From the Wiltshire Times



Spoiler alert -
Highworth
Wootton Basett Junction
Devizes
Swindon Town
Marlborough High and Low Levels

Ah, Highworth. I visited the station site using the relatively frequent bus service, on a sunny day post Covid, when Highworth came across as stunned rather than sleeping. The wall in the photo alongside the alley from the road called 'Windrush' was a puzzle. On the site of the goods shed, it doesn't align with the structure, but looks to be built partly with bricks reclaimed from the platform face.

That aside, the railway, on a rural site, obliterated by the later housing, at the edge of which a length of trackbed untouched since the line closed immediately asserted itself.

On old maps, the line through Highworth station very much suggests intentions to head on, but it's not clear to where - though at some distance and across the young Thames, the Fairford branch beckoned. If it's ok I'll imagine a Bristol to Oxford train service via Witney - a rather unlikely relief for the capacity issues on the Didcot to Oxford line.

Mark


[Image from here is not available to guests]

Indeed - lost in April 1966, and re-opening in May 1985.

Looking at my Summer 1991 timetable, there was a Monday to Saturday train at 07:44 to Swindon, and a train at 17:30 from Swindon that called at 17:57 returning, with an extra train on Saturdays from Swindin at 14:30 getting in at 14:57.   We have come a long way since then - there are now 9 trains timetabled each way Monday to Friday, and 7 each way on Saturday and Sunday.

We have come a long way back but we have a long way to go ... social media comment from yesterday: