I am always fascinated about...
...how Railways and canals and Roads came to evolve their routes and their lines and
how they are the shape they are today there's one such abandoned Railway that's been bugging
us for some time it heads from Oxford travels West for 22 miles with great purpose but then
it just stops my name is Paul welcome to the story of the line that just stopped and also
how we visited 500 abandoned stations in the UK [Music] and my journey today I'm actually
heading from the end of that line I'm on the western end and I'm looking for fairford station
it's around here somewhere I've left the town a few hundred yards that way and I'm gonna
head uh all the way across to the east towards Oxford
I think I found it the giveaway is a couple of Old Railway posts there a bit of broad
gauge um track there's even a little sign down the end I think it's all of that just
check out this sign and have a look
no I don't know why I thought the sign would be for this whole area here but right in front
of me there is the old Fairford station have a look at this
[Music]
so on today's Journey as ever I've tried to print out all the old pictures of the station
to bring them with me see if I can compare what was and what is today and here we are
Fairford I think this is looking this way towards the end of the line so we're looking
for a platform on the left now gwr opened the batting in this area with an 1850 North
South Route Oxford to Banbury line next up a junction from this was built in 1853 the
Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway so the year is 1853 and there's a meeting
in Whitney purely concerned with getting the town folk of Whitney connected to a railway
it's a thriving Woollen industry there and the town folk are getting concerned about
uh the local competition everybody's getting a railway and for Whitney in the townsfolk
it was quite important they've got themselves on the map now this whole area now seems to
have turned into a um BMX slash bikers Paradise which is quite cool this whole stretch is
pretty much exactly where that picture was but from the other end facing that way [Music]
okay disappointingly we've come to looks like the end of this little area of Woodland and
there's nothing to see, thats a bit disappointing I thought this stretch might hold some Secrets
there's a few old posts down here nothing of value Railway wise um we shall move on
to the east.
so five and a half six years ago Rebecca and I were sat watching YouTube watching some
creators that we enjoy and another thought popped into my head I wonder if I could do
that I bought a little camera that we're still using today the one you're looking through
now a Canon 80d I might put a video together we made what we call a comic video on a disused
railway try to make a light-hearted history of it No Agenda no thought in mind other than
to just enjoy ourselves and we did
we loved it but there was one problem with making a comic series of videos I'm really
not funny
[Music] My third station along the line not to a lot to see back at the railway close
or whatever that was called back at Lechdale but this is KelmScott and Langford langford's
a very beautiful Village just to the north no idea where Kelmscott is but I guess it's
served both because well have a look around there's not a house or dwelling in sight apparently
the station just down here was indeed a halt I think in uh it was manned but 1923 as an
example I think they sold on average just 10 tickets per day which I guess isn't bad
considering we're in the middle of nowhere right there's lot of Railway fencing across
the back not really sure what I'm looking for its was a halt there's no pictures of
here I don't know if it's a wooden affair or that was man so maybe we are looking for
a little bit more infrastructure so 1859 a contractor was appointed Sir Charles Fox,
£ 50 000 pounds in shares was raised and uh yeah 1861 the line was opened it was a
very easy uh line to construct looking at the distance you can see why there's no obstacles
here there's no Hills there's no need for tunnels it's a very flat landscape so you
can imagine within two years this line was open now the Board of Trade came and they
said yeah absolutely fine the only thing we would notice there's no turntable with Witney
so you're gonna have to use tank engines I'm not really sure what I'm looking for you see
the alignment was there I suspect the platform was this side there's a lot of ballasts strewn
about here an old concrete post I wonder if that's got anything to do with the line, expect
so.
now I'm going to continue and take the uh take advantage of the bridal way which now
heads East along this line so we can see any more infrastructure I doubt there's a lot
of it apart from this gorgeous over bridge and it's um yeah that's very nice looking,
nice masonary, a lot of water
so after making that first comedy film we then made a few additions a few accompaniments
to that film we did a um a remote disused so we found one of the most remote disuse
stations I think it's Foss cross up near Cirencester I think we did another one churn Halt on the
Didcot Newbury in Southampton Railway and we did a series called remote disused and
and that took us to Scotland where we went to Riccarton Junction, saughtree and places
like that and we started making small Vlogs I guess for a want a better word and we really
enjoyed that we really enjoyed the process and we really enjoyed looking and seeing these
places that we'd never even considered seeing before and we kind of got addicted and then
all of a sudden another idea popped into our head the idea that we should visit every disused
station so we started doing a bit of research and we made our first video on the Somerset
and Dorset Railway and that came with quite a problem...
