[Source: Darren Kitson]
 GWR 0-6-0ST No. 47 and staff pose for the camera beside the water tower and signal box. The location is just beyond the London end of the Up platform. The locomotive had probably just taken on water or was about to and the date will be sometime between 1883 and 1889. No. 47 began life as Shrewsbury & Birmingham Railway No.13 and was one of five believed to have been built sometime around 1849 by R. B. Longridge & Co. (Robert Bewick Longridge) of Bedlington Ironworks, Northumberland. These were long-boiler 0-6-0 tender goods locomotives originally with totally open cabs, unequal wheelbase and Haycock boilers. The Haycock boiler has the so-called 'Gothic' style firebox as fitted to, for example, preserved Furness Railway No. 3 and the Liverpool & Manchester Railway 'Lion'. No. 47 as seen here is therefore looking nothing like she did in original form. All five locomotives, one of which had been sold to the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway, came to be inherited by the GWR in 1854 becoming Nos. 25, 46 - 49. What became No. 47 was rebuilt at Wolverhampton, Stafford Road Works, which itself had been inherited by the GWR from the Shrewsbury & Birmingham Railway, into 0-6-0 Saddle Tank form. This involved fitting a new boiler with dome, thereby seeing off the relatively inefficient Haycock boiler, and lengthening the frames - this latter alteration apparently seeing off the original and very obvious unequal wheelbase. She was also, at some point in time, given a spectacle plate to provide the crew with some protection when running smokebox first and a wooden height extension to the rear of the bunker. Both these modifications can be seen here. The purpose of the wooden extension is not known. It may have been to increase capacity of the rather small bunker or it may have been added protection for the crew when running bunker first. It may of course have served both purposes. The rather squat chimney gives No. 47 a somewhat ungainly appearance and it probably created a problem with smoke interfering with the crew's forward vision. All five of these locomotives were to have been rebuilt to this form but work on the other four was never undertaken and they were instead withdrawn in the decade or so prior to 1877, leaving the survivor, No. 47, to soldier on until withdrawal in 1889, having seemingly been the regular Shipston-on-Stour branch locomotive. The wagons at left background are on the Shipston-on-Stour branch. These tracks were still in situ in January 2024, though no doubt re-laid since this photograph was taken and used for stabling engineering on-track plant.
Photo from Jim Lake collection   Simulated OS map showing the buildings of the Stratford and Moreton tramway that survived in 1885. Other raqilway features have been removed from the map. The buildings include stables and a weigh bridge (WM).
For those with local knowledge and an interest in history, old maps are always of interest, this one dating from 1885. Changes to streets, such as New Street and Oxford Street, will be noted as will the gasworks and the original police station. On the railway, at the bottom of that map can be seen the Down refuge siding which as of 2024 was still in existence and in use. The station and Down side goods yard is as it was, to remain until circa 1956 with two exceptions; there is as yet no footbridge and the water tank is in its original position. Approaching the station from the north, the trailing siding (opposite 135) is shown as not yet connected to the track through the Stratford & Moreton (tramway) platform. At this time the Stratford & Moreton was still in operation as a horse tramway and the Up side sidings (adjacent to 23) were tramway exchange sidings. Two additional sidings on the east side would later be added. At 117 and 118 the foundry and its siding can be seen. At the top of the map, at 111, is the Todenham Road level crossing yet to be provided with a keeper's cottage which was to appear in 1889 when the tramway was converted to a proper railway. The tramway originally crossed the road a little to the west, near 113, to reach its wharf terminus at 132/3. Click here for a larger version.
