Place Harlton Grid reference TL395544 | Area South Cambridgeshire Platforms in use 2 | |
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Original company Bedford & Cambridge Railway Pre-grouping London and North Western Railway Post-grouping London, Midland and Scottish Railway
London Midland Region of British Railways (1948-1958)
Eastern Region of British Railways (1958-1968) Similar Old North Road railway st, Gamlingay railway station, Ramsey North railway st, Black Bank railway station, Murrow East railway st | ||
Lord's Bridge was a railway station on the Varsity Line which ran between Oxford and Cambridge. Situated in the north of the parish of Harlton on the western outskirts of Cambridge, it was the penultimate station before the line's eastern terminus at Cambridge. The station opened in 1862 and closed more than a century later in 1968. It is now the home to the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory's rail-mounted radio-telescopes.
Contents
History
As with the neighbouring Old North Road station, Lord's Bridge was built in open country. It was principally a stop for the local Lord of the Manor. The station's platforms were lengthened on 17 July 1907 to accommodate the longer trains running on the line.
The station was equipped with a LNWR type 4 signal box from which a key could be obtained to unlock the Toft & Kingston siding to the west which handled sugar beet and hay traffic. The traffic through Lord's Bridge was to change during the Second World War when a large ammunition store was built up at the station which brought many new workings to the line including an ex-Midland 2F tank locomotive which was kept permanently there for the purposes of shunting each train into the depot as they arrived and preparing the empties for return.
Present day
Following closure of the line between Bedford and Cambridge on New Year's Eve 1967, a section from Lord's Bridge station towards Cambridge became the site of the University of Cambridge's Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. The long and level stretch of line, the nearest suitable abandoned line to Cambridge, was ideal for the Observatory's CLFST, AMI, One-Mile and Ryle rail-mounted radio-telescopes which move along a 4.8 km length of track of approximately 20 ft gauge.
The goods shed remains as does a single length of the eastbound platform.