A Station for Broadway but not Bourton

The Broadway Group of the GWR have been busy over the past few months continuing to tidy up the Broadway Station site and also to find sources of the correct types of bricks needed for the station and the platforms. Given that the replacement station will be longer than the original they will need several thousand bricks of the right type! The station at Broadway was similar to that at Toddington but a little longer. The original plan to remove Bourton on the Water station building to Broadway was shelved for a variety of reasons and the link below shows the old Bourton railway station building being demolished on 15 Feb 10.

http://disused-rlys.fotopic.net/c903019.html

A sad end to an attractive building (Stow on the Wold station was very similar and now forms part of a private residence) which was built from Cotswold stone in the 1930s and replaced a somewhat "Hansel and Gretel" looking building from when the station opened in 1862. However, it would have been too expensive to remove the building (partly because of the need to demolish it quickly) and it would have been too small for the GWR's needs at Broadway. The original Broadway station did not look like Bourton on the Water's structure either. I do hope, however, that any artifacts or internal fittings that might have survived since the building stopped being used as a passenger station in 1962, have been saved if possible. It certainly looks as if all the Cotswold roof tiles were removed for salvage, which is the norm anyway. Nevertheless, I find it sad that this building could not have been used on a heritage line but it probably would be cheaper to build a replica anyway.

 

If your post is a criticism of the GWSR (I'm not sure it is, it reads rather confusingly) then they can't be expected to pay more to rescue a building than they would if they built a replica. There are only finite volunteers and funds at their availability! I don't understand the problem with replicas anyway. Lovely new station buildings can be built from scratch, see for example Kingsley & Froghall...

 

Well yes, in a way I suppose this is what preservation has become. Simply because it's not possible to save everything due to manpower and funding. I'm not a director of the GWR plc or Ltd so I can't and would not wish to respond on their behalf but what I understand to be influential regarding their choices are as follows:

Bourton Station was "preserved" for years whilst everything else around it disappeared. Because it was on Glos CC land it was safe for years being used as a store. the GWR also kept an eye on it for years as a possible replacement for one of their missing stations. However, the CC then decided that a nursing home was to be built on the old station site but the GWR was given the heads up about it. After much deliberation and soul searching, plus a very rigorous timescale for removal (ie no faffing about guys, pay oodles and cart this structure away pronto like) together with the fact that the Bourton station building itself was too small for use at Broadway and not at all like the original, it was sadly decided that the GWR could not use it. Unfortunately only 2 of the Honeybourne Line stations were ever built of Cotswold Stone, one being Gotherington, which survives as a private dwelling but superbly restored and a heritage delight in its own right, the other being Bishops Cleeve, which is long gone and the plot sold off years ago I believe. I'm sure that the decision not to go for Bourton was not taken lightly and was controversial but there was a lot of publicity about it but, at the end of the day, noone could be bottomed to cough up the dosh and demolish it except a contractor. As I said in my last post, I just hope anything of railway use inside was salvaged. The GWR could have spent a lot of money on getting Bourton Station but then have had no money for track to Broadway.

Cheltenham Race Course box was built somewhat differently from the original, which was all wood, for simplicity and security. It looks "too modern" to me in a way but the old Stratford box would probably have been torched by now.

Broadway stations' original signal box was never brick. It looked like the one at Athelney and was an all wooden, hipped roof GWR standard type, positioned just the other side of the rail overbridge south of the Station. The Exminster box is much bigger as you say. I'm not sure what's happening about re-erecting it.

It is somewhat ironic given that Broadway village is world famous, and I mean world famous, for its Cotswold stone houses and picture postcard main street. It is strange in a way that the original GWR didn't build a stone station building there like they did at Gotherington and Bishops Cleeve, but instead a standard pattern red brick structure was erected instead. It is of course, a great pity that it was demolished too as this topic would have been irrelevant!

Winchcombe Station building was moved from Monmouth Troy and, in the days when there was a Youth Training Scheme, some work was done on it. However, the Scheme ended before the Station was anything like completed and GWR volunteers did the rest. There was not the pressure to remove the station structure either like there was at Bourton.