By the time of this 1902 map a number of changes had taken place and most notably, in respect of the station, a footbridge had been provided. The Shipston-on-Stour branch has been created out of remnants of the former horse tramway and the Up sidings, to the right of station, have been added to. At Todenham Road level crossing, (top centre) a keeper's cottage has now been provided. The Shipston-on-Stour branch was always operated 'one engine in steam' and became semi-famous for its lack of signalling, which is not strictly true as there was a signal north of Todenham Road and another on the approach to Shipston-on-Stour. There was another signal (S.P just below 'Creamery' on this map) which can be seen clearly in one of the aerial photographs. However, the Shipston-on-Stour branch did not officially commence until north of Todenham Road and south thereof was classed a part of the Moreton-in-Marsh sidings. The signal at S.P was therefore technically not a branch signal. The creamery has now appeared, as already mentioned, but the buildings are the same ones as when the site was a foundry. The foundry siding is also still in situ. It may therefore be assumed the creamery took over the foundry buildings but other than on maps such as this, evidence is rather elusive. The siding at the north end of the station is still not connected to the road though the branch platform. Click here for a larger version.
 The 1922 25" map reveals the two mileage sidings on the site of the former tramway wharf has been installed, branching off the siding into the north end dock, along with a weighing machine (131, 133). The peculiar siding just north of the station and trailing on the Up side is now connected to the creamery siding (to the right of 133) while the creamery buildings have been extended. The Railway Hotel (P.H.) stands at the end of New Street, now New Road. It ceased trading in 1967 but the building still exists and in 2024 the painted "Railway Hotel" name could still be discerned on the building's east wall. The railway cottages were also on New street and are still in existence, now holiday lets. Click here for a larger version.
 The informative running-in board on the Down platform and just south of the station building sometime prior to 1929 in which year the Shipston-on-Stour passenger service was withdrawn. Following this event all bar "MORETON-IN-MARSH" was removed and the footprint of the letters painted over. At a later date the entire board was replaced with a shallower version. Running-in boards announcing "Change here for ... " were once very common. There was a similar board on the Up platform and it can be seen in the aerial photographs."TRAMWAY" implies pre 1889 but this board remained until 1929.
Photo from Railway Magazine  The island platform, camera facing north-east, in the late Victorian - early Edwardian period if the attire of the women clustered beside the platform building is anything to go by. With the exception of the shunting horse driver standing with his horse, all standing men are either station or permanent way staff. The track, or rather its sleepers, is covered with ballast - this practice was outlawed circa 1919 as it caused maintenance issues. The Shipston-on-Stour branch train has arrived at the east face of the island platform. It comprises the then usual saddle-tank locomotive and single Brake Composite carriage. The vans behind the carriage appear to be on a siding rather than coupled to the carriage; at this time the branch saw both mixed and passenger-only trains. The contents, if any, of the baskets on the platform cannot be seen. On the left stands the metal water tower which had replaced the original wooden example. Beyond it stands the creamery which had opened in 1889, the same year the GWR opened its Shipston-on-Stour branch using sections of the former horse tramway. Of the advertisements the only one readable is that for Suttons Seeds who fiercely promoted their products in the streets, on railway stations and in printed material. Founded in 1806 the company is still with us over two centuries later.
Photo from John Mann collection old2.jpg) Looking north-east across the forecourt circa 1905. By now the covered and somewhat elaborate footbridge had been installed. A cattle wagon is standing at the Up platform, this position of repose suggesting it had just been uncoupled from an Up train. The horse was probably a dray rather than shunting horse. The stables were out of view to the left, at the site of the former tramway wharf. The horse had no doubt been posed for the camera on its way into the goods yard, through the gates on the right.
