Portesham railway station

Portesham
General information
Location	Portesham, West Dorset England
Platforms	1
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Abbotsbury Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Western Region of British Railways
Key dates
9 November 1885	Opened
1 December 1952	Closed

Portesham was a small railway station serving the village of Portesham in the west of the English county of Dorset.

Location

The station was sited across the fields from village not far from an underbridge carrying the line across the Weymouth to Abbotsbury road at a skew angle. Just to the east of the station an incline provided access to quarries near the Hardy Monument.

History

The station was opened on 9 November 1885 by the Abbotsbury Railway when it opened the line from Abbotsbury to Upwey Junction on the Great Western Railway (GWR) (former Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway line).[1][2]

The station had a single platform and a passing loop. The goods shed was opposite the platform and functioned for the life of the branch.[3] The station was the site of a GWR camp coach from 1935 to 1939.[4][5]

The station closed with the branch on 1 December 1952.[1][6]

Buildings

A typical William Clarke stone building served the single platform,

The site today

The station building is now part of a private dwelling and is used as a holiday let.

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Coryates Halt Line and station closed		Great Western Railway Abbotsbury branch railway		Abbotsbury Line and station closed

References

1. Quick 2022, p. 370.
2. Grant 2017, p. 3.
3. "Portisham station on OS 25 inch map CDorset XLVI.11 (Abbotsbury; Littlebredy; Long Bredy; Portesham)". National Library of Scotland. 1889. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
4. McRae 1997, p. 31.
5. Fenton 1999, pp. 153–154.
6. Hurst 1992, p. 8 (ref 0331).

Bibliography

• Fenton, Mike (1999). Camp Coach Holidays on the G.W.R. Wild Swan. ISBN 1-874103-53-4.
• Grant, Donald J. (2017). Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain (1st ed.). Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Troubador Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78803-768-6.
• Hurst, Geoffrey (1992). Register of Closed Railways: 1948-1991. Worksop, Nottinghamshire: Milepost Publications. ISBN 0-9477-9618-5.
• McRae, Andrew (1997). British Railway Camping Coach Holidays: The 1930s & British Railways (London Midland Region). Vol. Scenes from the Past: 30 (Part One). Foxline. ISBN 1-870119-48-7.
• Quick, Michael (2022) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (PDF). version 5.04. Railway & Canal Historical Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 November 2022.

Further reading

• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• Brian L. Jackson. The Abbotsbury Branch. Wild Swan Publications Ltd. 1989. ISBN 0-906867-80-0

External links

• Station on navigable O.S. map

50.6678°N 2.5607°W / 50.6678; -2.5607