- Morris Cowley railway station
-
Morris Cowley Location Place Cowley Area Oxford Grid reference SP554035 Operations Original company Great Western Railway Pre-grouping Great Western Railway Post-grouping Great Western Railway
Western Region of British RailwaysPlatforms 1 History 1 February 1908[1] Opened as Garsington Bridge Halt 22 March 1915 Closed 24 September 1928 Reopened and renamed Morris Cowley 7 January 1963[2] Closed to passengers 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–ZMorris Cowley was an intermediate station on the Wycombe Railway which served the small town of Cowley, just outside Oxford, from 1908 to 1915, and then from 1928 to 1963. The station originated opened as part of an attempt by the Great Western Railway to encourage more passengers onto the line at a time when competition from bus services was drawing away patronage. The line through Morris Cowley remains open for the purposes of serving the BMW Mini factory, although the possibility of reinstating passenger services has been explored by Chiltern Railways, the franchise holder for the Chiltern Main Line which runs through Princes Risborough.
Contents
History
Railways around Oxford Legendto Banbury to Worcester to Bicester to Witney and Fairford Water Eaton Parkway Yarnton Oxford Road Halt Wolvercot Junction Wolvercot Platform Wolvercote Halt Oxford North Junction Port Meadow Halt Exchange sidings Sheepwash Channel Swing bridge Oxford Oxford Rewley Road Oxford (Grandpont) Goods Hinksey Halt Millstream Junction Abingdon Road Halt Kennington Junction Radley Iffley Halt to Didcot Littlemore Morris Cowley BMW Mini terminal Horspath Halt to Princes Risborough Garsington Bridge Halt
On 24 October 1864 the Wycombe Railway opened an extension of its single track line from Thame to Kennington junction, about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Oxford.[3] The line ran past Cowley but it was a further 40 years before a station was opened here.
In an attempt to stimulate Oxford suburban traffic, the Great Western Railway opened three motor halts on the line, one of which was to be situated to the south of the railway bridge over Garsington Road (now classified the B480). The station was named Garsington Bridge Halt and its opening was approved by the Board of Trade in December 1907. The first services, operated by GWR steam rail motors, ran on 1 February 1908.[4] As with the other halts, Garsington Bridge had a single platform, 150 feet (46 m) long, with a 20 feet (6.1 m) by 70 feet (21 m) corrugated iron passenger shelter.[5] Steps linked the halt with Garsington Road.[6] The halt remained open for only seven years, being closed in 1915 as a First World War economy measure.[7]
In May - June 1917, two loop sidings were opened on the Up side of the line to serve a munitions factory. By September 1917 the sidings were however no longer required and had been removed.[8]
Growth of Morris Motors
By 1926, Morris Motors, based in Cowley since 1913, employed some 4,000 workers on their plant which covered some 80 acres (320,000 m2) and produced 1,000 cars per week. Morris decided to concentrate the packing of cars for export at Cowley, the bulk of which would be moved to port by rail. Two sidings were installed in March 1926 to serve the adjacent Pressed Steel Company factory and five more were added in July 1928 for Morris Motors.[9] Around the same time Morris proposed to the GWR to open a passenger and goods station on the site of Garsington Bridge Halt and the new Morris Cowley station subsequently opened to passengers on 24 September 1928 and to goods on 10 December 1928.[10] A new signal box was opened in October 1928 to control the sidings. Basic passenger facilities were provided: a single timber platform 400 feet (120 m) and 12 feet (3.7 m) wide, together with a parcels and booking offie, booking hall and toilets. Access to the station was had by a footway leading up from Cowley Road.[11] As production at the Cowley plant increased, so the freight facilities were extended. Car trains ran to Brentford Dock for export, reversing at Kennington junction, whilst a daily train ran from Bordesley. Special services were laid on for the workers, beginning with a through train that departed Banbury at 6.00am, arriving at Cowley at 7.00am. The return working left Cowley at 5.08pm and reached Banbury at 6.06pm. On Saturdays, a service left Cowley at 12.10pm and ran to Kingham where it connected with a Banbury train.[12]
War and post-war
During the Second World War the fields around Cowley were used for the storage of scrap aircraft parts and were depicted in Paul Nash's painting Totes Meer (Dead Sea). Ernest Fairfax also mentioned the scene in his book Calling All Arms.[13] At this time, the factories at Cowley were used for the manufacture of new aircraft and the freight facilities there were substantially extended to handle the extra traffic, including the laying of two new private sidings in 1940 and 1943.[14] Although the post-war period saw a decline in passengers and freight on the line in general, this was not the case at Morris Cowley. Figures from 1933 showed that 1,944 passenger tickets were sold in the year,[15] whereas in July 1957, 1,350 passengers were reported to be using the station in a week. Freight forwarded had also risen from 16,490 tons[16] to 77,147 tons.[17]
