Mangotsfield railway station

Mangotsfield
Mangotsfield railway station in 1973
General information
Location	South Gloucestershire
Owned by	London, Midland and Scottish Railway London Midland Region of British Railways
Managed by	Midland Railway
Platforms	6
Key dates
1 May 1845	Opened
4 August 1869	Rebuilt 805m south
7 March 1966	Closed

Taken from the station today, looking towards Bristol on The Bristol & Bath Railway Path

Bristol and Gloucester Railway
Gloucester–Newport line (SWR) to Newport Gloucester Birmingham & Gloucester Rly (MR) to Birmingham  M5  Haresfield Golden Valley line (GWR) to Swindon Stonehouse (Bristol Road) Stonehouse & Nailsworth Rly (MR) to Nailsworth/Stroud Stroudwater Navigation Frocester Cam & Dursley Coaley Junction Dursley & Midland Junction Rly (MR) to Dursley  M5  Berkeley Road Sharpness branch line (MR) to Sharpness  M5  Charfield Wickwar Wickwar Tunnel Thornbury branch line (MR) to Thornbury Yate Westerleigh Junction South Wales Main Line (GWR) to London Paddington Coalpit Heath Sidings Ram Hill Colliery Westerleigh Goods Depot  M4  Bristol Parkway Mangotsfield & Bath branch line (MR) to Bath South Wales Main Line (GWR) to Swansea Mangotsfield Goods line to Avonmouth docks Staple Hill Staple Hill Tunnel Filton Abbey Wood Fishponds Avonside Locomotive Works Clifton Extension Rly (GWR & MR) to Avonmouth Kingswood Junction River Frome Atlas Locomotive Works and collieries  M32  Stapleton Road Lawrence Hill Waste Depot Goods Depots Bristol St Philip's Bristol Harbour River Avon (from Bath) (GWR) Temple Meads Goods Depot Great Western Main Line to London Paddington Bristol Temple Meads Bridge over Victoria Street tunnel under St Mary Redcliffe churchyard Bristol Harbour Railway St Philip's Marsh depot River Avon (to the sea) Bristol & North Somerset Rly (GWR) Bristol and Exeter Railway (GWR) to Taunton and Exeter

Mangotsfield railway station was a station on the Midland Railway Bristol and Gloucester main line and was situated about five miles to the north east of Bristol in what is now the suburb of Mangotsfield.

The station was the junction for the Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line that led to Bath Green Park railway station and on southwards over the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway to Bournemouth. It had six platforms, including a bay platform used by the passenger service to Clifton Down which ran over the Thirteen Arches viaduct. The latter services were discontinued in 1940 following the outbreak of war and were never reinstated. Part of the line to Bath now forms the Avon Valley Railway, which has its headquarters at Bitton.

The line to Bath was strengthened in the 1930s so as to take heavier locomotives and the station was very busy until the 1960s, when the Beeching Report recommended closure. The station closed in 1966 when services between Bristol and Bath on the line were withdrawn; stopping services between Bristol and Gloucester on the Midland line had been withdrawn in 1965 and the last regular through passenger train to use the third side of the triangle, which connected Bath and Gloucester but bypassed the station itself and did not have platforms, had ended in 1962 with the re-routing of the Pines Express away from the Midland and Somerset & Dorset lines, though some freight used it later.

Carson's chocolate factory occupied the centre of the triangle (along with its own cricket pitch) and had its own siding which saw chocolate trains until the early 1960s. The station also handled a lot of racing pigeon traffic, the birds being loaded into special vans. The mail train, which in the days of the Travelling Post Office always had to have the mail catcher on the left, was turned every day on the triangle until the mid-1960s.

The station was the inspiration behind Arnold Ridley's play The Ghost Train after Ridley found himself stranded there overnight.

The station is now on the route of the Bristol & Bath Railway Path, part of National Cycle Route 4.

Services

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Staple Hill Line and station closed		Bristol and Gloucester Railway Midland Railway		Yate Line closed
Terminus		Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line Midland Railway		Warmley Line and station closed

References

• Passengers No More, by Gerald Daniels and L A Dench (Ian Allan, 2nd ed, 1974)

External links

• Pictures of Mangotsfield
• History of the Avon Valley Railway