GC4Z5NX MVT 08 Willington Station (Traditional Cache) in Eastern England, United Kingdom created by aliandtone in the Forest of Marston Vale

This cache has been archived.

Red Duster: As the owner has not responded to my previous log requesting that they check this cache I am permanently archiving it. This action can not be reversed.

Andy
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GC4Z5NX ▼

A cache by aliandtone in the Forest of Marston Vale Message this owner

Hidden : 2/24/2014

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

Plqease be aware of closing times of the nearby carpark
Please bring a pen
Depending on the time of day it can be a very high muggle area or almost no muggles at all.

Set in the beautiful Forest of Marston Vale. The Vale is one of 12 Community Forests in England. Community Forests were set up around towns and cities in the early 1990s, to improve land affected by industrial use in the past. The Forest of Marston Vale covers 61 square miles of Bedfordshire between Ampthill, Milton Keynes and Bedford

Willington Station stood on the Oxford to Cambridge line and was the last station built on that line. Its genesis was a siding built in 1896 to load goods, mainly vegetables. This lay a little distance to the west of the later station. Parishioners had petitioned unsuccessfully for a station when the line first opened in 1862. The railway line was run by the London North Western Railway from its opening in that year

Willington Station finally opened in 1903, the Bedfordshire Times of 1st May that year reported: “WILLINGTON: - the new railway station is about completed, the last thing noticeable being the fixing of the lamps on the platform giving the name of the station. At first, trains will not stop there except when required. Persons wishing to alight must give notice at the preceding station, and when passengers wish to join the train it will be stopped by signal”.

Two great authorities on Bedfordshire railways were Fred Cockman and Geoff Webb, both now deceased. The two disagreed about the history of Willington station, Fred Cockman maintaining that the station was built entirely of wood and Geoff Webb that the platforms were stone. Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service Operations Manager Nigel Lutt discovered by chance that both, in fact, were right. The original station was entirely built in wood but a year after completion, in 1904, was burned down.

The Oxford to Cambridge railway line closed on 31st March 1962, as part of the cuts to the national infrastructure laid out by Richard Beeching. Willington Station closed along with the line. The remains of the former station platform can be seen.