Cookham railway station
serves the village of Cookham, Berkshire, England. First Great Western trains between Maidenhead and Marlow serve the station, as well as through services to and from London Paddington in peak hours Monday to Friday. The station has a ticket office, waiting room and toilets.
Cookham station was opened by the Wycombe Railway in 1854. The station now has a single platform. A second platform survives but is disused. The former Station House is now let to private occupants.
The Wycombe railway was formed in 1845 and was successful in getting it's act in 1846. Construction was slow and the line opened between Maidenhead and High Wycombe in 1854. In 1873 the Marlow branch was added connecting the town to Bourne End.
History of the Line
The original station at Maidenhead was located on Castle hill but was closed when the present Maidenhead station opened in 1871. The line was 9.75 miles in length (excluding the Marlow branch) and, in distance from Maidenhead (original station) stations were opened at Cookham (3 miles), Bourne End (4.5 miles), Wooburn Green (5.75 miles), Loudwater (7.25 miles) and on to Wycombe station.
When the mainline from Wycombe to Marylebone opened in 1899, the company continued to run freight over the line with the main London bound passenger services running over the new line.
A snapshot of the line in 1937 shows there were 12 return trains a day between Maidenhead and Wycombe which were well used by the local population. The line flourished until the 1960's when competition from the road gradually took all the freight and more people began using private cars more and more.
In 1970, British rail asked the Wycombe council for £60,000 to help keep the line open but no money was forthcoming and consequently the line closed to all traffic in the same year. The track and signalling were recovered and the stations left to crumble and a 116 years of local train services came to an end.
