Chambers Crossing Halt railway station

The section of the Honeybourne Line from Stratford-upon-Avon to Honeybourne was opened by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway on 9 July 1859,[1][2] but it was over forty years before Chambers Crossing Halt was opened on 17 October 1904 by the Great Western Railway.[3] A single platform was built to the south of the level crossing over a lane which ran from Weston-on-Avon to Clifford Chambers.[4] A crossing keeper's cottage had been built here in around 1899 and by the time the halt opened, the crossing was gated and protected by signals.[4] The gates were operated by a ground frame on the west side of the line to the north of the crossing.[4] When the line was doubled in 1908, the frame was relocated to the opposite site of the crossing, adjacent to the keeper's cottage.[4] A second platform was added on the Up side around this time at a cost of £75 (equivalent to £10,000 in 2021).[5][4] The platforms, each of which was 100 ft (30 m) for the steam railmotor service, had no passenger facilities, only lamps and the running in boards.[4]

The timetable for April 1910 shows that Chambers Crossing Halt was served by seven railmotors in each direction between Honeybourne and Cheltenham, with some running to and from Evesham.[6] An additional service ran from Honeybourne to Broadway and back.[6] Due to low patronage and the outbreak of the First World War,[7] the station, along with two other halts opened on the same date (Evesham Road Crossing Halt and Broad Marston Halt) closed on 17 July 1916 as a wartime economy measure.[8][9] It is thought unlikely that there are any photographs of the station in existence due to its short lifetime and its unremarkable appearance.[7]

Freight services continued to pass through the station until November 1976 when the line itself was closed.[1] The tracks between the current Stratford station and Honeybourne were taken up in 1979.[10]

The trackbed between Stratford-upon-Avon Racecourse Platform and Long Marston lay disused for ten years until 1989 when, in a joint venture between Sustrans and Warwickshire County Council, it was made into the 5 mi (8.0 km) Stratford Greenway for cycling and walking.[11][12] The crossing cottage survives as a private residence.[13]

The long-term aspiration of the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, a heritage railway formed in 1976 to keep the Honeybourne Line open, is to reopen the line as far as Stratford from its base at Toddington.[14]

• Baker, Audie (1994). The Stratford on Avon to Cheltenham Railway. Grasscroft, Oldham: Irwell Press. ISBN 978-1-871608-62-5.
• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Clinker, C. R. (October 1978). Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830–1977. Bristol: Avon-Anglia Publications & Services. ISBN 0-905466-19-5. OCLC 5726624.

• Kingscott, Geoffrey (2009). Lost Railways of Warwickshire. Newbury, Berkshire: Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-84674-174-6.
• Maggs, Colin G.; Nicholson, Peter (1985). The Honeybourne Line: The continuing story of the Cheltenham to Honeybourne and Stratford upon Avon Railway. Cheltenham, Glos.: Line One Publishing. ISBN 978-0-907036-12-8.

52.1685°N 1.7461°W / 52.1685; -1.7461