Place Blandford Forum Grid reference ST888067 Platforms in use 2 | Area North Dorset 31 August 1863 Opened (Blandford) | |
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Pre-grouping Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway Post-grouping Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
Southern Region of British Railways Original company Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway Similar Bailey Gate railway station, Charlton Marshall Halt railw, Stourpaine and Durwesto, Spetisbury railway station, Broadstone (Dorset) railway st | ||
Blandford forum railway station 1960 s part 2
Blandford Forum railway station was a station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway which served the town of Blandford Forum. It lay between Charlton Marshall Halt and Stourpaine and Durweston stations, to the north-west of the line's terminus at the now-closed Bournemouth West station.
Contents
History
Originally part of the Dorset Central Railway, the line to Blandford opened on 1 November 1860 to a station to the south of the River Stour. The Dorset Central merged with the Somerset Central Railway in 1862, and a new extension connecting the two railways was built. The extension, and a newly-relocated Blandford Forum station to the north of the Stour, opened on 31 August 1863.
The station remained open until 7 March 1966, when the entire line from Bath to Bournemouth closed to passengers. Goods traffic continued for a further three years, but the station was finally fully closed, and the track lifted, in 1969.
The impending closure of the station was lamented by musical duo Flanders and Swann, when in 1964 it was one of several stations listed in their song Slow Train. The song was written in the wake of the first Beeching report, published in 1963, and was written as a tribute to the lines and stations that were closed.
A working model of Blandford station, and its environs, is in the process of being built in 1/76th scale in the Blandford Museum, Bere's Yard, Market Place, in Blandford town centre.
The site of the station now lies within a housing estate.