Masbury railway station

Masbury railway station was a small isolated station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway's main line between Evercreech Junction and Bath. It was situated to the north of Shepton Mallet and near the summit of the line as it crossed the Mendip Hills. The station opened in 1874 and closed with the rest of the line under the Beeching Axe in March 1966.

Masbury
Masbury Station, with Up express in 1959
Locationnr Shepton Mallet, Mendip
England
Grid referenceST604473
Platforms2
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Pre-groupingSomerset and Dorset Joint Railway
Post-groupingSR and LMSR
Western Region of British Railways
Key dates
20 July 1874Opened (Masbury)
26 September 1938Renamed (Masbury Halt)
7 March 1966Closed

Maesbury Railway Cutting is a two hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest between East Horrington and Gurney Slade and a Geological Conservation Review site because it exposes approximately 135 metres of strata representing the middle and upper Lower Limestone Shales and the basal Black Rock Limestone. Both formations are of early Carboniferous (Courceyan) age. It lies close to the Iron Age hill fort Maesbury Castle.

The station was never heavily used, and from 1938 it was reduced to a "halt" status. A feature of the station was a substantial stone-built stationmaster's house on the main northbound platform. The front of the house, which is still standing and in private hands, features a fanciful carving of Maesbury Castle as a medieval castle: in fact, Maesbury is an Iron Age fort nearby. There is about half a mile of ramparts and views to Glastonbury Tor. It is mostly on private land but a public footpath crosses it.

In May 2013 an online appeal was launched by the Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust to raise £500,000 by 30 September 2013 to purchase the station.[1] The trust eventually raised only £80,000 by the deadline, and the site was sold to another party.[2] The site is now in private hands so visitors are asked to respect the fact that it is a family home. Plans are in progress to restore the station to its original state, including rebuilding the signal box and renovating the platforms and waiting rooms.

Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Shepton Mallet
(Charlton Road)
Line and station closed		   Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway
LSWR and Midland Railways		   Binegar
Line and station closed

References
  • Somerset Railway Stations, by Mike Oakley, Dovecote Press, 2002.
  1. £500k needed in three months to buy iconic railway station Archived 2013-10-29 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Masbury station". Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust. Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2014.


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