Railway Station, Bradford on Avon

The Somerset and Weymouth Railway Company, had been formed in 1844 to create a link between Weymouth and Bathampton, with a branch line from this town to Staverton. Work had started on the line by 1847 and the following year the station at Bradford on Avon had been built. But the expense of creating the length of rail from Bathampton had been too much with its seven viaducts and two aqueducts. By 1850 the railway company was in liquidation and its assets taken over by Brunel`s Great Western Railway. Elizabeth Tackle in her print of the town in 1850 shows the strange site of the station buildings standing without any tracks between them. The line was finally completed and opened on February 2nd 1857.

Bath Railway station by Bourne

The opening of the line from Bathamption junction to Bradford on Avon in 1857.

The scene in 1857 when the railway from Bath to Weymouth was finaly opened. This print from The Illustrated Times, dated Februray 7th, depicts the day of opening with the train passing through a tunnel under the Dundas Aqueduct.

Plan of Station and area around it in 1864 by Ashmead