Sandford and Banwell railway station was a station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Sandford, Somerset, England. The station is a Grade II listed building. [1]
The station can be viewed from the Strawberry Line Trail, which runs adjacent to the site.
The station was opened as Sandford with the broad gauge line to Cheddar in August 1869 as a single-platform station. The railway was extended to Wells in 1870, converted to standard gauge in the mid-1870s and then linked up to the East Somerset Railway to provide through services from Yatton to Witham in 1878. All the railways involved were absorbed into the Great Western Railway in the 1870s.
The Yatton to Witham line closed to passengers in September 1963 [2] and Yatton-Cheddar closed to goods in October 1964. Sandford and Banwell station was used initially by Somerset County Council highways department for storage and was later taken over by a local company, Sandford Stone, which kept it well-preserved until going into liquidation. The site has since been redeveloped as "Sandford Station Care Village" a sheltered housing complex. Two period open wagons and a BR coach stand on a short section of track.
Part of the restoration work included the reinstatement of a number of original features of the station including a replica cast iron running in board that was cast at Barr and Grosvenor's foundry in Wolverhampton.
| Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Congresbury Line and station closed | Cheddar Valley Railway Great Western Railway | Winscombe Line and station closed |
The East Somerset Railway is a 2+1⁄2-mile (4 km) heritage railway in Somerset, running between Cranmore and Mendip Vale. Prior to the Beeching Axe, the railway was once part of the former Cheddar Valley line that ran from Witham to Yatton, meeting the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway at Wells.
Yatton railway station, on the Bristol to Exeter line, is in the village of Yatton in North Somerset, England. It is 12 miles (19 km) west of Bristol Temple Meads railway station, and 130 miles (209 km) from London Paddington. Its three-letter station code is YAT. It was opened in 1841 by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, and served as a junction station for trains to Clevedon and Cheddar, but these lines closed in the 1960s. The station, which has two platforms, is managed by Great Western Railway, the seventh company to be responsible for the station, and the third franchise since privatisation in 1997. They provide all train services at the station, mainly hourly services between Bristol Parkway and Weston-super-Mare, and between Cardiff Central and Taunton.
The Bristol & Exeter Railway (B&ER) was an English railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter. It was built on the broad gauge and its engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in stages between 1841 and 1844. It was allied with the Great Western Railway (GWR), which built its main line between London and Bristol, and in time formed part of a through route between London and Cornwall.
Witham (Somerset) railway station was a station serving the Somerset village of Witham Friary and was located on the Frome to Yeovil section of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway that opened in 1856.
The Clevedon branch line was a 3+1⁄2-mile (5.6 km) branch railway line that ran from Yatton railway station on the Bristol to Taunton Line to Clevedon in North Somerset, England, with no intermediate stops.
The Cheddar Valley line was a railway line in Somerset, England, running between Yatton and Witham. It was opened in parts: the first section connecting Shepton Mallet to Witham, later extended to Wells, was built by the East Somerset Railway from 1858. Later the Bristol and Exeter Railway built their branch line from Yatton to Wells, but the two lines were prevented for a time from joining up. Eventually the gap was closed, and the line became a simple through line, operated by the Great Western Railway.
Sandford is a village between Churchill and Banwell on the A368 in North Somerset, England.
There are 22 disused railway stations in the 75 miles (121 km) between Bristol Temple Meads and Exeter St Davids, 12 of which have structures that can still be seen from passing trains. Most were closed in the 1960s but four of them, especially around Weston-super-Mare, were replaced by stations on new sites. 13 stations remain open on the line today, but there have been proposals to reopen stations at Cullompton and Wellington.
Shepton Mallet was a railway station on the East Somerset Railway, serving the town of Shepton Mallet in the English county of Somerset.
Wells was a railway station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway at Wells in the county of Somerset in England. Opening on 15 March 1859 as Wells, on the Somerset Central Railway, at that time a broad-gauge line operated by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, prior to that company's amalgamation with the Dorset Central Railway to form the Somerset & Dorset, it was the terminus of the branch from Glastonbury.
Congresbury railway station was a station located at Congresbury on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Somerset and the junction for the Wrington Vale Light Railway to Blagdon.
Winscombe railway station was a station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Winscombe, Somerset.
Axbridge railway station was a station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Axbridge, Somerset. Axbridge was one of the principal stations for the transport of strawberries, which led to the line's alternative name as The Strawberry Line.
Cheddar railway station was a station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Cheddar, Somerset, England. The station had substantial goods traffic based on the locally-grown strawberries, which led to the line's alternative name as The Strawberry Line.
Draycott railway station was a station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Draycott, Somerset.
Lodge Hill railway station was a station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Somerset, England from 1870 until 1963. The station served the village of Westbury-sub-Mendip, but was not named Westbury because of the potential for confusion with Westbury, Wiltshire.
Wookey railway station was a station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Somerset, England. The site is a 0.04 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Wells and Wookey Hole
Wells railway station was the second terminus station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Somerset after the extension from the first terminus at Cheddar was opened. It was the third station on the third railway to reach the city of Wells and proved to be the longest surviving.
Wanstrow railway station was a small station on the East Somerset Railway serving the village of Wanstrow in Somerset.
Wells station in the Somerset city of Wells was the terminus of the East Somerset Railway line from Witham and opened when the line was extended from Shepton Mallet in 1862.