Roade was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

serving the

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

village of the

same name ''Same Name'' is an American reality television series in which an average person swaps lives with a celebrity of the same first and last name. It premiered on July 24, 2011 on CBS. The series received low ratings, and CBS pulled it after four-ep ...

on the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. Roade Station opened in 1838 as the principal station for

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

(which the main line had bypassed), but its importance diminished upon the opening of the

Northampton and Peterborough Railway The Northampton and Peterborough Railway was an early railway promoted by the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) to run from a junction at Blisworth railway station, Blisworth on the L&BR main line to Northampton and Peterborough, in England. T ...

in 1845. The construction of the

Northampton Loop Line The Northampton loop is a railway line serving the town of Northampton. It is a branch of the West Coast Main Line, deviating from the faster direct main line which runs to the west. The WCML is a four track line up to either end of the Loop: th ...

in 1875 made Roade a junction station, and it survived until 1964.

History

The station for Northampton

The

London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...

(L&B) opened Roade station in 1838 as part of its line from London to Birmingham. Hostility to the railway in

and steep gradients in the suggested route prevented the line from running through the town and so Roade was announced as its nearest stationeven though the

county town In Great Britain and Ireland, a county town is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county, and the place where public representatives are elected to parliament. Following the establishment of county councils in ...

is some away. It lost this status in 1845 when the L&B opened a

branch A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includ ...

linking Northampton and Peterborough allowing services to run directly into Northampton from

Blisworth Blisworth is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. The West Coast Main Line, from London Euston to Manchester and Scotland, runs alongside the village partly hidden and partly on an embankment. The Grand Union Canal pass ...

. This had an immediate effect on Roade: the refreshment room was removed by 1865, while the daily stopping services fell to seven.

Northampton Loop Line

In 1875, the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

(LNWR) (which had acquired the L&B in 1846) increased the main line from Euston to four tracks as far as Roade, with the four-track line resuming onwards from . The direct route to Rugby was retained as two tracks but a two-track link to Rugby via Northampton (known as the

) was added. Roade, by then a junction for fast trains north as well as services through Northampton, saw its facilities considerably enlarged to include three platforms.'Roade',

Victoria History of the Counties of England The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History (VCH), is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of Englan ...

, A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 5: The Hundred of Cleley (2002), pp. 345-374. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22790 Date accessed: 15 June 2009. In 1881, the station was resited 200m to the south of a bridge carrying the Northampton to London road over the line.

East and West Junction Railway

In 1890-91 a new east–west single-track line – the

East and West Junction Railway The Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway (SMJR) was a railway company in the southern Midlands of England, formed at the beginning of 1909 by the merger of three earlier companies: *the ''East and West Junction Railway'', *the ''E ...

(E&WJR) – was built across Roade and, although there was initially no connection between the two lines, the LNWR agreed to the construction of a single line connecting spur ( long) which made a junction with its main line on the down side just to the south of Roade station. The

spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to ba ...

saw its first use on 13 April 1891 with a goods working. The spur soon became an important means of exchanging

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and

minerals In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): M ...

with the LNWR which was charging as much as £50 per half year for its use. Although the LNWR had refused a request to allow passenger services on the spur, the line did run into a

bay platform In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines. It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms. They must have a buffer stop ...

at Roade. Sidings were installed at Roade in 1909 to handle the E&WJR's

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

traffic. The spur became less important with the formation of the

Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway The Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway (SMJR) was a railway company in the southern Midlands of England, formed at the beginning of 1909 by the merger of three earlier companies: *the ''East and West Junction Railway'', *the ''E ...

and the strengthening of the connection with the main line at Blisworth. The spur was eventually closed in May 1917, the southern part being retained as a siding.

Closure

Roade station was reprieved from closure in 1959 due to the efforts of local MP Sir Frank Markham, remaining open until 1964.Castlethorpe Station Closure - 6 September 1964.
/ref> The

and Northampton Loop Line were rebuilt as a 25 kV. overhead electrified route. The footbridge and platforms were demolished but the ticket office building survived in various uses for several years until it was also demolished in 2013.

Routes

Present day

The West Coast Main Line runs through the site of the station, no traces remain.

External links

Roade station on 1954 one-inch (1:63,360) OS map
No chord connecting the lines is shown but... *
Buckinghamshire IV.NW (includes: Ashton; Grafton Regis; Hartwell; Roade; Stoke Bruerne
(1900, six-inch or 1:10,560) shows the chord clearly.

References

{{Closed_stations Northamptonshire Disused railway stations in Northamptonshire Former London and Birmingham Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1838 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964 Beeching closures in England West Northamptonshire District