Tower and Town, June 2019

  (view the full edition)

Closure

During the Second World War the railway was very busy, bringing troops and material south, and after D Day taking casualties north. A part of this was munitions to and from the enormous War Office storage area in Savernake Forest, which continued after the war as they were removed for disposal. But during the 1950s traffic dwindled as motor cycle and car ownership spread, and more efficient lorry distribution replaced goods trains for transport of individual items - notable the important collection of milk churns along the line. The Beeching Report proposed closure and in 1961 the line closed to passengers, the old GWR station site at the top of Cherry Orchard being quickly built over and the MSWJR site east of the A346 becoming first a county council highways depot and subsequently the site of the Savernake View care home development.

But that was not the end for the railway as you will read in Dick Millard's piece on the Railway Path from Marlborough to Swindon. There is also the possibility - though unlikely - of rebuilding the line south of Marlborough to provide a better terminus for trains to Paddington than Great Bedwyn; see John Yates' piece.

Alexander Kirk-Wilson