Milcote railway station was a station on 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, ...

line between and , which in 1908 became part of the Great Western Railway's new main line between

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and

Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

. The station's site, in the far south-western corner of Milcote

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

and about south-west of the GWR station in Stratford, was dictated by the fact that this was the first point south of the River Avon at which the line crossed a public road. This was, and is, a very lightly populated district, and at the time of the station's opening there was scarcely another building in sight. Most of Milcote's passenger traffic must have been expected to be to or from the nearby villages of Weston on Avon and Welford on Avon. The station's nameboards at the time of its eventual closure read "Milcote for Weston and Welford".

History

The first Milcote station was opened on 12 July 1859 by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway as one of two intermediate stations on the branch, the other being at .Sustrans information on the Stratford Greenway
/ref> It consisted of a station building, a single passenger platform, and two goods sidings, all on the south side of the road linking Weston and Clifford Chambers, which crossed the line here ''via'' a

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

. A

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

was added in 1891–92: previously the station's signals and points appear to have been operated from a frame either on the platform itself or inside the main station building. In 1908 the Great Western Railway doubled the line between Stratford and Honeybourne as part of its new through route between Birmingham and Cheltenham ''via'' Stratford, and a new two-platformed station was built on the north side of the crossing. The original building, with its station master's house, was retained. 5,077 passengers were recorded in 1903. Annual totals increased to 7,126 in 1913 and 9,399 in 1923, but fell to 5,151 in 1933. The increase in

motor vehicle A motor vehicle, also known as a motorized vehicle, automotive vehicle, automobile, or road vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on railway track, rails (such as trains or trams), does not fly (such ...

use led to passengers numbers at this rather isolated station decreasing still further after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1956

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways reduced its status to that of an unstaffed halt. BR withdrew goods facilities from July 1963 and the station was closed to passenger traffic from January 1966. Trains continued to pass through the closed station until November 1976 when the line itself was closed. The tracks between Stratford and Long Marston were removed in 1979.

Greenway

The trackbed was disused for ten years until 1989 when, in a joint venture between

Sustrans Sustrans ( ) is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United ...

and Warwickshire County Council, it was converted to a greenway for cycling and walking.

References

{{Authority control Disused railway stations in Warwickshire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1859 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Beeching closures in England