This shot, taken in March 1962, shows Bitton Station in the last year of through expresses - from September 8th 1962 the Pines Express` and all other through trains were diverted via Reading and Oxford and six months later the infamous `Beeching Report` named the station, along with the whole of the Mangotsfield to Bath branch and the Somerset and Dorset Railway, as due for closure.
Bitton Station was opened, along with Mangotsfield, Warmley, Kelston, Weston and Bath, on Wednesday August 4th, 1869. Built by Samuel Robertson at a cost of £1,326 9s 9d, it was constructed out of local pennant stone, much of it quarried from the deep cutting immediately to the north of the station. The room nearest the camera was the Stationmaster`s room, with a small room for the porters just off shot to the right. The centre room was the booking hall, with a single hatch opening into the Stationmaster`s room. The third room was the Ladies Waiting Room, and included a toilet, whilst barely visible beyond this room was a coal store and gents toilet. There was never any footbridge, passengers crossing the line by means of a barrow crossing situated at the Bath end of the platforms, behind the photographer. At the turn of the century staff at the station comprised the stationmaster, porter, porter/signalman, junior porter and two signalmen.
This photo clearly shows that the down platform (for three quarters of its length) was raised by several inches - although the up platform remained at its original height until closure. Note also the ornate barge boards on the station which were long gone by the time preservationists arrived - although the similar Weston (Bath) station still carries these to this day.
Behind the station can be seen the goods shed which opened a month after the station itself, on 1/9/1869. Again, built by Samuel Robertson, it cost £628 10s 0d. Now this building is used to house the working locomotives of the Avon Valley Railway. A line ran through the good shed, a second ran around the outside and into the cattle dock, and there were also two long coal sidings. The line through the goods shed was removed in 1964, and the rest of the yard closed on 19/7/1965.
In the distance can be seen Bitton signal box, with the up starter (controlled by lever 10) in front of it. The box is a Midland Railway timber type 2 with MR block instruments and was opened on 29/4/1894, presumably replacing an earlier one. It closed along with the goods yard sidings, on 19/7/1965, and was also demolished long before preservationists arrived on the scene. An almost identical signal box (from Painswick Road, Gloucester) was purchased and erected on the site by the Avon Valley Railway, although never commissioned. This in itself was dismantled a few years back, and will eventually be replaced by a box mounted on the up platform, which will be more suitably sited for current train operations.
Other buildings at Bitton (not seen in this picture) included a stone built waiting room on the up platform, stables, weighbridge and office, plus a hand operated crane - all of these structures having now vanished. Bitton closed to passengers on 6th March 1966, although the station still saw freight pass through until 1972 as coal trains serviced Bath Gas Works. In 1973 the `railway builders` descended on the site and began the long job of restoring the station from the vandalised state it was in at that time.
Photograph by Ronald E Toop.
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