| Lacock Halt - opened 16th October 1905 Posted by grahame at 19:42, 14th October 2023 |     |
From Wikipedia
On 1 October 1905 the running of local services between Chippenham and Trowbridge was taken over by steam rail-motors in order to reduce operational costs. With the aim of increasing passenger traffic, halts at Lacock and Staverton were opened just over two weeks later on Monday 16 October – a strategy which proved so successful that two more halts were added at Beanacre and Broughton Gifford within the space of a year. This was despite an inauspicious start to the service when the inaugural train to Lacock and Staverton broke down and a steam engine had to be sent from Chippenham in order to push the stricken rail-motor to Trowbridge, although the ensemble was only half an hour late arriving at Lacock. It was reported that "a numerous company" were present to witness the occasion, with 5 passengers alighting and 13 boarding the train.
and from my old blog
| Re: Lacock Halt - opened 16th October 1905 Posted by grahame at 08:03, 16th October 2025 | |
It's 120 years since the opening on Lacock Halt on the (then) double track line from Chippenham through Melksham to Holt Junction ... onwards to Bradford-on-Avon and Trowbridge, and with a change at Holt for Devizes. The line is now single, the direct chord to Bradford-on-Avon gone, and the line to Devizes closed in 1966 and the line is now largely lost into fields. Lacock and Melksham Stations closed in 1966 too but Melksham re-opened in 1985. Is there a case for the re-opening of a station at Lacock?
Twenty years ago, when I joined the campaign for a sensible train service at Melksham, the idea of re-opening Lacock would have been seen as proof of my madness. These days, I am not so sure.
Lacock is a historic "National Trust" village and heaven forbid anyone or anything that disturbs the heritage. However, the station site and railway line is about a mile from the core of the village, and located near to an area of housing in which car ownership and availability is far from universal, and right beside a factory where staff are bussed in every day from - err - places like Chippenham Station. Wiltshire needs more housing and when such is built, a key issue is infrastructure - access to it, and in some cases what better start is there than a railway line and station? The Bath and Wiltshire Metro suggests Lacock as a possible station site, and with trains calling there every half hour I can foresee a future for a busting community there as part of a connected and sustainable city. No longer madness.
| Re: Lacock Halt - opened 16th October 1905 Posted by JohnM at 08:57, 16th October 2025 | |
Would be handy for trips to Whitehall garden centre too, just down the road from the old station site. It's pretty popular, especially at Christmas when they put on quite a show and it's packed.
| Re: Lacock Halt - opened 16th October 1905 Posted by JohnM at 14:37, 16th October 2026 | |
Comparing the single and dual track pics, is the single track positioned somewhere between where the dual tracks lay? Just thinking that it might affect the work required to revert to dual track if that ever became a possibility.