 

I used to live quite near a place called Guiting Power in the Cotswolds. A strangely named village, but very attractive, it was saved from "modernisation" and 1960s developments by becoming a self governing trust. However, this didn't extend to a very large italinate grange (the building not the locomotive!) which stood in its own large grounds about 1 mile from the village. If you go to Guiting Grange now you will see a very fine gate lodge, walled parkland and a building behind where Guiting Grange used to be (originally stables and outbuildings but nicely developed) but the grange itself was pulled down in the 1960s by its new owners who couldn't really live with it. A family friend had a stone haulage business and I remember seeing some of the huge cotswold stone mullions and exterior decor being chopped into blocks, some of which was used elsewhere.

Whilst this is not directly relevant to Bourton Station it goes to show that even some grander buildings can be destroyed purely by being unfashionable or unsuitable for their new owners although I think there is less chance of that happening these days. I suppose, in railway terms, one of the biggest losses was the Euston Arch (its not really and arch but a propyleaum or some such!) which, in hindsight, should never have been demolished.

I still understand that, when completed, the new Broadway station will look much like the original and I believe it is the aim of the GWR to try and recreate Broadway station as much as it was. The trouble is it can never be exactly as it was since it will be, at least for a while, a terminus station and not the though country station relying on fruit and veg rather than passengers as it once did. Winchcombe footbridge supports are ex-Midland Railway by the way, but the rest of the structure is much newer. Oh yes, and the colour scheme for Winchcombe station (maroon and cream) is definitely not GWR or BR (WR) but it still looks brilliant.

 

Surely it all depends on how well it is done - I haven't heard anyone complaining about Kidderminster station on the SVR, yet it is wholly artificial. Perhaps they should have tried to transplant Wolverhampton Low Level instead? It is surely better to have a good replica that is suited to the job than an original that isn't?

 

It's built of bricks and mortar and timber and all the usual materials so how can it be artificial?

Meic

 

The Broadway Station Restoration Team has been hard at work again. Once the decision had been made to rebuild Broadway Station in the original brick style as close as current requirements permit (ie it would be the GWR's northern terminus at least for a while) the search was on for as many of the right type of bricks as possible. A suitable source for sdome of them was located at Coleford and retrieval started on 13 March. Much hard work was carried out at Coleford in retrieving and cleaning red imperial bricks. This is a mammoth task. There are some 4000 bricks available. Each brick weighs an extraordinary 9.2 lbs (about 4 kg in new money) and the need for palleting the bricks for easier handling and storage became obvious. Pallets will be delivered to site before work continues. At least 6000 bricks would be needed to rebuild just the main station building as it was, but because it will probably be a bit longer than the original even more will be needed. The station platforms would need at least 6500 blue bricks each side but, as the GWR needs longer platforms to cope with longer trains (Broadway was just a small country station in GWR and BR days) then even more bricks will be needed!

 

Don't forget the bullnose bricks for the corners!

 

would it all be in brick or would they use breezeblocks for the hidden bits?

 

I don't know, is the honest answer as I'm not part of the Broadway team who are doing the project (more's the pity, I'd love to help out!) but I would imagine that the internal walls will be plastered, like those at Toddington, so they could use blocks for that. What I do know is that, externally at least, the aim is to build a station which looks as authentic as possible to the original but will need to be a little longer because it needs to handle more passengers than it did in GWR and BR days.

 

It is strange how some things resurface after years pass! The team working on Broadway Station yesterday received a number of the original advertising enamelled signs which were originally displayed at Broadway Station. The items, including "Lyons Tea" and "Sunlight Soap" were kindly donated by a person from Alderton. It is planned to display them in their original positions on the rebuilt station once the work is completed.
In the meantime, work continues on site clearance, brick reclamation and the GWR Track Gang continue their preparation work on the track from Toddington to Laverton (new) bridge.

 

It would seem that plans are coming together such that Broadway won't be the Gloucestershire Warwickshire terminus after all! Please see the link below (Railway Herald Issue 219) which includes the latest on the Cotswold Line redoubling. As part of the work, Honeybourne Station platforms will be rebuilt to cater for the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. Once this is done, then the already successful heritage line will truly be one of the brightest and the best. Let's hope it does happen as reported here:

http://archive.railwayherald.com/Issue219.pdf

 

Makes sense -- it shouldn't cost NR much more to build a single island platform with one face for the GWR. I hope though that they give sufficient forethought as to how the station buildings would be sited as GWR are going to eventually want more than a bus shelter even if they don't add buildings straight away.

