Notes: On 12 June 1844 the GWR opened its line to Oxford from Didcot with a terminus south of the Thames on what was then open land. The location is now Western Road, Grandpont and the site of the inconvenient terminus was at this road's western end with the nearest landmark today being St Matthew's Church. The following year the Oxford & Rugby Railway (O&R) began construction of its line through and north of Oxford. The O&R formed a junction with the GWR at New Hinksey, the site of what was known as Millstream Junction being immediately north of what is today the bridge taking Old Abingdon Road over the railway. Through trains therefore were obliged to reverse in order to serve the original Oxford terminus. While still under construction the O&R was taken over by the GWR and opened to traffic as far as Banbury on 2 September 1850. The nuisance that had become the original terminus remained in use until 1 October 1852 when it was closed to passengers, becoming a goods depot until final closure on 26 November 1872 - the same day the broad gauge was abandoned between Didcot and Oxford. The 1852 closure to passengers of the original terminus coincided with the opening of the present Oxford Station which, following the arrival of the L&NWR at its Rewley Road station, was named Oxford General. It is today simply ‘Oxford’.

The O&R had been built as a single track broad gauge line but was never to reach Rugby. By a complicated involvement with the Birmingham & Oxford Junction and the Birmingham Extension Railways the line forms the present day Didcot - Oxford - Birmingham line. The Rugby section was to have branched off at a junction close to Knightcote, just north of Fenny Compton and to have proceeded via Southam and Dunchurch to Rugby. Quite why this section was never built is not entirely clear although the gauge problem which would have presented itself at Rugby would seem the likely reason. While the GWR broad gauge is quite fascinating from the viewpoint of today, the nuisance that was Brunel's broad gauge could be said to be something of an understatement. In the event, the broad gauge north of Oxford was abandoned on 1 April 1869 but by then any desire to reach Rugby had long since been abandoned.

Some five miles north of Oxford lies the village of Kidlington which today has spread westwards towards the railway but in the 19th century was one mile away across open countryside and of course the centre of the village still is. The history of a railway station in this locality can be quite confusing. Langford Lane station was opened in April 1855 adjacent to the road of that name and in July of the same year was renamed ‘Woodstock Road’. This caused a problem further north where there was a pre-existing station named ‘Woodstock’ opened in 1850 and renamed ‘Woodstock Road’ the following year; this was renamed ‘Kirtlington’ but due to confusion with Kidlington, actual or perceived, which Langford Lane/Woodstock Road became in 1890 was renamed again to Bletchington (alternatively spelled Bletchingdon). Nothing is known about Langford Lane station other than its dates of operation under that name and that it would have had two platforms as by 1855 the single track broad gauge line had been doubled; neither is it clear if what became Woodstock Road was a straightforward renaming, as is usually claimed, or a new station - most likely the former. Therefore and as can be seen there have been two stations named ‘Woodstock Road’, neither of which were anywhere near the town of Woodstock.

With the opening of the Woodstock branch, Woodstock Road, that is the former Langford Lane version, reputedly became ‘Kidlington for Blenheim’ on 19 May 1890 but photographic evidence exists showing that in or by the early 20th century the running-in boards announced ‘Kidlington change for Blenheim & Woodstock’ which by that time was rather more informative than simply ‘ Kidlington for Blenheim’. The usual layout of railway stations placed the station buildings, or at least the main buildings, on the side of the line closest to the town or village that the stations purported to serve even if that town or village was miles away which it quite often was. Kidlington was no exception and as a hark back to its ‘Woodstock Road’ days the main buildings were on the west side of the line, closest side to the town of Woodstock some three miles away to the north-west as the proverbial crow flies.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel had died in 1859, the same year as his Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash had opened but he had seemingly lost much of his interest in railways sometime previously with his focus turning instead to shipping. Whether Brunel was ever to see Woodstock Road station is something we will never know but the station's original 'Cotswold' style buildings survived, apparently with little alteration, until the station was demolished. This style of building was also found at Aynho and Heyford to name just two of many, but there were variations to suit local requirements. If we were to view Aynho and Heyford buildings from their forecourts the entrance door was left of centre where at Kidlington it was right of centre, the internal difference being smaller waiting rooms which were located at the London end of the building and a bay window in the south elevation. This allowed a larger circulating area in the ticket office. Otherwise the internal layout was the same; left to right when viewed from the forecourt, lavatories, parcels office, ticket office, waiting rooms. The lavatories had external doors, two, in the north elevation. The aforementioned entrance door led directly into the ticket office from which another door led onto the Down platform. The Up platform building was smaller and only comprised waiting rooms, one general and one ladies’ and presumably lavatories were provided.

