comprising 15 arches, each of which is 15 ft (4.6 m) in width and 46 ft (14 m) in height constructed of Staffordshire blue brick.^[7]

The station was a simple rail motor halt constructed of timber, much like other halts on the line.^[6] The two wooden trellis platforms had no passenger facilities beyond a small pagoda hut on each platform.^[8][9] The 100 ft (30 m) platforms cost £235 (£20,000 as of 2012) and were extended in November 1906 to 158 ft (48 m) at a cost of £29 (£2,312 as of 2012).^[10] A footpath from the road was constructed in 1909 at a cost of £54 (£4,304 as of 2012).^[10]

At first, Laverton was supervised by the stationmaster at Toddington, but it later came under the control of Broadway.^[10] A timetable from August 1906 shows that Laverton Halt was served by seven services each way between Honeybourne and Cheltenham^[11], with trains calling there 6 minutes after leaving Broadway in the Down direction and 7 minutes after leaving Toddington in the Up direction.^[12] By 1932, the service was supplemented by three trains each way between Cheltenham and Broadway, and one to Winchcombe and back.^[13] The station was used by many schoolchildren who used it to travel to Cheltenham.^[10] It closed on 7 March 1960,^[4][14] the same day on which the local passenger service was withdrawn from the Honeybourne Line.^[13]

Present and future

The underbridge to the north of the station was removed in August 1988 to allow tall machinery to access the British Gas facility at Laverton.^[10] It was replaced in December 2009^[15] by a bridge which provided the same headroom as the previous one - 13 ft 3 in (4.04 m).^[16] The cost of the new bridge was met by National Grid which now operates the gas facility.^[17]

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, which is currently in the process of reopening a major section of the Honeybourne to Cheltenham line towards Broadway, ran the first train to the site of Laverton Halt on 30 March 2011.^[18][19] The platforms have yet to be installed.

References

Sources

• Baker, Audie (1994). The Stratford on Avon to Cheltenham Railway. Grasscroft, Oldham: Irwell Press. ISBN 978-1-87160-862-5. 
• Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1 85260 508 1. R508. 
• Clinker, C.R. (October 1978). Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830-1977. Bristol: Avon-Anglia Publications & Services. ISBN 0-90546-619-5. 
• Kingscott, Geoffrey (2009). Lost Railways of Warwickshire. Newbury, Berkshire: Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-84674-174-6. 
• Maggs, Colin G.; Nicholson, Peter (1985). The Honeybourne Line: The continuing story of the Cheltenham to Honeybourne and Stratford upon Avon Railway. Cheltenham, Glos.: Line One Publishing. ISBN 978-0-907036-12-8. 
• Mitchell, Victor E.; Smith, Keith (August 2005) [1998]. Stratford upon Avon to Cheltenham. Country Railway Routes. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-901706-25-7. 
• Yorke, Stan (2009). Lost Railways of Gloucestershire. Newbury, Berkshire: Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-84674-163-0.