Disused Stations: Cirencester Watermoor Station

The Railway Correspondence & Travel Society railtour of 6 May 1956 pauses at Watermoor. This tour is described elsewhere. Locomotive No. 40489 carries a 22B (Gloucester Barnwood) shedplate. By this time the signal box wore the GWR 'light stone and brown' livery; it had less than four years of service left, being abolished in March 1960 and demolished soon afterwards. Token exchange apparatus can be seen left and right. The flat-roofed concrete structure on the left is thought to have been an air raid shelter. The wooden hut with sloping roof, possibly an oil store, was to survive demolition of the station to be used by the scrap merchant who in due course took over most of the station and workshops site
Photo from John Mann collection

Another view of the RCTS railtour at Cirencester Watermoor station on 6 May 1956.

Photo by PH English

The RCTS 'The East Midlander' railtour of 6 May 1956 pauses at Watermoor. The locomotives are ex-Midland Railway LMS/BR Class 2P 4-4-0s Nos. 40489 and 40454. The train formation was six ex-LMS corridor coaches. The tour commenced at Nottingham Midland headed by No. 40454, running via Camp Hill and Bromsgrove to Worcester Shrub Hill and Cheltenham Spa Lansdown. At the latter location No. 40489 was attached and the train then proceeded to Swindon via Andoversford and Cirencester Watermoor. At Swindon it is believed a visit to the Works had been arranged. The return journey to Nottingham was via Oxford, Bletchley, Blisworth, Northampton Bridge Street and Wellingborough. It is not clear if both locomotives took the train back to Nottingham. While 4-4-0 locomotives were no strangers to the M&SWJR ex-Midland types were rarities. Nos. 40454 and 40489 were built in 1894 and 1919 respectively. Both were withdrawn in 1960.

Photo from Jim Lake collection

The RCTS 'The East Midlander' railtour, reporting number M965, of 6 May 1956 pauses at Watermoor. This railtour is described with more detail in another caption. The apparatus on the left was token exchange equipment and there was another set for the Down line, out of view behind the locomotives. Also visible on the left is the signal box and water tower, the latter as rebuilt in 1912 with larger tank. The station's goods dock is out of view, a few yards to the left.
Photo from Jim Lake collection

Cirencester Watermoor's down platform looking south in June 1956; the curve of the station is clearly visible in this view. Cirencester's rail served gasworks is seen beyond the station. The works had closed by this date but the gasometer remained in use.
Photo by Tom Smith

A up train waits at Cirencester Watermoor station in June 1956. The corrugated iron clad building on the left started life as the Watermoor stationmaster's house but by this date it was used as an office.
Photo by Tom Smith

Looking south south-east from the Cirencester goods dock siding in May 1958. Cirencester Watermoor station is behind the photographer to the left. Gas Lane bridge (153) is seen on the left, Gas Lane no longer exists. The buildings on the right are part of Cirencester Gasworks. Although coal wagons are seen in the gas works siding all the windows of the buildings are bricked up suggesting they are out of use. The Cirencester Gas Co. began operation in 1833 and was supplied by coal which was unloaded on a wharf on the nearby Thames and Severn Canal. With the arrival of the railway, the gasworks was rail connected. The gasworks had a narrow gauge tramway. The exact closure date of the gasworks is not clear. The Register of Defunct Companies states the Cirencester Gas Company was dissolved on 1 January 1937 under the Cirencester Gas Act. A new company using the same name, Cirencester Gas Company, was incorporated in 1937. In March 1948 the undertaking was acquired by Swindon United Gas Company and the Cirencester Gas Company was dissolved. Historic England however list the acquisition by the Swindon Gas Company as 1938 stating the works closed in 1939 with plant being removed to Swindon gasworks. The site is now split between various industrial users. The gas manager’s house and company offices survive on Bridge Road at the entrance to Cotswold District Council depot and are Grade II listed. At least one other building, a possible retort house also survives.
Photo from John Mann collection

The locomotive cannot be identified beyond doubt but is possibly No. 5358. Ironically given the M&SWJ was a through line linking some important locations as well as providing connections to other lines, Cirencester Watermoor was the poor relation to Town station on the branch from Kemble. The date of this photograph is a matter of some speculation. It is after May 1958 as the gasworks chimney, right background, has been lowered by the removal of its ornate top (see picture above) but before March 1960 when the Up line through the station was taken out of use. The wilderness growing on the left and the generally unkempt permanent way suggests the date is closer to March 1960 than to May 1958. Bridge 152, Gas Lane, is a few yards south of the station just beyond the rear of the train. It was this bridge which was reputedly damaged, resulting in the abandonment of the Up line through the station. Note the platform benches, of very basic construction compared to the more usual heavy style using cast iron components once found on railway stations. Cirencester gasworks had by this time ceased to produce gas. Instead gas was piped from Swindon's Gipsy Lane gasworks. The gasometer seen here continued in use for storage and compression.
Photo from John Mann collection

Cirencester Watermoor station looking south in the latter half of the 1950s.

Photo from John Mann collection

Cirencester Watermoor's up platform in the latter half of the 1950s.
Photo from John Mann collection

Cirencester Watermoor station seen from a departing southbound train in April 1959.
Photo by Roger Joanes

A view along Watermoor's Down platform in April 1959. Note that the garden behind the platform, left, was still quite neatly tended at this time. An ex-GWR Hawksworth vehicle brings up the rear of the train which is bound for Southampton Terminus. Three carriages are visible and were probably all the train was comprised of, this being quite normal on this line where passenger business trickled rather than boomed.
Photo by Roger Joanes

On 10 July 1959 a Down stopping train pauses at Watermoor. Locomotive No. 31793 was an ex-SR Maunsell U Class machine (nicknamed 'U-Boats') allocated to Eastleigh at this time. The nature of the M&SWJ line, running as it did between Gloucestershire and Hampshire, meant that during BR days at least locomotives and stock of different origins were a common sight. The leading vehicle in this instance is an ex-GWR Hawksworth Brake Third, both it and the second vehicle are wearing the early BR livery of Carmine and Cream. This livery tended to fade badly but nevertheless looked quite attractive on Pre-Nationalisation rolling stock. The concrete blocks on the right appear in a number of photographs and were tank traps from WWII. Alongside the Up platform the track is obviously well rusted and out of use. It would soon be lifted, with all trains thereafter using the Down platform. The reason was what we today call a 'bridge strike' to Gas Lane bridge, just south of the station. Gas Lane provided road access to Cirencester gasworks and no longer exists. It is today an extension of Bridge Road but on a slightly different alignment. The two white posts, left foreground, carried token exchange apparatus. A set of this GWR style apparatus is preserved at Bewdley on the Severn Valley Railway. The signal box was named "Cirencester Station Cabin". The rather odd appearance of the water tower is due to it having a larger tank installed at some point in time, the original tank being smaller than the supporting structure and thus also had a rather odd appearance. The reason for the alteration was due to the requirement to provide water, in tank wagons, for the stone crushing plant at Foss Cross, the next station north of Cirencester. The quarry was actually located about a half mile south of the remote Foss Cross station and its products were used by the railway, perhaps explaining the railway's apparently obliging nature. The water tower did, of course, also supply the water cranes at Watermoor station, one of which is visible in this view.
Copyright photo from ColourRail

Click here for Cirencester Watermoor Gallery 3
c1960 - 10 September 1961

[Source: Nick Catford]

Station Name:CIRENCESTER WATERMOOR