| Date | 5 October 2012 |
|---|---|
| Source | Slough Observer |
Transcript
On track to station fall
Email Elias with feedback and your memories on observernews@berksmedia.co.uk
A COUPLE of years ago I was surprised by a call to build a railway station in Chalvey, with an adapted line through Windsor to Heathrow and beyond.
Few people know there was an earlier short-lived railway station in Chalvey, on the line between Slough and Windsor and Eton Central.
The station — which only lasted 14 months — was just north of the bridge carrying the Windsor line over Chalvey Road, near to its junction with Ragstone Road.
The bridge was made of brick in around 1848, but was taken down in the 1930s as part of a widening scheme for Chalvey Road. It was replaced in iron.
Until the 1920s there were no intermediate stations on the branch line, however, that changed when a decision was made to create a new station in Chalvey to encourage local people to use the railway.
Chalvey Halt opened on May 6, 1929, at a cost of £823.
However, a year after the station was opened, it collapsed into an adjacent garden.
Architect Michael Bayley, who worked in Slough, remembers the incident and told me the garden it collapsed in belonged to a Mrs Childs.
Mr Bayley added that part of the timber from the railway station was later made into a chicken coop in the garden.
Sadly, the railway station was never rebuilt as it was not used by local traffic as much as intended.
The station officially closed on July 6, 1930, and the platforms were taken down and reused at Clashes Green Station, between Stroud and Stonehouse.
The project was doomed from the start and the Great Western Railway Company apologised to the land owners, Eton College, for opening the halt without permission!
AS IT WAS: Below, the original Chalvey Bridge built in brick before its demolition in the 1930s. Left, Chalvey Halt in 1929 — drawn by Michael Bayley from memory.
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