Chippenham railway station

Chippenham National Rail
The station buildings, seen from the southwest
Location
Place Chippenham
Local authority County of Wiltshire
Coordinates 51°27′45″N 2°06′55″W / 51.4625°N 2.1154°W / 51.4625; -2.1154Coordinates: 51°27′45″N 2°06′55″W / 51.4625°N 2.1154°W / 51.4625; -2.1154
Grid reference ST920737
Operations
Station code CPM
Managed by Great Western Railway
Owned by Network Rail
Number of platforms 2
DfT category C1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2012/13 Decrease 1.747 million
– Interchange  Increase 3,431
2013/14 Increase 1.826 million
– Interchange  Increase 22,376
2014/15 Increase 1.896 million
– Interchange  Increase 27,497
2015/16 Decrease 1.816 million
– Interchange  Increase 30,500
2016/17 Increase 1.939 million
– Interchange  Increase 40,218
History
Original company Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping Great Western Railway
Post-grouping Great Western Railway
31 May 1841 Opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Chippenham from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Chippenham railway station is on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) in South West England, serving the town of Chippenham, Wiltshire. It is 93 miles 76 chains (151.2 km) down the line from London Paddington and is situated between Swindon and Bath Spa on the GWML. The Wessex Main Line diverges from the GWML to the southwest of Chippenham and runs to Trowbridge via Melksham.

It is managed by Great Western Railway, which also operates all the trains that call.

Only two platforms at the station remain in use; the platform by the main entrance is now disused.

History

Station entrance (1989)

The main line of the Great Western Railway (GWR) was authorised in 1835, and opened in stages:[1] the section from Hay Lane westward to Chippenham opened on 31 May 1841.[2][3] The final section of the line, between Chippenham and Bath, opened on 30 June 1841.[4]

Chippenham was soon served by other lines. The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) was authorised in 1845 and the first section opened on 5 September 1848; this ran from Thingley Junction, west of Chippenham, to Westbury, and the WS&WR was absorbed by the GWR in 1851.[5][6] The Calne Railway was authorised in 1860 and opened on 3 November 1863; this company remained independent for some years, until absorbed by the GWR in 1892.[7][8]

In 1858 the station was expanded and gained a goods shed and an engine shed.[9] A railway connection was laid to Chippenham Gas Works in 1906; this connection closed in 1932. Chippenham engine shed closed in March 1964 and services on the Calne branch ended in 1965. Chippenham East and West signal boxes closed on 21 August 1966. As from 1 February 1976 the original down platform was taken out of use and services travelling west used the south side of the island platform.[10]

Station Masters

  • Jonathan Carthew Hornblower ca. 1859–1889[11]
  • H.E. Williams 1889–1895 (afterwards station master at Newton Abbot)
  • Thomas Albert Williams 1895[12] – 1896 (formerly station master at Hayle)
  • John Phillips 1897–1920
  • E.C. Beard 1920–1925[13] (formerly station master at Melksham)
  • G.R. Halford 1925–1933[14]
  • William Folland 1933–1935[15]
  • G.E. Nailor 1935–1938
  • Frank Gale 1938–1944[16] (afterwards station master at Bath)
  • R.W. Best ca. 1949
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Description

The original station building at Chippenham was built to Isambard Kingdom Brunel's design and opened in 1841.[17] With the subsequent opening of new lines to Salisbury and Weymouth, the station was not adequate to meet the increased demand and was redesigned by J H Bertram in 1856 to 1858; it is a grade II listed building, constructed in Bath Stone ashlar with a bay window at one end and a wing at the other making a long, low composition.[18]

In the station yard, there is another grade II listed building partly in random stone but mainly weather-boarded on a timber frame with a pitched slate roof. It is an early weighbridge house and coal merchant's office dating to around 1840.

Platform view in 1989

Immediately west of the station lies the grade II listed Chippenham viaduct designed by Brunel in 1841. The first arch, over New Road, appears to have been modelled on the Roman triumphal arch. It has a 26-foot (8 m) span and is flanked by two smaller pedestrian arches of 10 feet (3 m). All is surmounted by a heavy cornice and parapet. The north side is constructed from Bath Stone ashlar with some brick patching, while the south side is in blue brick following widening in the early 1900s.[19]

Platform 1 is used for westbound Great Western Main Line services towards Bristol Temple Meads, the West Country, South Wales and is also used for Wessex Main Line services towards Southampton Central. Platform 2 is used for eastbound services towards London Paddington and Cheltenham Spa. On the disused platform there is cycle storage, a seating area and a café.[10]

Passenger access improvements under the 'Access for All' scheme, completed in 2016, included replacement of the western footbridge and installation of lifts.[20][21][22]

Awards

In 2004, the station received an award to recognise its safety and security. The award, which lasted for two years, followed a passenger survey which found that 98% of the passengers through Chippenham said they felt 'safe' or 'very safe' whilst on the premises. The station is monitored by 24-hour CCTV and is alarmed.[23]

Services

A First Great Western service from London Paddington

The station has frequent eastbound services to London Paddington; and westbound services to Bristol, Bath, Devon, Taunton, and South Wales. Currently, these trains run every half an hour in both directions and extensions to stations further afield westbound are made regularly.[24]

The "TransWilts" line from Swindon via Chippenham to Melksham, Trowbridge and Westbury has trains every two hours each way on weekdays and six each way on Sundays. Two southbound weekday trains continue through to Southampton Central, and two in the other direction to Cheltenham Spa.[25]

Chippenham station connects to the Wessex Main Line via Melksham.

