South Cerney railway station

51°40′23″N 1°55′08″W / 51.6731°N 1.9190°W / 51.6731; -1.9190Grid referenceSU056971Platforms2Other informationStatusDisusedHistoryOriginal companySwindon and Cheltenham Extension RailwayPre-groupingMidland and South Western Junction RailwayPost-groupingGreat Western RailwayKey dates18 December 1883 (1883-12-18)Opened as Cerney and Ashton Keynes1 July 1924Renamed South Cerney11 September 1961 (1961-09-11)Station closed for passengersJuly 1963closed for goods

South Cerney railway station was on the Midland and South Western Junction Railway in Gloucestershire. The station opened on 18 December 1883 on the Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway line from Swindon Town to the temporary terminus at Cirencester Watermoor. The S&CER line amalgamated in 1884 with the Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway to form the M&SWJR, and through services beyond Cirencester to the junction at Andoversford with the Great Western Railway's Cheltenham Lansdown to Banbury line, which had opened in 1881, started in 1891.

Cerney and Ashton Keynes station was just outside the village of South Cerney and about 2.5 miles north east of Ashton Keynes. In 1905, the Great Western Railway's Minety station on the Swindon to Kemble line was renamed as "Minety and Ashton Keynes": it was about the same distance south west of Ashton Keynes.

The two stations were not in nominal competition for long, however. Cerney and Ashton Keynes was renamed as simply "Cerney" after 1910 and then, after the GWR had absorbed the M&SWJR at the Grouping in 1923, as "South Cerney".

Passenger traffic at the station was never high, but there was much goods activity associated with the local gravel pits. As a whole, traffic on the M&SWJR fell steeply after the Second World War and the line closed to passengers in 1961,^[1] with goods facilities at South Cerney being withdrawn in July 1963. The only traces of the station remaining is the line of the track through the railway arches and part of the Signal Box in the garden of Ashmoon House. Part of the line remains in use as a cycle path.

Route

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Cirencester Watermoor		Midland and South Western Junction Railway Swindon & Cheltenham Extension Railway		Cricklade

References

• Gloucestershire Railway Stations, Mike Oakley, Dovecote Press, Wimborne, 2003, ISBN 1-904349-24-2