Copyright photo from John Alsop collection  His Majesty King Edward VII, seated in the carriage and wearing a bowler hat, has arrived at Moreton-in-Marsh on Saturday the 8th of July 1905. The occasion was His Majesty's visit to Broadway the following day. The King stayed as a guest of Lord Redesdale at Batsford Park, located about two miles west north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. The horse-drawn conveyance seen here would have been sent from Batsford Park and it is thought the remainder of the King's visit was undertaken by motor car. Among the numerous other guests was one Alice Keppel, the well known mistress of Edward VII. Lord Redesdale at this point in time was Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale. The Mitford name was to become familiar many years later through the Mitford Sisters of whom one, Unity Mitford, was a friend and staunch supporter of Adolf Hitler. The 1st Baron Redesdale died at Batsford Park on 17 August 1916 aged 79. King Edward VII died at Buckingham Palace on 6 May 1910, aged 68. Unity Mitford died in Oban, Scotland on 28 May 1948 aged just 33, her death being the result of complications following a failed suicide attempt. Returning to Moreton-in-Marsh in 1905, just one policeman, possibly another at extreme right, can be seen and onlookers were free to get close to the King's carriage. There was little of the high security which surrounds Royalty appearing in public today. Note the chimney stacks on the station building, ornate but somewhat top heavy. The clerestory carriage seen at far left was probably part of the King's train although it does not appear to be the King's saloon which survives in preservation. It is likely the train would have stopped with the saloon adjacent to the station entrance/exit.
Photo from John Mann collection old4.jpg)
Moreton-in-Marsh station looking towards Honeybourne in the early years of the twentieth century. The photograph offers a glimpse of the railway of a bygone era. Visible are what would have been colourful posters, milk churns, ornate platform lighting, a cast iron urinal and a water crane complete with spillage receptor. Posters on the end of the platform building include one for the Great Western Railway and one for the Isle of Wight. There is also an enamel advertising Petter Oil Engines. Petter, then based at Yeovil, began marketing internal-combustion engines in 1896 and was also the founder of the Westland Aircraft Works at Yeovil. Now Lister Petter, the firm is still in business as of June 2020 and headquartered in Gloucestershire. The camera is looking along Moreton's island platform and the track layout was slightly odd. The platform on the right was served by what may appear as a loop off the main line but, beyond the branch junction, was actually a siding for the creamery, to which establishment the tall chimney belongs. The platform also served the Shipston-on-Stour line which branched off roughly midway along the platform and can be seen curving away to the right. Having curved sharply away, passing the creamery on its east side, the branch then turned to run roughly north on its circuitous way to Shipston. There were also a number of sidings to the right, largely out of view. On the left the running-in board advises passengers, optimistically perhaps, to change for Shipston-on-Stour. The Great Western Railway had a bewildering variety of Saddle Tank locomotives, mostly of 0-6-0 wheel arrangement and one such is seen here. It has proved difficult to identify, in respect of both number and class, but would appear to be a member of the 1854 class. Most of the Saddle Tank types went on to be rebuilt to Pannier Tank form and a some of the rebuilds lived long enough to see British Railways. Among the vehicles forming the train are a centre-brake, probably a composite, plus a couple of clerestory vehicles of which one appears to be a brake-end type.
Copyright photo from John Alsop collection old3.jpg) One has to wonder what the point of this photograph, taken from the Up platform before 6.1909 (date of postcard postmark), was and the focus of attention appears to have been the gardens on the Down platform. Unusually for such a photograph of the time, only three staff members are posing in front of one of the footbridge towers which can be seen in reasonable detail. The buildings in the right background were part of the wharf of the Stratford & Moreton Railway (the horse tramway) and by this time contained mileage sidings which were considered part of the Moreton-in-Marsh goods yard despite being on a different site to the goods yard proper. Although nothing out of the ordinary at the time, from today's perspective it would be quite charming to sit on the bench (to the left of the footbridge) on a pleasant evening adjacent to the gardens and the ornate gas lamp
Copyright photo from John Alsop collection old10.jpg) This undated view is looking north along the Down Main line with a permanent way gang in the distance. The sleepers are now exposed, i.e. no longer covered by ballast which might suggest a date of circa 1920 but probably no later. The advertisement low down on the end wall of the Up side waiting room is for Van Houten Cocoa. This was another of those advertisements which once proliferated on railway stations among many other locations. The cattle dock stand on the left and the track joining the main line ahead of the camera was the goods shed loop.Photo from John Mann collection
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Like numerous other cities, towns and even some villages Moreton-in-Marsh once had its own gasworks situated on the south side of London Road (now the A44) and on the east side of the railway. It was a small affair similar to that at Shipston-on-Stour and began gas production circa 1848. Gas production ceased in 1954 with gas then being piped from Cheltenham and stored in Moreton's gasometer until 1958. The gasworks site was cleared 1962 - 3 and little trace remains today. The gasworks originally received coal via the horse tramway that was the Stratford & Moreton Railway. By road the tramway wharf was about a half mile from the gasworks, coal being transported by horse and cart. The gasworks predated the arrival of the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) yet despite this railway passing a mere lump of coal's throw from the gasworks there was never a rail connection and instead coal continued to be delivered by road from the railway goods yard. 
