Devizes railway station was the railway station serving

Devizes Devizes () is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-cent ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England between 1857 and 1966. The station was on the

Devizes branch line The Devizes branch line was a railway line from Holt Junction (south-west of Melksham) to Patney and Chirton (south-east of Devizes), in Wiltshire, England. It was named after Devizes, the largest town on the line. The branch was opened by the ...

, between Pans Lane Halt and Bromham & Rowde.

Early plans

The idea of having a railway station in Devizes was first conceived in 1830 before the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

(GWR) had begun to construct their main lines. Devizes was regularly considered by the GWR as a main stop on its London to Bristol Line but lost out to

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

due to its smaller population and lower growth rate. A station in Devizes was needed to support industry and agriculture in the town, as its only transport route was the

Kennet and Avon Canal The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of Navigability, navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than sol ...

, opened in 1810. A branch to Devizes was included in plans for the

Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) was an early railway company in south-western England. It obtained an act of Parliament giving powers to build the line in 1845 to build a railway from near Chippenham in Wiltshire, southward to ...

, authorised by Parliament in 1845, but that company was sold to the GWR in 1850.

West from Devizes

In 1854 the GWR finally began to build from near on the former WS&WR line eastward to Devizes, completing the branch in 1857. Devizes station opened on 1 July 1857. After starting with seven trains a day, services were reduced to four a day, most probably due to overinflated claims of traffic before the line was built.

East from Devizes

In 1862, the GWR extended its Reading-Hungerford line westward via to Devizes, reaching the station through a tunnel under Devizes Castle. This began the busiest period for the station, with trains running from London through Devizes to either Bath and Bristol or the West Country. Traffic on the line reduced from 1900 after the GWR opened the

Stert and Westbury Railway The Stert and Westbury Railway was opened by the Great Western Railway Company in 1900 in Wiltshire, England. It shortened the distance between London Paddington station and , and since 1906 has also formed part of the Reading to Taunton line fo ...

between Patney and Chirton and Westbury, which by-passed the steep gradients of Devizes and provided a faster route from London.

Closure

The Devizes line and all its stations were closed in April 1966 under the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

; the track was taken up, and the station buildings were demolished in 1970. Today there is little trace of a railway station in Devizes. The road bridge over the old Pans Lane Halt station and the footbridge at Devizes remain. The tunnel built under Devizes Castle has been bricked up at one end and is a commercial property at the other end (a shooting range as of 2011). In place of the station, there is now a public car park and a new property development, both on Station Road.

Future plans

In 2018, proposals were made for a station at Clock Inn Park, Lydeway, southeast of Devizes where the

Reading–Taunton line The Reading–Taunton line is a major branch of the Great Western Main Line from which it diverges at Reading railway station. It runs to Cogload Junction (east of Taunton) where it joins the Bristol to Exeter line, Bristol to Exeter and Penzan ...

is crossed by the

A342 road The A342 is an A road in England that runs from Pewsham near Chippenham, Wiltshire to Andover, Hampshire. Route The road begins at the A4 junction just outside the small village of Pewsham, to the east of Chippenham. It heads south past th ...

. In 2020 the project, referred to by some as Devizes Gateway, received funding from the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...

for a feasibility study. In early 2023,

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

continued to work on a more detailed study with assistance from

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council, known between 1889 and 2009 as Wiltshire County Council, is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Wiltshire (district), Wiltshire in South West England, and has its headquarters a ...

and Devizes Development Partnership.

References

{{Closed stations Wiltshire Disused railway stations in Wiltshire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1857 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Beeching closures in England Devizes 1857 establishments in England