Snapshots of Local History
With contributions from Cirencester Archaeological & Historical Society, Cirencester Civic Society, members & friends
Pictured above: Railbus at Chesterton Lane Halt
The second annual Cirencester History Festival in late October was a great success, attracting over 95% capacity in ticket sales. Those who filled the Parish Church for a memorable opening concert by The Sixteen Choir will not easily forget the sheer joy of that choral experience.
Also memorable was an event which fully developed quite late on in the festival planning. Styled The Old Station Experience, it provided the first public access for many years inside the former Cirencester Town GWR railway station. This tall, narrow building, sitting incongruously in one of the town’s car parks, has been empty for several decades, whilst its owners Cotswold District Council searched for a new use via a new owner.
That opportunity has now arrived and has been fully taken up by Jonathan Rixon’s architectural practice which is based in and will develop the building. The Festival was an opportunity to throw open the doors over two weekends and share this good news with all who might turn up. And close to 3,000 visitors over three days did so, with interest and enthusiasm.
They were able to enjoy a presentation of historical images describing the building’s long history since 1841, as the terminus of the branch line from Kemble, and its early role in Brunel’s creation of the Great Western Railway network northwards from Swindon to Stroud, Gloucester and beyond. Guides were on hand to discuss and explain this story, which in the true tradition of railway history always includes plenty of detail!
One key and special part of the branch line’s life came in its final years before closure to passengers in April 1964. For five years from 02 February 1959 the age of steam was replaced by a new, experimental diesel Railbus service on both Cirencester and Tetbury branch lines from Kemble. It is still within living memory for many local people who duly showed up over one weekend to enjoy the sight of one of those railbuses, preserved locally, brought back over 60 years later as a static exhibit alongside the station platform.
Railbus W79978 was one of five such vehicles built for the railway authorities in 1958 by AC Cars Ltd at a cost of £70,000. It is now being restored at the Swindon & Cricklade Railway by its owner and rail enthusiast Martin Rouse, who took on the project in 2019. Martin began learning his trade via an apprenticeship in the Swindon Railway Works. He explained that ‘the railbus is nowhere near complete but it’s a chance to have it back where it was in 1964’, and he was delighted with the positive public response to his efforts.
The Railbus design was simple enough, at 36ft long a single compartment with a driver’s tiny cab at each end, and seating for 46 passengers plus luggage. Compact was the word but from memory also a jolly experience, and as its name suggests, a bus on the railway!
Plenty has been written on the history of the Railbus project and whether or not it might have saved these branch lines from closure during the years of the Beeching cuts. One interesting aspect was the construction of two small and simple wooden platform halts along the line, one out in the country near Park Leaze Farm, Ewen and the other at Chesterton Lane Halt on the then southern fringes of Cirencester. This latter is now completely obliterated but for only a few years the town did have a third railway station!
By good fortune the standard and much respected history of The Cirencester Branch by the late Nigel Bray (Oakwood Press 1998) was republished last year by Stenlake Publishing and so new as well as second-hand copies via Ebay or elsewhere are available on-line or from local bookshops.
Overall, The Old Station Experience was hailed as one of the most ambitious heritage moments in Cirencester’s recent history, and sets a high bar for similar opportunities in future.
David Viner
Thanks to Martin Rouse, Jonathan Rixon and Jess Yarrow from Cirencester History Festival.
Support Cirencester’s principal heritage societies and their event programmes: Archaeological & Historical Society (www.cirenhistory.org.uk) and Civic Society (www.ccsoc.org.uk), which runs a programme of Town Walks in the season plus pre-booked for small groups. Please contact Rob Tuttle: townwalks@cirencestercivicsociety.org – tel. 07771-998182
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