Mangotsfield railway station was a railway station on the Midland Railway route between Bristol and Birmingham, north-east of and from , serving the village of Mangotsfield in South Gloucestershire, England. The station was opened in 1845 by the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, but had very little in the way of passenger amenities. The station was resited in 1869 to serve the new Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line, and became an important junction station with extensive facilities and six platforms. Passenger footfall however failed to match the station's size, though at its peak eight staff were employed. The station closed in 1966 when services to Bath ended as part of the Beeching cuts, and the line through the station closed in 1969. The railway became a cycle path in the 1980s, and is a popular resting point on the route as several of the station's walls and platforms are still in situ.
History First station
The first railway through Mangotsfield was the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway, which opened in 1828. The line, which was horse-drawn, was built to convey stone and coal to Bristol Harbour. The line was built as single track standard gauge, but with space for double track. A connecting branch, known as the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway, was built from Mangotsfield south towards the River Avon in the 1830s. The Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway was purchased by the Bristol and Gloucester Railway in the early 1840s, as part of a plan to connect Gloucester with the Great Western Railway at . The line was converted to locomotive operation and broad-gauge, with services beginning in July 1844. There was initially no station at Mangotsfield, which was a small village in an area of farmland.
In March 1845, the Railways Board resolved "that a station on the cheapest scale be established at Mangotsfield". Less than two months later, on 1 May 1845, the station was opened. It was located east of the village, just south of what is now the B4465 Main Road in the hamlet of Shortwood, at the junction with the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway. Sited along the line from Bristol Temple Meads and from Birmingham New Street, it was the first station north from Temple Meads, with being the next station north, away.Railways in the United Kingdom are, for historical reasons, measured in miles and chains. There are 80 chains to the mile. It took until 1866 for another station – , to the west – to be opened between Mangotsfield and Bristol.
Facilities at Mangotsfield were very limited. When the station opened there was nothing apart from a platform either side of the two running lines. The western "up" platform served trains towards Gloucester, and the eastern "down" platform served trains towards Bristol. A shelter was added to the up platform in 1848, and a brick station building was built separate from the platforms, however no electrical telegraph system was provided. There were extensive sidings north of the station.
By the time the station at Mangotsfield opened, the Bristol and Gloucester Railway had effectively become part of the Midland Railway, however the official handover was 7 May, six days after the station opened. The station had an initial passenger service of six trains per day each way between Bristol and . Following the conversion of the line to dual broad and standard gauge in 1854, passenger trains were all standard gauge, which allowed direct services to . Occasional broad gauge goods trains operated until 1882.
Second station
When the Midland Railway took over the Bristol and Gloucester in 1845, it announced plans to build a branch to Bath. While several different plans were mooted, what eventually came to pass was the Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line, roughly following the route of the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway south from Mangotsfield to a terminus at . A large triangular junction was built at Mangotsfield, and a new station constructed at the western point of the junction, from the centre of Mangotsfield. The branch, and with it the new station, opened on 4 August 1869. The original station was closed to passengers, but the goods facilities were retained. The new station was west of the original, from Bristol Temple Meads, from Birmingham New Street and from Bath Green Park. The next station towards Bath was , to the south, with Fishponds now away and Yate distant. In 1888, a station was opened at , west of Mangotsfield.
The second station was much more extensive than the original. Built on the southern face of Rodney Hill, it had three platform islands, giving six platform faces, with the junction apex forming the western end of the middle island. The northern island platform had two platforms for trains going towards Birmingham: the northernmost platform was mostly used as a passing loop for goods trains, and was known as "under the rock" due to the hill; the southern side was the Up Main Line. The centre island had its western apex at the junction and was triangular in shape. The northern face was the Down Main line, for trains from Birmingham; the southern face was the Up Bath line, for trains towards Bath. The southern island's north face was the Down Bath line, serving trains from Bath towards Bristol, and its southern side was a west-facing bay platform. The south side of the bay platform had a timber windbreak due to the station's exposed site, and thus the platform acquired the name "behind the box". The station as built was sparsely furnished: there was a small building on the centre platform in a standard Midland Railway style, which housed the booking office and two waiting rooms, and also a shelter on the Bristol-bound branch platform. Passengers were required to use a level crossing to change between platforms; however, "through carriages" — whereby a carriage from one train would be transferred to a train going a different direction, without need for passengers to alight — were also used.