Passengers crossed the line by means of a reversed staircase footbridge, which was originally roofed and installed sometime in the late 19th - early 20th century period prior to which passengers presumably previously used the barrow crossing at the London end of the station. A stationmaster's house was provided, located east of the station behind the Up platform. On the west side of the Down platform and north of the station building was a siding leading to a dock. With the arrival of the Woodstock branch the Down platform was lengthened, taking it right up to the Banbury Road bridge, and the dock siding then became the bay platform for Woodstock trains while retaining its original purpose of serving the dock.

Kidlington goods yard was a simple affair comprising originally one and later two sidings plus a loop avoiding the goods shed. The shed measured 57ft by 40ft, had five bays divided by brick pilasters and was built to accommodate the broad gauge. Internally there was a 1½ ton crane and a small office was located on the north elevation. Road vehicle access was at the shed's west side. Further details, such as exist, can be found in the applicable image captions but a description of how the goods yard was operated is given later.

Photographs of Kidlington signal box are uncommon, primarily because it was located north of Banbury Road bridge and on the Up side adjacent to the points, trailing in the Up direction, giving access to the Up refuge siding which had a capacity of 58 wagons (these figures were based upon the short wheelbase four-wheel wagons predominant at the time). This siding was single ended, meaning Up goods trains had to reverse onto it. Woodstock Road signal box was in existence by 1884 but no other details are known. In May 1890, with the arrival of the Woodstock branch, it was closed and either rebuilt or replaced by a new structure of GWR Type 5 measuring 31' 9" x 11'6" x 8' and fitted with a GWR 51-lever Type HT3 frame. The reason the signal box was placed north of the bridge was because the north (country) end of the station was where most of the pointwork and signalling was located. Described elsewhere in the Woodstock pages is the original intention for the Woodstock branch to join the main line at Shipton on Cherwell, in other words at what came to be known as ‘Thrupp Curve’. The GWR decided otherwise at the last minute and therefore the Woodstock branch was continued all the way to Kidlington as a separate line parallel to the Down Main line. This involved some bridge work and the whole was accomplished surprisingly quickly.

There has been a tendency by some authors to imply provision of the separate line was made easy because of the 1869 conversion of the main line from broad to standard gauge (The section between Milepost 64, Oxford, and Oxley was converted on 1 April 1869 and the section from Milepost 64 to Didcot on 26 November 1872). This, though, was not entirely the case because the narrowing of the gauge was done in such a way as to widen the spacing between the two tracks - the so-called ‘Six Foot’. Plans for the work to accommodate the Woodstock branch alongside the main line have survived and are held by Oxfordshire County Council, Reference PD/2/122. The plans are dated as late as 1889, confirming just how quickly the work was carried out. Woodstock trains could therefore trundle to and from Kidlington without interfering with main line traffic but a main line connection had of course to be made. In the Down direction was a connection between main and branch lines immediately north of Banbury Road bridge while in the Up direction a ladder crossing was provided, partly beneath the bridge, to give access from the branch to the Up Main line. It was this ladder crossing which through Woodstock - Oxford and special trains returning from Woodstock would use and all in view of the signal box. The Down side, in respect of the Woodstock branch, was more complicated and not helped by changes to track layout being made at various times to suit prevailing requirements. Some 400 yards north of Banbury Road bridge stands another bridge taking a footpath from Sparrowgap Bridge (on the Oxford Canal) over the railway. Between these two bridges was once a loop separate from, and on the west side of, the Woodstock branch, while just north of the footpath bridge was a connection between the Woodstock branch and the Down Main line. This latter connection, at least, is thought to have been provided during the First World War and both were still shown on the OS six inch map revised in 1919 and published in 1923 but the 1947 revision of the same map shows both had been removed. However, it is only right to mention at this stage that conclusive details of the Down loops and when exactly they existed had not been found at the time of writing. This has not been helped by period maps being revisions of revisions, which sometimes results in certain features being missed depending upon periods between revisions.

