Chalcombe Road Halt railway station

Chalcombe Road Halt
Location
Place	Chacombe
Area	Cherwell
Grid reference	SP490442
Operations
Original company	Great Central Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Central Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway London Midland Region of British Railways
Platforms	2
History
1 June 1900	Culworth Junction-Banbury line opened
17 April 1911	Station opened
6 February 1956	Station closed[1]
4 September 1966	Culworth Junction-Banbury line closed
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–V W–Z
UK Railways portal

Chalcombe Road Halt was a railway station on the link line between the Great Central Railway and the Great Western Railway's Birmingham - London line, leaving the Great Central at Culworth Junction to connect with Banbury Junction. The station, which served the nearby Northamptonshire village of Chacombe, opened in 1911 and closed in 1956.

History

In 1893, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) obtained Parliamentary approval for the extension of its line from Annesley in Nottingham to London. The final section of the extension saw the line connect with Metropolitan Railway's line at Quainton Road before returning to MS&LR metals at Finchley Road and continuing to Marylebone. Negotiations with the Metropolitan regarding running rights over its line came to deadlock prompting Sir William Pollitt, the MS&LR's general manager, to reach agreement with the Great Western Railway in March 1896 for a route to London via Banbury which would avoid the Metropolitan.^[2]

The link line, which ran for a distance of 8.25 miles (13.28 km), was opened without formality on 1 June 1900. The route had no intermediate stations but soon became an important freight route with 60,796 wagons exchanged between the MS&LR (now known as the Great Central) and the Great Western within the first six months of operation; by 1904 this figure had risen by 50%. Two passenger services each way were initially provided by the Great Western, with the Great Central later supplementing this service with three additional trains in each direction.^[3] The link was subsequently used for cross-country services, including Aberdeen to Penzance, Oxford to Leicester and Newcastle to Bournemouth.^[4]

The line crossed the Northamptonshire–Oxfordshire county boundary five times between Eydon Road Halt and Banbury; at its closest approach to Chacombe, it was on the Oxfordshire side of the boundary, within the parish of Cropredy.^[5] A small halt (situated between Chacombe and Coton Farm) was opened on 17 April 1911 and named Chalcombe Road Halt.^[6] Serving a rural area, the halt closed on 6 February 1956, and the line itself closed on 4 September 1966.^[7]

Preceding station	Disused railways			Following station
Banbury		British Railways Great Central Main Line		Eydon Road Halt

References

1. ^ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford, ISBN 1-85260-508-1, p. 57.
2. ^ Dow, George (1962). Great Central: Volume 2 Dominion of Watkin 1864-1899. Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Limited. pp. 288–289. 
3. ^ Dow, George (1965). Great Central: Volume 3 Fay sets the pace 1900-1922. London: Ian Allan. pp. 17–18. ISBN 711002630. 
4. ^ Virgin Trains Media, "Virgin Trains offers Aberdeen to Penzance from just 4p a mile", 12 August 2003.
5. ^ Ordnance Survey (1956). Sheet 145 Banbury (Map). 1" = 1 mile, One Inch Seventh Series. Section 49 44. 
6. ^ 'Parishes: Cropredy', A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 10: Banbury hundred (1972), pp. 157-175. Date accessed: 07 September 2008.
7. ^ Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (November 2006). "Figure 90". Aylesbury to Rugby. Midland Main Lines. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1 904474 91 8. 

Coordinates: 52°05′42″N 1°17′10″W / 52.09488°N 1.28616°W / 52.09488; -1.28616