The initial service along the Bath branch was 9 trains per day each way, increasing to 18 each way by 1910. From 1870, most Bristol-bound trains were diverted from Temple Meads to , which the Midland Railway had opened after noting that many travellers from Mangotsfield and other branches found the location of Temple Meads to be inconvenient and would thus take the horse-drawn omnibus instead. In 1874, services began on the Clifton Extension Railway, a joint railway operated by the Midland and Great Western railways to connect to the Bristol Port Railway and Pier. The Midland initially operated 13 trains per day between and Mangotsfield, terminating in the bay platform. However, by 1887 these services would mostly terminate at Fishponds rather than Mangotsfield, and the service was discontinued in 1941. 1874 also saw the opening of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, which had its northern terminus at Bath Green Park, providing more passengers for the branch. Trains from the north would frequently use the eastern side of the Mangotsfield triangle and continue on south from Bath. The triangle was also used for turning locomotives when the turntable at Bath was unavailable. Main line services also increased: by 1882 there were ten trains each way between Bristol and Gloucester via Mangotsfield, with trains variously continuing to Cheltenham, Worcester and Birmingham.
Significant enhancements were made to the station in 1883, designed by Midland Railway architect John Holloway Sanders and built by John Garlick of Birmingham. The original station buildings were deconstructed and sold to local tradespeople, with new stone buildings erected. The Western Daily Press described the new building on the centre platform in extensive detail:
As part of the reconstruction, a large glass roof was built on each platform, using a total of 138 iron posts and of rolled plate glass in an iron frame. The canopies were ridged along the platforms, rather than perpendicular as was the usual Midland design. Wooden shelters were built on the outer island platforms. All the platforms were lengthened, to allow the longest Midland trains to call, and all laid with asphalt. A subway, with passages and stairs of Painswick stone, was built to provide access between platforms, replacing the level crossings. The station even had its own gas works, which also supplied the neighbouring station at Warmley. There were no catering facilities, as per the stipulation of the previous landowner, who was also the owner of a local hotel. There was, however, a book stall. By this point a signal box had been constructed at the western end of the southern island.
A Carson's Chocolate factory was opened in the middle of the Mangotsfield railway triangle in the early 1910s. Served by a private siding; and with its own cricket pitch, tennis courts and bowling green; the factory became a well-known landmark for rail travellers, as well as an extra source of passengers for the station. The station also became the site of regular releases of racing pigeons.
In 1923, grouping resulted in the Midland Railway being absorbed into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Mangotsfield's peak usage came in the inter-war years, when the station staff consisted of a station master, two booking clerks, two foremen, and three porters; however, Mangotsfield itself never saw the large amounts of traffic it had been built for, and was considered a somewhat desolate place. Actor Arnold Ridley was once stranded at the station, and the sound of a train passing on the eastern side of the triangle, out of sight of the station, inspired him to write his play The Ghost Train. During the Second World War, the glass platform roofs were removed as a precautionary measure in the event of air raids, making the station even more unwelcoming to passengers.
Passenger traffic declined following the war and when the railways were nationalised in 1948 – following the passage of the Transport Act 1947 – Mangotsfield came under the aegis of the London Midland Region of British Railways. The 1950s saw an increase in road travel, and rail passenger numbers declined. The eastern side of the Mangotsfield triangle closed on 18 September 1962, and, with the Great Western Main Line providing an alternative route from Bristol to Bath, the Beeching Report of 1963 recommended closure of the branch from Mangotsfield to Bath Green Park. Goods facilities at the original site of the station were withdrawn on 10 June 1963, and local stopping services between Bristol and Gloucester ended on 4 January 1965. Passenger services along the Bath branch were planned to be withdrawn from 3 January 1966, but had a temporary reprieve due to difficulties with the rail replacement bus service. The line and station eventually closed two months later on 7 March 1966. Trains continued to pass the station site non-stop for several years, however, as there were two routes between Bristol and Yate — via and via Mangotsfield — it was decided to close the line through Mangotsfield as an economy measure. The line was slated to be closed on 3 January 1970, but on 26 December 1969 an embankment collapse near blocked the line and it was never reopened.
Post-closure