Passenger services withdrawn
On the basis of an estimated saving of £34,372, passenger services were withdrawn between Oxford and Princes Risborough from January 1963. Freight services remained, the principal traffic being generated from Morris Cowley which sent five daily freight trains to Oxford. From May 1967, the line between Thame and Cowley was closed, leaving Morris Cowley to take over Wheatley's coal traffic (some 2,000 tons per year). From July 1968, Cowley no longer accepted coal traffic so that the area used could be given over to the loading and unloading of cars.[18]
Preceding station Historical railways Following station Littlemore
Line open, station closedGreat Western Railway
Wycombe RailwayHorspath Halt
Line closed, station closedRecent history
Rationalisation
Cowley signal box closed from 28 January 1982 and the signals were removed except for the Up distant. A road-rail freight transfer terminal was opened on the site of the old goods shed in May 1984 by David Mitchell, Under-Secretary of State for Transport. The terminal was to be managed by F.C. Bennett, but in the event was only operational for 13 years. Diminishing rail traffic led to the Rover Group, which had taken over Mini production, acquiring the site for further expansion.[19] Track rationalisation at Cowley in the early 1990s resulted in the down loop becoming a dead-end siding and three of the eleven remaining sidings being taken out of use.[20]
BMW Mini
BMW acquired the Rover business in 1994 and ended production of the Rover model, in order to concentrate on the Mini. A new loading terminal was opened and five weekly double-deck car-carrying trains run from the plant, each carrying 264 cars to Purfleet in Essex for onward shipping to Zeebrugge. By 2001, approximately 35% of Cowley's production was sent by rail.[21]
Projected reopening
As part of its preparations for its bid to run the Chiltern Railways franchise, Chiltern Railways announced in 2000 that it was looking into the possibility of reinstating passenger services on the line between Oxford and Risborough, the cost of which it estimated at £250m.[22] It was decided instead to build a 0.75 miles (1.21 km) link between the Oxford to Bicester Line and the Chiltern Main Line in order to run through services between Oxford and London via High Wycombe.[23]
Station remains
References
- ^ Butt, 1995, page 101
- ^ Clinker, 1978, page 65
- ^ Oppitz, 2000, page 17
- ^ Waters, 1986, p.128
- ^ Potts, 2004, page 99
- ^ Simpson, 2001, page 65
- ^ Clinker, 1978, page 65
- ^ Potts, 2004, pages 105-106
- ^ Mitchell and Smith, 2003, plate XI
- ^ Potts, 2004, page 123
- ^ Potts, 2004, page 125
- ^ Simpson, 2001, page 65
- ^ Potts, 2004, page 149
- ^ Potts, 2004, page 252
- ^ Mitchell and Smith, 2003, plate XI
- ^ Mitchell and Smith, 2003, plate XI
- ^ Potts, 2004, page 204
- ^ Potts, 2004, pages 235 and 238
- ^ Potts, 2004, page 243
- ^ Potts, 2004, page 247
- ^ Mitchell and Smith, 2003, plate 41
- ^ Oxford Mail, "New rail links on the cards", 16 August 2000.
- ^ Chiltern Railways, "Evergreen 3 Project".
Bibliography
- 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.
- 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.
- Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (April 2003). Branch Lines to Princes Risborough from Aylesbury, Oxford and Watlington. Midhurst, West Sussex: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-904474-05-5.
- Oppitz, Leslie (2000). Lost Railways of the Chilterns. Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 1-85306-643-5.
- Potts, C.R. (2004). Oxford to Princes Risborough: A GWR Secondary Route. Usk, Mon.: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-629-9.
- Simpson, Bill (2001). A History of the Railways in Oxfordshire; Part 2: The South. Witney, Oxon: Lamplight Publications. ISBN 978-1899246069.
- Waters, Laurence (1986). Oxford. Rail Centres. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1590-2.
External links
Coordinates: 51°43′41″N 1°11′55″W / 51.728050°N 1.198545°W
Closed railway stations in Oxfordshire Great Western Main Line Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway Cherwell Valley Line Abingdon Junction · Abingdon Road Halt · Bletchington · Fritwell & Somerton · Hinksey Halt · Kidlington · Wolvercot PlatformWitney Railway; East Gloucestershire Railway Alvescot · Brize Norton and Bampton · Carterton · Cassington Halt · Eynsham · Kelmscott and Langford · South Leigh · Witney · Witney (goods) · YarntonWycombe Railway Horspath Halt · Iffley Halt · Littlemore · Morris Cowley · Thame · Tiddington · Towersey Halt · WheatleyWatlington and Princes Risborough Railway Aston Rowant · Chinnor · Kingston Crossing Halt · Lewknor Bridge Halt · Wainhill Crossing Halt · WatlingtonChiltern Main Line Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway Great Central Main Line Varsity Line Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line Blenheim and Woodstock Branch Line Blenheim and Woodstock · Shipton-on-Cherwell HaltShort branches Categories:- Disused railway stations in Oxfordshire
- Railway stations opened in 1908
- Railway stations closed in 1963
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.