In 1910 the 'cut off' line between what thereafter was Ashendon Junction and Aynho Junction was opened. It was the creation of this stretch of railway which left the original main line through Akeman Street to Grendon Underwood Junction as something of a sleepy backwater. This new line therefore bypassed Oxford and provided a quicker route for Paddington - Birmingham and beyond trains. Many trains, passenger and goods, were thus diverted with the result being the Didcot - Oxford - Banbury line becoming much quieter and especially north of Oxford on which section Kidlington was located. Nevertheless World War Two brought heavy traffic to the line as indeed happened across much of the country and it was deemed necessary to provide another Down loop north of Kidlington and this is the loop, south of the footbridge, mentioned. Following closure of the Woodstock branch in 1954 the final 40 chains to Kidlington was used to form a loop which had a capacity of 68 wagons.

This, then, returns us to the matter of how Kidlington goods yard was shunted. Wagons to and from the main line including those destined for, or being returned from, Woodstock would be dropped off and collected by the Oxford - Banbury pickup goods. This train had run from Oxford North Yard and latterly from Hinksey Yard which had opened in 1942. The dropping off and collecting of wagons at and from Kidlington by the pickup goods was a relatively simple matter of branching off the main line onto the Woodstock branch and then reversing into the goods yard, probably leaving the brake van temporarily in the bay platform while shunting was ongoing. While the Woodstock branch had a dedicated path for a goods-only working it appears to have rarely run and indeed latterly the goods-only working was suspended and remained so until the line closed. In addition there was an 'engine and van' working which, oddly perhaps, could run as a mixed train if the need arose but was a 'Runs as Required' working. This meant what little goods traffic there was for the Woodstock branch was usually handled by the mixed train. Mixed trains generally were hated by passengers who had to sit and wait while the locomotive shunted wagons at intermediate stations but this was not an issue on the Woodstock branch as there were no intermediate stations or goods sidings (Shipton on Cherwell Halt had no goods facilities) and timings for the mixed train were the same as those for passenger trains.

The shunting involved at Kidlington for the Woodstock mixed train was quite a performance. The train from Woodstock would arrive as usual with the autotrailer leading and goods wagons, along with the branch-allocated goods brake van, coupled behind the locomotive. Once passengers, if any, had detrained the ensemble would reverse out of the station to allow the locomotive and autotrailer to run round the wagons. The goods brake van then found itself coupled to the autotrailer. The re-marshalled ensemble would then reverse into the station bay platform and leave any wagons for Kidlington there temporarily while the locomotive then collected any wagons for Woodstock as well as undertaking any other required shunting. The autotrain would then return to collect the wagons left in the bay and move them to the goods yard, positioning them as required including down to the bacon factory. All this was usually done with the autotrailer still attached to the locomotive and also, of course, to and fro across the station forecourt. Should any wagons need depositing in or collecting from the goods shed this was also done with the autotrailer attached. With this work complete and with any wagons for Woodstock attached to the rear of the train, i.e. to the autotrailer, away we went back to Woodstock.

A very similar shunting procedure was followed at Woodstock, again usually with the autotrailer still attached, but there was one difference. At Woodstock the goods shed was of course designed for standard gauge track and care had to be taken to ensure the steps of the autotrailer were fully retracted, otherwise they could foul the entrance to the shed. The goods shed at Kidlington, however, had been built to accommodate broad gauge track so this potential problem did not exist and although the standard gauge track entering the shed was offset relative to the rail entrances, to allow use of the original internal platform without modification, adequate clearance nevertheless remained.

A few figures regarding business at Kidlington and selected from a quite complex accountancy table are; 1903, 15,480 tickets issued; 1926, 6,728 tickets issued; 1933, 6,880 tickets issued. Season tickets fell from 88 in 1923 to a mere 10 in 1933. Goods tonnage was 227 in 1903; 976 in 926; 442 in 1926; 145 in 1930; 525 in 1933. Broadly, these figures are even more dire than those for Blenheim & Woodstock. The drop in tickets issued and, in particular, season tickets can be attributed to the increase in more convenient, for Kidlington village, motor omnibus services. What in 1921 became the City of Oxford Motor Services Limited (COMS) was, incidentally, part owned by the Great Western Railway. Railway companies being shareholders of omnibus companies was once very common so COMS was by no means unique in this respect. The sudden increase in goods tonnage by 1933 could have occurred for a number of reasons, perhaps the most obvious being the bacon factory, but even so 525 tons is a meagre amount which equates very roughly to 1¼ tons per day - just a fraction of a single wagon load.

