Andoversford and Dowdeswell railway station

Andoversford and Dowdeswell railway station was on the Midland and South Western Junction Railway in Gloucestershire. The station opened to passengers on 1 August 1891 with the opening of the section of the line between Cirencester Watermoor and the junction at Andoversford with the Great Western Railway's Cheltenham Lansdown to Banbury line, which had opened in 1881.

History

A 1913 Railway Clearing House map of railways in the vicinity of Andoversford & Dowdeswell

Andoversford and Dowdeswell was originally called just "Dowdeswell", though the station was much nearer the village of Andoversford. It was renamed about a year after it opened. The station owed its existence to the awkward relations between the M&SWJR and the GWR: though the Great Western allowed the newer line running powers over its line from Cheltenham to Andoversford junction, it did not allow the M&SWJR to stop its trains at Andoversford railway station. The GWR relented in 1904, but by then Andoversford and Dowdeswell was already built, and M&SWJR trains then stopped at both.

The Grouping of 1923 rationalised the situation. The M&SWJR was allocated to the GWR, and four years later the new owners closed Andoversford and Dowdeswell station to passengers.

The remaining goods service and passenger trains no longer stopping passed on to the Western Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. These services were later withdrawn by the British Railways Board.

The site today

After its closure to passengers the station remained opened for goods traffic for a further 35 years to October 1962, outliving the rest of the M&SWJR, which had closed the previous year. The station building was used for some years afterwards as a transport cafe, but all trace has now gone.

References

• Gloucestershire Railway Stations, Mike Oakley, Dovecote Press, Wimborne, 2003, ISBN 1-904349-24-2
• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199. 
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 0-9068-9999-0. OCLC 228266687. 
• Station on navigable O.S. map: site is just south of three way junction.

Coordinates: 51°52′29″N 1°57′57″W / 51.87482°N 1.96573°W / 51.87482; -1.96573