 

Very interesting, thanks.

But you need to edit the link, the way you have posted it has doubled the http:// bit at the start of the address

 

Thank you for pointing that out, I usually leave computer details to a little man to sort out (if I had one) so I have severely reprimanded him (if I had one to reprimand!).

Regarding buildings, Honeybourne once had quite substantial station buildings (although it never had a loco shed - the loco or locos - there were sometimes 2 Collett 0-6-0s or Churchward 2-6-0s based there - were kept in the open and used for banking duties) and I do hope that the island platform building will eventually be something akin to what was there before. The running in board was also very large and read: "Honeybourne Junction for Stratford on Avon Branch, Warwick, Leamington, Birmingham, Broadway, Winchcombe and Cheltenham." Toddington didn't get a mention! It would be wonderful to see that board back up on the platform!

 

There is a nice blog from one of the guy's working at Broadway which is worth having a look at:

http://broadwaygwsr.blogspot.com/

 

Now that formal planning permission has been put in for the Broadway Station buildings (and beautiful they look too if you look at Fred Lea's artwork on the Broadway Station Blog) it hopefully won't be long before Broadway has a station again, which will look almost exactly like it did in 1904, the only main difference being that the signal box will now be on Platform 2 and not perched the other side of the Evesham Road bridge - where it had to be in GWR/BR days to oversee the now gone Goods Yard. However, it would now seem that a scheme to reopen the Kingham to Cheltenham line means that Bourton on the Water will also now have to have its station rebuilt!
Now a scheme has been put forward, with some interest from local councillors, to reopen that beautiful, never should have been closed, meandering cross country route from Cheltenham to Kingham (a line so close to my heart that I called myself after it!) but I think this should have been done back in 1962 not 2013! One of the main protagonists behind this new scheme is Mr Alfred Roberts (of Dunstable heritage railway honeypot fame remember) and the local paper is also covering it.
See: http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.u...railway-line/story-19171644-detail/story.html and yes, that photo on the header is Cheltenham St James Station of course not Kingham!
and: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Re-o...e-to-link-with-East-West-Rail/262628167202496
The station at Kingham on the Oxford, Worcester, Hereford line is now quite busy and more of that line has recently been double-tracked and Honeybourne Station has been rebuilt too of course.
So, if Mr Alfred Roberts and others have their way, it would be possible one day to take a trip behind that stalwart loco of Cheltenham Malvern Road, Large Prairie 4141, and travel from Cheltenham Lansdown to Andoversford, then to Bourton on the Water, Stow on the Wold and Kingham before running round the train and travelling up the Oxford-Worcester section to Honeybourne where it would joint the extended GWSR back down through Broadway, Toddington, Winchcombe, Cheltenham Race Course and possibly join a new Network Rail link back to Cheltenham Lansdown station. That has got to be my dream favourite railway journey and sadly, that's all it will be, a dream.
Sanity warning: Please remember that I also predicted that no-one would want to go and see 6 boring old steam trains (sic) at York, no-one would bother with building a life-size working 47xx and no way would today's economy permit anyone to fund a bridge over the line at Loughborough to connect the GCR-GCR(N) - and 10% of that money has been found in 2 weeks since the launch, mmm.

 

Whilst it would be nice to the line running again, I think the number of demolitions required in Cheltenham is enough to see this 'pie in the sky' off.
For starters, Dean close school would be less than happy to have their theater, lecture rooms, swimming pool & Dorms knocked down. then theres the twenty plus houses in Chapman way, Alma close & Warren close. Severn Trent wouldn't be happy about last years flood alleviation work ( buried under the course of the line ), a 12 foot diameter pipe having to hold up the track and trains. Moving on over Shurdington road (A46), level crossing anyone. Another thirty plus houses in Merlin way & Eynon close. The site of Cheltenham South (Leckhampton) is now a block of flats and an industrial estate, beyond it's a nature reserve.

I could go on and on and on just off the top of my head. Seems Mr Roberts hasn't got a clue of what would be involved.