A bit out in the sticks

[whole diary]

[CyclingSid]

Churn station

I have been reading "The Icknield Way" by Edward Thomas, not very sensible for somebody who failed GCE English Literature twice. It was originally published in 1913.

Walking between Streatly and Sparsholt he mentions Churn station

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churn_railway_station

Between Upton and Blewbury and Compton on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. Built as a temporary station for a Nation Rifle Association (NRA) competition. I get the impression the NRA had left it's previous base at Wimbledon and Churn was an interim competition site before they moved to Bisley. The range is visible on large scale maps from the National Library of Scotland (NLS^▸ (usually Nailsea & Backwell station, but may refer to National Library of Scotland in an historic map context)).

https://maps.nls.uk/view/97773386#zoom=4.0&lat=5462&lon=3449&layers=BT

This was apparently still used in the early 1970's. Decommissioned 1976.

From 1889 army tented summer camps were held in the area. The area is within the area of the army manoeuvre maps, the top of the downs marked "Gallops".  The camp was used during the First World War, mainly by yeomanry regiments.
There are Gallops marked on the current 1:25, 000 OS^▸ (Ordnance Survey) map.
The Great War Forum https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/86830-churn-camp-oxfordshireberkshire/ carries quite a lot of detail.

Churn remained an active military training area in both World Wars https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/e0d60dfc25674811a12cd0cd8b3962e3

Churn station closed in 1962. Freight ceased in 1966, what freight?

Eighty odd years was not bad for a temporary station.

[Marlburian]

I guess that freight ceasing in 1966 applied to other stations on the DN & S, and Churn just happened to be included. There might have been some agricultural traffic, though in 1943 a siding installed for the benefit of Churn Farm was removed as part of the wartime doubling. C W Judge in An Historical Survey ... of the line says that the station was closed to goods traffic then.

In the past fifty years I've explored most of the line between Upton and Winchester, but for some reason not the bit between Upton and Didcot - until yesterday. It's now a well-surfaced path for cyclists, walkers and horse-riders.  One or two stretches of embankment have been reduced to allow sloping access paths, there are several bridges to peer over and the concrete base of what I guess may have been a platelayers' hut.