Bookham railway station

Bookham
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Bookham Add→{{rail-interchange}}
General information
Location	District of Mole Valley
Managed by	South Western Railway
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	BKA
History
Opened	1885

Bookham railway station is in the village of Great Bookham in Surrey, England. It also serves the adjacent village of Little Bookham. It is 20 miles 45 chains (33.1 km) down the line from London Waterloo.

The station is managed by South Western Railway, which provides the majority of train services; Southern also provides some peak-period services.

History

Bookham railway station was opened on 2 February 1885; the line at the time was owned by the London and South Western Railway.^[1]^[2]

Initially the London and South Western Railway wanted to build the line into the centre of Great Bookham village itself, but as often happened in those early days of rail expansion from London, the key landowners (and villagers) were strongly opposed to that idea and forced the company to adopt a much more northerly route, resulting in the station being built nearly one mile (1.6 km) from the village high street in open country.

It effectively remained in an open-field setting until the later 1950s/early 1960s when there was a massive expansion of the village, with new estates built to fill the space between the high street and station, leaving only National Trust-owned land as a "green corridor" along parts of Church Road.

The station buildings remain largely unchanged to this day, including the footbridge and platform canopies, however, the station master's house has been sold off as a private dwelling.

Immediately to the west of the station the original goods siding was removed in the 1960s and the associated goods shed (used as a coal depot by local businessman Howard Weale at that time) was finally demolished in the 1990s having lived on for a time as a builder's yard (Tredan) and then offices.

There are now scant landmarks to identify it as the original siding and goods yard. The siding area was for a period home to a blacksmith, but that land was sold for housing development, and where the shed once stood is now a purpose-built office block.

Services

The typical service sees trains between London Waterloo and Guildford via Epsom every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday, operated by South Western Railway. In addition to these, Southern operates a small number of services during the Monday to Friday morning and evening peak periods. These operate between London Bridge via West Croydon and Sutton.^[3]

South West Trains introduced an hourly service to London Waterloo via Epsom on Sundays from December 2007.

References

^ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 39. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
^ 'Parishes: Great Bookham', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 326–35. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=42976. Date accessed: 12 August 2007.
^ GB National Rail Timetable, December 2014 Edition – Tables 152 & 182

External links

Train times and station information for Bookham railway station from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Leatherhead		South Western Railway Mole Valley Line Bookham Branch		Effingham Junction
Leatherhead		Southern Peak periods only		Effingham Junction

51°17′20″N 0°23′02″W / 51.289°N 0.384°W / 51.289; -0.384

[1] Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 39. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

[2] 'Parishes: Great Bookham', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 326–35. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=42976. Date accessed: 12 August 2007.

[3] GB National Rail Timetable, December 2014 Edition – Tables 152 & 182

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