Place Abingdon Grid reference SU499973 Pre-grouping Great Western Railway Platforms in use 1 | Area Vale of White Horse Original company Abingdon Railway Post-grouping GWR | |
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Similar Steventon railway station, Faringdon railway station, Churn railway station, Moulsford railway station, Wallingford railway station | ||
Abingdon railway station was a station which until 1963 served the town of Abingdon, then in Berkshire, now in Oxfordshire, in England.
History
The station was built by the Abingdon Railway, although this was operated by the Great Western Railway (GWR) from opening on 2 June 1856. The station and yard were built to the broad gauge on land acquired from the Mayor and Aldermen of the Borough of Abingdon on 19 March 1856 at a cost of £472. Seven properties were demolished to make way for the station and yard, including the Plough Inn which was subsequently rebuilt at a different location. The approach to the station from Stert Street had gates and no public right of way was allowed. Station facilities consisted of a single platform covered by a timber train shed. A locomotive shed was built on land which was never formally conveyed to the railway, but later acquired by adverse possession.
The Abingdon Railway was absorbed by the GWR on 15 August 1904. The line passed on to the Western Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948, and was then closed to passengers by the British Railways Board in 1963. However the branch was used by freight, notably MG Cars, and the occasional passenger excursion, the last of which took place in June 1984.
The branch track was lifted in the late 1980s. A fraction of the former railway line is now used for a cyclepath, while the station and the adjoining part of the line near the town centre have been overbuilt by a supermarket, parking and other development.