Blandford Forum railway station
Disused railway station in North Dorset, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blandford Forum railway station served the town of Blandford Forum, in Dorset, England. It was a stop on the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway, which connected Bath with Bournemouth.
Blandford Forum | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Blandford Forum railway station in April 1963 | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Blandford Forum, Dorset England | ||||
| Grid reference | ST888067 | ||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Status | Disused | ||||
| History | |||||
Original company | Somerset and Dorset Railway | ||||
| Pre-grouping | Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway | ||||
| Post-grouping | Southern Region of British Railways | ||||
| Key dates | |||||
| 31 August 1863 | Opened as Blandford | ||||
| 21 September 1953 | Renamed Blandford Forum | ||||
| 7 March 1966 | Closed for passengers | ||||
| 1969 | Closed for goods | ||||
| |||||
History
Originally part of the Dorset Central Railway, the line to Blandford opened on 1 November 1860 to a station at Blandford St Mary, to the south of the River Stour.[1] The Dorset Central merged with the Somerset Central Railway in 1862 and a new extension connecting the two railways was built. The extension opened on 31 August 1863, requiring a bridge over the Stour and a newly relocated Blandford Forum station to the north of the river.[2]
The station remained open until 7 March 1966, when the entire line from Bath to Bournemouth closed to passengers. Goods traffic continued for a further three years, but the station was finally fully closed in 1969 and the track was lifted.[3]
The impending closure of the station was lamented by musical duo Flanders & Swann, being one of some 30 stations mentioned in their 1964 song Slow Train ("No more will I go to Blandford Forum …"). The song was written in the wake of the first Beeching report, published in 1963 and was written as a tribute to the lines and stations that were to be closed.[4]
