Ashcott station

[RailWest]

ASHCOTT (and Meare) station.

 

Atthill implies in his book that this was one of the original SCR stations and opened in 1854. Oakley ('Somerset Arilway Stations) says that it was a later addition in 1856 (similar to Bason Bridge and Edington Road). Judge&Potts also say 1856. Cooke gives no date.

 

Does anyone have any more information please?

Edited March 16 by RailWest

[bécasse]

Unless you can find a contemporary reference (Inspection report, local newspapers?), I suspect that differentiating between 1854 and 1856 will prove next to impossible, especially as the dates for other stations vary too. Building style often offers important clues but I would never rely on that for just a couple of years difference.

 

Noting that there would have been a manned level crossing at the station site from the opening of the line, is it possible that initially it was an unofficial stopping place, regularised (and provided with a platform and rudimentary building) when the other stations also opened in 1856?

 

I suspect that 1876 was the year that the suffix "... and Meare" was dropped although the Ordnance Survey continued to use the full name for years after that (which might suggest that any running boards or etched lamp names weren't changed, just the paperwork).

[RailWest]

Oops - my 'typo' - J&P said 1856 - sorry !

 

Hopefully  there will be time for some more research idc, but for the moment I was hoping that 'someone might know'.....:-)

[phil_sutters]

In Geoffrey Maslen's 'Around Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge in old photographs' he gives the opening date as July 1856, with the renaming to Ashcott & Meare in 1876. This the opposite of information referred to above. His emphasis on photographic local history rather than operational railway history may account for the difference. The caption is under a photo of the station c1915 with a train heading towards Shapwick. Steam, from what looks like a 0-4-4t running bunker first, obscures the rolling stock. It could be passenger stock or goods stock with a van or cattle truck leading.

There are no sources quoted. He just refers to '..those whose knowledge and expertise of local history supplied the historical data from which many caption details have been derived.'

British History Online gives the opening date as 1854 and says that Ashcott & Meare station was built just inside the village (Ashcott) boundary.

Wikipedia doesn't give an opening date, but says the '& Meare' was dropped in 1876, although the running (in) board remained until closure. Having travelled that route a number of times in the early '60s I had always remembered it as 'Ashcott & Meare'. May be it was because of the board or perhaps that's what the porter or guard called out as is came to a halt. It was one of those stations at a distance from two communities. It was actually nearer to Meare, I believe.

Edited March 24 by phil_sutters

[Compound2632]

On 24/03/2024 at 23:04, phil_sutters said:

renaming to Ashcott & Meare in 1876.

 

On 24/03/2024 at 23:04, phil_sutters said:

Wikipedia doesn't give an opening date, but says the '& Meare' was dropped in 1876, although the running (in) board remained until closure. 

 

It seems very doubtful that a pre-1876 running-in-board survived until closure; moreover photos of the board in question taken in BR days or after closure show it to have been mounted on what appear to be concrete posts that are upwards extensions of the fence posts at the rear of an SR-style concrete section platform! So maybe timetables say one thing and signage another? The 1904 edition of the RCH Handbook of Stations gives the station name as 'Ashcot' with just the one T; the Midland Railway distance diagram, sheet 61, 119 edition, as 'Ashcott', whilst the next station along is 'Shapwick (for Westhay & Meare)'. Was there perhaps a road carriage service between Shapwick station and those two villages?