Staple Hill railway station

Infobox UK disused station
name = Staple Hill
gridref = ST653756


caption = Staple Hill railway station in 1967
manager = Midland Railway
owner = London, Midland and Scottish Railway
London Midland Region of British Railways
locale = Staple Hill, Bristol
borough = South Gloucestershire
platforms = ?
years = 1 November 1888
events = Opened
years2 = 7 March 1966
events2 = Closed

Staple Hill railway station was on the Midland Railway line between Bristol and Gloucester on the outskirts of Bristol. The station was on the Bristol and Gloucester Railway line, but opened in 1888, 44 years after the line had been opened through the site. It served the Victorian suburban developments in the area to the south of Mangotsfield.

Staple Hill was served by stopping trains between Bristol and Gloucester and also by trains between Bristol and Bath that used the Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line. Set in a cutting and with a tunnel at the east end of the station, it had difficult access and was approach by zigzag paths down the cutting embankment. The station buildings were in Gloucestershire, but the platforms extended inside the Bristol city boundary.

No goods facilities were ever provided at Staple Hill, but the station was well-used by commuters to Bristol and north to the factories at Mangotsfield. Services between Bristol and Gloucester were withdrawn on 17 May 1965 and between Bristol and Bath on 7 March 1966, when the station closed. The line through the station was due to close on 3 January 1970, with services between Bristol and Gloucester diverted to the former Great Western Railway route as far as Stoke Gifford, but a landslip at Staple Hill a week before closure meant the diversion came into effect early. The route is now part of a cycle path and one of the platforms is still visible.

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Reference

* Mike Oakley, "Gloucestershire Railway Stations", 2003, Dovecote Press, Wimborne, ISBN 1 904349 24 2, pp123-124