The first railway to serve Moreton-in-Marsh was the horse tramway that was the Stratford & Moreton Railway from Stratford-upon-Avon via Alderminster and the Golden Cross, Stretton-on-Fosse. The tramway terminated at a goods wharf, opened in 1826, on a site immediately north-west of what became, in 1853, the OW&WR station; the present Moreton-in-Marsh station in other words. It is important to stress that the tramway wharf was not on the site of the OW&WR station but adjacent to it, the tramway not being diverted into the latter until either when the station opened or very soon afterwards. At this point it is worth repeating some information given elsewhere in these pages. The OW&WR line was constructed from the Evesham end towards Wolvercot Junction, Oxford and at Moreton-in-Marsh it cut through the tramway at almost a right angle immediately south of the Fosse Way (A429) bridge. This bridge, at 91 miles 70 chains is perhaps confusingly, (or at least it was in 2023), known as ‘Shipton Road Bridge’. At this point the tramway and railway were on different levels albeit only by two or three feet and various theories have been put forward regarding what actually happened. One theory is that a flat crossing was installed despite the height difference. The confirmed truth remains a mystery to this day and perhaps the most likely answer is that a flat crossing was planned, only to be blocked by the Board of Trade and the tramway therefore diverted immediately into the Up side of the OW&WR station. What is known is that the interruption of the tramway forced a takeover by the OW&WR and this is the means by which the GWR/ British Railways Shipston-on-Stour branch, which reused sections of the former tramway, was eventually created. However and as described below there was originally no Up side platform at Moreton-in-Marsh and therefore the diverted tramway actually ended in Moreton-in-Marsh goods yard. It is for this reason that right up until its demise in 1960, the Shipston-on-Stour branch officially started at the north side of Todenham Road level crossing, south of the level crossing being within the goods yard. Thus the rare situation existed of timetabled passenger trains running through a goods yard.
The OW&WR built its line to Wolvercot Junction from the Evesham direction and officially its route was Bushbury Junction (Grand Junction Railway) to Wolvercot Junction (Oxford & Rugby Railway). The Oxford & Rugby Railway was destined to never reach Rugby, though a journey is still possible today albeit with changes as there are no longer any through trains between Wolverhampton and Paddington. Backed by the Great Western Railway, the OW&WR was reputedly built to compete with the London & Birmingham Railway (L&B), apparently feeding on the poor reputation the latter company had acquired. The L&B company had, incidentally, merged with others in 1846 to form the London & North Western Railway so the inception of the OW&WR was something of a 'gates and bolting horses' affair. Gates, horses and reputations aside, quite how the OW&WR realistically thought it could compete with the much more direct L&B is something of a puzzle but that was the way of things during the so-called Railway Mania of the mid 19th century. The saving grace was its serving of places such as Worcester, Evesham and Oxford and today all three locations remain served by trains to and from Paddington. 