Despite Kidlington becoming a junction station in 1890 it never had any locomotive facilities. Locomotives of main line trains would take on water at Oxford and Banbury while the Woodstock branch locomotive made do with the facilities at Woodstock and at Oxford when operating the through workings.

Closure of the Woodstock branch in 1954 would have made little difference to Kidlington, which appears to have simply plodded on in its own rural way until closure to passengers took place on 2 November 1964. By this time the station had become quite decrepit and a far cry from the days of the immensely proud and by all accounts somewhat stern Stationmaster William Cooke. Following closure to passengers the goods yard remained connected and signalled but on 21 June 1965 the Oxford (Hinksey Yard) - Banbury North Yard pickup goods train was withdrawn. Bletchington also closed for good on the same day. Some sources claim or imply Kidlington closed to all traffic on 2 November 1964 but, as the aforementioned suggests, this does not appear to have been the case, regardless of whether there was any goods traffic for Kidlington or not. The closure date for the bacon factory of Messrs. C & T Harris has been difficult to find, although Kelly's Directory suggests it had closed sometime between 1960 and 1962. By 1968 the factory had been converted for other uses and it was finally demolished in 1980; meanwhile the private siding agreement with British Rail had eventually been terminated in 1966. The latter was merely a legal formality and the siding across the station forecourt would likely not have been used for some time previously, therefore exactly when any form of rail traffic last used Kidlington goods yard is open to question. After closure to goods traffic Kidlington goods shed was taken over by a plastics business. The shed was demolished in 1984 as part of the development of the industrial estate which now spreads across the land on the west side of the railway.

The passenger station had been erased by 1973 with the exception of the Down side building which was taken over by a succession of businesses. Details of some of these can be found in the applicable images and their captions. In 1990 the building suffered fire damage and was subsequently demolished although some cast iron canopy brackets were recovered and taken to Didcot and used for the rebuilding of Heyford station. By this time the building was hemmed-in between the railway and the expanding industrial estate and it looked most incongruous, or the industrial estate did depending, upon one's point of view. Meanwhile, up the line at Didcot North Junction a tanker train derailment on 14 August 1964 started a fire which seriously damaged the existing footbridge at the location. The cause of the accident is thought to have been nothing more than a misunderstanding between driver and signalman. Eventually, although the precise date is unknown, the footbridge at Kidlington was dismantled and its component parts used for a replacement footbridge at Didcot North Junction. It was still there in the summer of 2023.

Tickets from Michael Stewart and Brian Halford. Timetables from Timetable World. Route map drawn by Alan Young. See also the Tilley 'Challow' Lamp.

CLICK HERE FOR A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
BLENHEIM AND WOODSTOCK BRANCH

Sources and bibliography:

• Lingard, Richard  The Woodstock Branch (OPC 1973)
• Stanley C. Jenkins The Woodstock Branch (Wild Swan 1987)
• The National Archives
• Ancestry
• University of Leicester Special Collections
• Parliamentary Archives, UK Government
• Timetable World
• British Newspaper Archive
• The New York Times
• Industrial Railway Society
• International Churchill Society
• Signalling Record Society
• Cementkilns.co.uk
• Oxfordshire County Council History Centre
• The Steam Rail Motors of the Great Western Railway, Gibbs, The History Press 2015 ISBN 978 0 7509 6103 5
• Great Western Infrastructure 1922 - 1934: Photographs from the E. Wallis Collection:
• Stations/Signalling/Trackwork Cementkilns.co.uk, Wallis, Noodle Books 2014 ISBN-13 978-1909328259
  
  Thanks go to Michael Clemens of https://www.michaelclemensrailways.co.uk/ and Chris Wilkinson of the Worcester Locomotive Society for their help with timetable information and with regard to a matter concerning Driver Harry Collins.

See Blenheim and Woodstock and Shipton-on-Cherwell Halt