right into alvestock took a couple of pictures in an industrial estate so we couldn't really
get out and film carterton missed it um in the middle of the Airfield and now back to
another industrial estate for Brize Norton and bampton station uh which is just up there
got a little bit more walk than we can do and the rest of the story up ahead for the
meantime let's um listen to the sound of the aircraft wow yep you can see that [Aircraft
noise]
Wasn't expecting that something else I wasn't expecting as well it's an Old Railway cross
inside there's an Old Railway crossing it's a new crossing sign am I missing something
[Music] Brize Norton thankfully didn't manage to get myself mowed down on this busy road
but that's a three stations ticked off quicker than I had hoped and a lot less to see than
I'd hoped as well onwards [Music] okay so it's 1861 and we're in Sainsbury's car park
those two aren't related but we are in Witney now 1861 we have online complete to Witney
so why then within about 10 years has Witney got a second station and the 14 mile extension
to this Branch line that we've already just explored so let's look at the south side of
this map in particular a branch that went up to Farringdon just a few miles long a company
called the East Gloucestershire Railway was formed and intended to use this Branch to
connect up to Cheltenham the line was going to be run by Midland Railway gwr opposed this
and it's really frustrated the East Gloucestershire Railway because Bill after Bill was appealed
by gwr eventually the East Gloucestershire Railway settled with a line from Whitney to
Fairford so 1873 the line the branch is extended to what the part is that we've already explored
today down to Fairford and what that meant of course to make that new alignment south
of Witney, Witney needed another station now I'm stood if you can see that line there of
vegetation that's the Old Railway in here into witney and look at this the rare pieces
of infrastructure on this line big old still bridge and just the other side of those new
houses or flats and that's where the original 1861 line would have gone into Witney and
of course the new alignment I can see that just down the river there about 100 yards
or less away from me that new alignment with a new station on Well that took away this
the use for passengers and of course that remained as a Goods line or good stop only
so we just take a step back from the old line which goes right behind me in the distance
we'll see if we can find a little over bridge and then the new alignment and the new station
for Witney
all right and there we are that's the bridge I was looking for carry both lines over this
River before they split just back there and went into Witney on either direction I guess
in five years we've done 500 stations now if you can do some maths I guess that's going
to mean that gonna take us another half a lifetime to get this done so as you probably
worked out we're not gonna, we're not stopping what we are going to do is just tell you um
stories and episodes of Every disused station well that have a story to tell because one
of the things that's been bothering me lately is just doing a line for the sake of it pointing
at housing estate pointing at a field where there's nothing so we we're only doing the
every disused stations now where there is a good story to tell and hopefully this one
is one of those right now on the new alignment the line was in both parts ultimately absorbed
and sold two gwr in 1890 it lasted a fair while into the axe of beaching was wielded
1862 and the line was closed and only ran Goods to Witney until 1970.
there it is look at that it's exactly what I've been trying to find is the route over
that river that I saw from the other Bridge [Music]
so I've got a old line here going into Witney into that industrial estate can't get to it
because of the industrial six fence stuff I've got the new line there which went the
south side of Whitney and I can't get through there so I can't show you the exact locations
or I could but I'd have to take a mile walk around and show you an industrial estate exactly
the point I was just making or what we don't want to do so um let's just head back in this
hedge here this stand on the bridge and thank you for watching we're gonna have to stop
our journey here and not do the remainder the last few stops we'll do those another
day largely because the a34 is closed and the traffic around it is a bit mental so we're
going to stop today's journey in Witney thank you for watching um if you'd like regular
behind the scenes video because we do one a week you can sign up to our patreon or members
by hitting the links in the pinned comment or the description just below but uh from
the uh the banks of a river I'm not sure what they are um stood on an Old Railway Bridge
built in 1861.
thanks for watching
foreign