Blandford Forum railway station was a station on the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway which served the town of Blandford Forum.

Blandford Forum
Blandford Forum railway station in April 1963
General information
Location	Blandford Forum, North Dorset England
Grid reference	ST888067
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Dorset Central Railway
Pre-grouping	Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Region of British Railways
Key dates
31 August 1863	Opened as Blandford
21 September 1953	Renamed Blandford Forum
7 March 1966	Closed for passengers
1969	closed for goods

History

Originally part of the Dorset Central Railway, the line to Blandford opened on 1 November 1860 to a station at Blandford St Mary, to the south of the River Stour.[1] The Dorset Central merged with the Somerset Central Railway in 1862, and a new extension connecting the two railways was built. The extension, requiring a bridge over the Stour, and a newly relocated Blandford Forum station to the north of the Stour, opened on 31 August 1863.[2]

The station remained open until 7 March 1966, when the entire line from Bath to Bournemouth closed to passengers. Goods traffic continued for a further three years, but the station was finally fully closed, and the track lifted, in 1969.[3]

The impending closure of the station was lamented by musical duo Flanders & Swann, being one of several stations mentioned in their 1964 song Slow Train ("No more will I go to Blandford Forum …"). The song was written in the wake of the first Beeching report, published in 1963, and was written as a tribute to the lines and stations that were to be closed.[4]

A working model of Blandford station, and its environs, is in the process of being built in 1/76th scale in the Blandford Museum, Bere's Yard, Market Place, in Blandford town centre.[5]

The site of the station now lies within a housing estate.[6]

References

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 (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
• 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.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blandford Forum railway station.

• Blandford Forum station on navigable 1946 O. S. map
• Disused stations in the UK