Shipston-on-Stour branch
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The Shipston-on-Stour branch was a 9-mile (14 km)-long single-track branch railway line that ran between a junction near Moreton-in-Marsh, on the present day Cotswold Line, to Shipston-on-Stour, via two intermediate stations, Longdon Road, and Stretton-on-Fosse.[1]
The line started life as part of the horse-drawn Stratford and Moreton Tramway that ran between Moreton-in-Marsh and Stratford-Upon-Avon, with a branch to Shipston-on-Stour, which opened on 11 April 1836. The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) arrived at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1853, and they took over the tramway on a lease. The OW&WR upgraded the line to carry main-line wagons, but because the original authorising legislation prohibited the use of steam, it remained horse powered.[2]
In 1863, the Great Western Railway (GWR) took over the line, and in the 1880s set about converting the southern part of the route from Moreton-in-Marsh to Shipston-on-Stour into a steam operated railway, with the remainder of the route to Stratford allowed to fall into disuse. In order to do this, a new south facing spur had to be constructed near Longdon Road in 1882 to allow trains from Shipston to run south, as previously there was only a north-facing connection to the branch from the Stratford direction. The GWR obtained powers to allow the use of steam locomotives on the line, and finally it was reopened as a steam operated branch on 1 July 1889.[2]
Passenger services ended on 8 July 1929 and goods services on 2 May 1960.[2]