By the time of the 1853 opening, the GWR broad gauge was already starting to fall out of favour and I. K. Brunel had already turned his back on the OW&WR. On the 1st of April 1869, the broad gauge was abandoned north of Oxford, by which time OW&WR was a standard gauge only operation. Reputedly, only one broad gauge train ever traversed the entire length of the line, which suggests it was a special working for officers of the railway and perhaps also the Board of Trade. What is reasonably certain is that no broad gauge public passenger train ever traversed the route and not least because the OW&WR only possessed standard gauge rolling stock. In any event, by 1853 the GWR had grown tired of the OW&WR and concentrated upon its own Paddington - Birmingham - Wolverhampton route via Banbury and Leamington Spa. 
he station site is quite compact, with the former goods yard being on the Down side of the line and the goods shed situated immediately south of the station. This shed was typical Brunel; wood and brick construction with an internal bay for road vehicles. It appears to have been constructed to accommodate the broad gauge but whether any broad gauge traffic ever used it is open to question. This shed was destroyed by fire in the mid 1950s and replaced by a smaller brick building which was served by the Down goods loop avoiding the goods shed, this brick building being still in existence in 2024. The former tramway wharf became two mileage sidings accessed from points trailing in the Down direction. ‘Mileage sidings’ were sidings at which railway users loaded and unloaded wagons themselves, with wagon loads being charged on the per mile basis by the railway company. There was a horse landing/dock at the north end of the Down platform, accessed via short siding from the throat of the mileage sidings. At the south end of the Down platform was a cattle dock and pens, rail access being via a short siding off the aforementioned goods loop. Adjacent was once Moreton-in-Marsh cattle market which is thought to have ceased marketing cattle in 1956. The goods yard was provided with a 6-ton crane and presumably the goods shed had the usual 1½ ton internal crane (latter unconfirmed). 
The Up side of the line was an altogether different affair when compared to the simple and conventional siding arrangements on the Down side. The provision of an island platform, as opposed to a single-face platform, was purely to cater for the Stratford & Moreton Railway (horse tramway) and what in 1889 became the Shipston-on-Stour branch. As already mentioned the tramway and later Shipston-on-Stour branch officially commenced on the north side of Todenham Road level crossing, south thereof being considered part of the goods yard (originally and officially these were exchange sidings) and immediately south of Todenham Road level crossing stood a ‘Limit of Shunt’ board. The Tramway/Shipston branch arrived at the platform just south of the station footbridge; therefore only part of the east face of the island platform was available for passenger trains. At one time, track ran the entire length of the east face of the island platform but it could not be used as a platform for through Up passenger trains, in part because of the 'goods' status but also because there was no direct access at the north end. Access at the north end required a reversal from the Up Main onto a short headshunt and then another reversal into the platform but this was only suitable for a few goods wagons and from 1889 was used solely to serve the creamery's loading platform. In later years the track at the east face of the island was severed and a buffer stop erected, leaving the creamery only accessible via the aforementioned short headshunt. This was a most inconvenient arrangement although by this time rail traffic to the creamery was all but non existent. At one time wagons and vans for the creamery tended to be shunted into the creamery's platform by gravity and then moved again by gravity onto the headshunt from where they were collected by Up passenger trains which reversed onto the headshunt to collect them. This practice is thought to have ceased in the 1950s, dedicated trains thereafter being operated. As at numerous other stations, horse shunting was also employed for many years. 
From the late 1960s through to the 1980s British Rail single-tracked sections of several double-track secondary routes as an economy measure, due to falling traffic levels coupled with inadequate funding. What is now marketed as "The Cotswold Line" was among them although the section through Moreton-in-Marsh as far as Ascott-under-Wychwood remained double track. Much double-track has since been restored although Evesham - Norton Junction (near Worcester) remained single-track at the time of writing. In 2024 Moreton-in-Marsh remained equipped with GWR lower quadrant signals. The signal box is described in a relevant image caption. 
The Cotswold Line is not the only railway at Moreton-in-Marsh. On the former WWII aerodrome the Fire Service College has its own small system which comprises two lines, one running north - south on the western edge of the site and one running west - east along the site's northern edge. There is a section of OLE and a section of third rail, neither of which are energised, a level crossing, sidings etc. It is used for training with various emergencies simulated. Various locomotives and rolling stock have been present over the years, the vast majority of which arrived in withdrawn and sometimes cannibalised condition. Some cars from Class 390 No. 390033, the train involved in the Grayrigg derailment in 2007, are or have been at the College.
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