Throughout the 19th Century the arrival of the railway had a deep and lasting effect on areas of the British Isles through which it passed. Locally this is graphically illustrated by the little village of Didcot.
This map of 1807 shows it was just a village of about the same size as Warborough.
Then, in 1835, Isambard Kingdom Brunel started to build the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol. A more southerly route was vetoed by Lord Wantage who didn’t want it to cross his land and a more northerly one through Oxford was rejected by the University in case the “students were lured into a life of debauchery in London”. Consequently, it went right through the village of Didcot and from 1839 things were changed forever.
Passengers for Oxford were obliged to continue their journey by stagecoach. However, in 1844, despite the don’s misgivings, a line north to the city was completed.
Throughout the rest of the century railways were expanded all across the country as trade and commerce increased. These were all privately funded with companies being formed and shares sold to the public.
For villages like Warborough and Shillingford most of their trade of agricultural production and output from the brewery and later brass foundry travelled by barge from The Wharf downstream to London. But that was a slow process and the farmers and industrialists wished that they could have closer access to the railway. The watercress growers in Ewelme had to transport their watercress to Wallingford by cart to put on the train to London for it to be in Covent Garden by 8 o’clock in the morning so a station in the village would have been a godsend.
In 1872 the Watlington to Princes Risborough Line was built along with a station just outside the town at Pyrton.
It was always just a single track. The line was originally planned to be extended to Wallingford but nothing further could be afforded at that time.
In April 1898 the Henley & South Oxfordshire Standard had an article:
“ PROPOSED RAILWAY EXTENSION. –With the immense amount of money now waiting investment, those responsible for the projection of a new railway line from here (Watlington) to Didcot should be congratulated on their perspicacity in choosing just now for the opportunity they will give for the safe investment of surplus capital and their well intentioned effort to supply a long awaited accommodation. It is believed that the new Light Railway will start from the Watlington G.W.R. Station and passing through or near Britwell, Brightwell, Cuxham, Ewelme, Benson, Warborough, Dorchester and Shillingford in Oxfordshire by a somewhat devious but nearly level route, after crossing the Thames, going round the well known Wittenham Clump and taking in all the villages thereabouts, again join the G.W.R. system at Didcot. Locally there is no well grounded opposition at all, but every class greet the suggested development of railway accommodation with pleasurable expectation.”
Eventually money was raised and landowner approval was met and the draft plan laid before Oxfordshire County Council in May 1898.
Plan of Proposed Route
The specification was for 4’ 8 1/2” gauge line. It can be seen that the line would have crossed Thame Road just to the northeast of “Oatlands” cutting the two villages in half with a manned level crossing to be kept open to traffic when no trains were approaching. Presumably a station would have been in the vicinity.
Although the plans were approved no work was actually started and the scheme lapsed. It was revived again in 1902 with an additional link between Wallingford and Benson. This line would have left Wallingford Station in a NNE direction to a proposed new bridge 500 yards upstream from Benson Lock and joined the Light Railway line at a station in Benson.
In 1903 permission for this was not granted and both schemes collapsed.
It is interesting to note that when the route for the new Dorchester By-Pass was first planned it was to have followed a similar line from Benson roundabout again crossing Thame Road by “Oatlands”. This was defeated because the need to have the line crossed by a bridge meant that the gradient from Wheeler’s End would have been too steep. Level crossings were not an option.
Researched by Ray Thackrah