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Bath Spa   Great Western Railway
London – Bristol 		  Swindon
Melksham   Great Western Railway
Wessex Main Line 		 
  Historical railways  
Corsham
Line open, station closed		   Great Western Railway
Great Western Main Line		   Christian Malford Halt
Line open, station closed
Disused railways
Terminus   BR (Western Region)
Chippenham and Calne Line		   Stanley Bridge Halt

Future

There are plans to electrify the Great Western Main Line, originally for completion by 2016,[26] but delayed until at least 2019.[27]

Train operator Go-Op included Chippenham in its 2016 plan for a service from the west of England to the West Midlands, via Oxford.[28]

Engineering works

Northwest of the station is an engineering works, established on a smaller site north of the station in 1842 by Rowland Brotherhood to support the Great Western Railway, and later supplying equipment to the worldwide rail industry. From 1894 it was home to the company which in 1935 became Westinghouse Brake and Signal, manufacturers of railway air braking and signalling equipment. Westinghouse was acquired by Hawker Siddeley in 1979, then sold to BTR in 1992. After BTR merged with Siebe to form Invensys, Westinghouse Brakes was sold in 2000 to Knorr-Bremse, who opened a new factory at Bowerhill, Melksham.[29][30]

The signals business remained at Chippenham and became Westinghouse Rail Systems, within Invensys Rail Group. This business was sold to Siemens in 2013 and became part of Siemens Rail Automation.[31] Proposals submitted in 2016 for redevelopment of the site include homes, shops and a hotel as well as business space.[32]

References

  1. ↑ MacDermot, E.T. (1927). History of the Great Western Railway, vol. I: 1833–1863. Paddington: Great Western Railway. p. 25.
  2. ↑ MacDermot 1927, p. 124
  3. ↑ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 60. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
  4. ↑ MacDermot 1927, p. 131
  5. ↑ Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. London: Guild Publishing. p. 52. CN 8983.
  6. ↑ MacDermot 1927, p. 286
  7. ↑ MacDermot, E.T. (1931). History of the Great Western Railway, vol. II: 1863–1921. Paddington: Great Western Railway. p. 6. OCLC 55853736.
  8. ↑ Awdry 1990, p. 20
  9. ↑ Daniel, John (April 2013). "A Selection of Great Western Stations". The Great Western Archive. Chippenham. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  10. 1 2 TransWilts Community Rail Partnership (2009). "The "TransWilts" – Some key facts". Melksham, Wilts: Self. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
  11. ↑ "The Primrose League". Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette. England. 2 May 1889. Retrieved 23 September 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive. (Subscription required (help)).
  12. ↑ "The New Stationmaster". Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser. England. 19 January 1895. Retrieved 23 September 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive. (Subscription required (help)).
  13. ↑ "Station Master Retiring". Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser. England. 10 January 1925. Retrieved 23 September 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive. (Subscription required (help)).
  14. ↑ "Yatton Man to be Stationmaster at Chippenham". Western Daily Press. England. 3 March 1933. Retrieved 23 September 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive. (Subscription required (help)).
  15. ↑ "New Stationmaster". Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser. England. 4 May 1935. Retrieved 23 September 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive. (Subscription required (help)).
  16. ↑ "Stationmaster". Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. England. 25 November 1944. Retrieved 23 September 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive. (Subscription required (help)).
  17. ↑ Beckett, Derrick (2006). Brunel's Britain. David & Charles. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-7153-2360-1.
  18. ↑ Clark, R H (1981). An Historic Survey of Selected Great Western Stations, volume 3.
  19. ↑ Biddle, Gordon (2003). Britain's Historic Railway Buildings: an Oxford Gazetteer of Structures and Sites. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866247-1.
  20. ↑ "Timeline: Access for All stations list". Network Rail. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
  21. ↑ Armstrong, Julie (2 February 2015). "115-year-old railway bridge comes down as part of £3m access scheme". Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  22. ↑ "Opening of Chippenham station's new footbridge and lifts". Network Rail. 22 January 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  23. ↑ "Chippenham railway station receives national award for security" (Press release). First Great Western. 21 December 2004. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
  24. ↑ "First Great Western Trains". Services near the bottom. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  25. ↑ "Trains from Swindon via Chippenham Melksham and Trowbridge to Westbury". TransWilts Community Rail Partnership. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  26. ↑ "Network Specification 2011 – Western". Network Rail. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
  27. ↑ "GWML electrification dates revealed". Railway Technology Magazine. 22 January 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  28. ↑ "Proposed route". GO-OP. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  29. ↑ O.S. Nock (2006). A Hundred Years of Speed with Safety: The Inception and Progress of the Westinghouse Brake & Signal Company Ltd., 1881 – 1981. Hobnob Press. ISBN 978-0-946418-51-0.
  30. ↑ "Invensys Sells Westinghouse Brakes to Knorr-Bremse". Invensys. 25 April 2000. Archived from the original on 14 March 2006.
  31. ↑ "Siemens completes Invensys Rail acquisition". Railway Gazette. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  32. ↑ Mackley, Stefan (29 April 2016). "Plans submitted to redevelop Langley Park". The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
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