Notes: Where the Great Western Railway in particular, was concerned, a rural station or halt name with the ‘Road’ suffix usually meant the station or halt was a long way, sometimes miles, from the settlement it purported to serve. Longdon Road was an exception in that there never has been a settlement named ‘Longdon’. The station was located about one third of a mile, no great distance, west south-west of the hamlet of Darlingscott. Many authors have commented, logically, that the station ought to have been named ‘Darlingscott’ but instead it was name after Longdon Manor, situated a half mile, as the proverbial crow flies, south-west of the station. The station name therefore means ‘The road to Longdon Manor’. In various histories of the Stratford & Moreton Railway (the horse tramway), retrospective reference is made to a Longdon Road station (or wharf) but in fact it was nothing more than a stopping place, with watering facility for horses at the level crossing. One may therefore ask when and why the name ‘Longdon Road’ originated but the answer is elusive. Possibly the horse tramway was built over land owned by Longdon Manor, perhaps on condition that a nod was made to the Manor. Such situations were quite common and in others Parish names were given to stations instead of that of the nearest village.

As stated above, Darlingscott is classed as a hamlet which is defined as a settlement smaller than a village and insofar as Britain is concerned, without a church. Darlingscott however does have a church, St. George’s, and today at least, Darlingscott is considered administratively as being part of Tredington, being in the Parish of that name. Confusion therefore extends beyond the name of the one-time local railway station!

When the Great Western Railway (GWR) opened its railway station on the 1st of July 1889, the Longdon Road name was applied but with no mention of Darlingscott which was shunned; even more  so sometime in 1902 when the railway decided to rename the station to "LONGDON ROAD for ILMINGTON", providing a running-in board to that effect. The village of Ilmington is, by road, about 1½ miles north-west of Longdon Road station and the renaming suggests that revenue, especially passenger revenue, at Longdon Road was disappointing and the GWR was attempting to tap potential business from Ilmington. Passenger traffic was never spectacular on the Shipston-on-Stour branch.

When the GWR opened what had become its Shipston-on-Stour branch in 1889, Longdon Road was the only intermediate station (proper railway station that is, as opposed to tramway stopping place). Longdon Road was also the only junction, other than at Moreton-in-Marsh, as when the new south-to-east connecting chord was built the tramway was disconnected at what would otherwise have been the southern tip of a triangular junction. As in 1889 the tramway was still in operation, albeit by that time declining in usage, what we might today call a trans-shipment facility was arranged at Longdon Road but at this point the waters are muddied. Some authors report that the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway re-laid at least some of the tramway track to permit the running of standard railway wagons and also with a view to replacing horses with steam locomotives. There is also some rather vague evidence to the effect that a steam locomotive was tested on the southern end of the tramway and even made it all the way to Shipston-on-Stour. However, an undated photograph survives of a GWR 0-6-0ST locomotive in the cutting at Tunnel Bridge (site of what had been Campden Road Tunnel) north of Stretton-on-Fosse. The reason is unconfirmed but is suspected of being during engineering work following a landslip in the cutting. The track on which the locomotive was photographed looked very much like the original tramway track; therefore the photograph dates from before the GWR re-laid the line so was probably taken at sometime in the 1897 - 1898 period. What the photograph does confirm, of course is, that a steam locomotive got at least as far north as Tunnel Bridge prior to the GWR opening its Shipston-on-Stour branch in the form of a proper railway.

Photographs taken in the 1917 - 1918 period survive however, showing that the original tramway track remained until the end, at least on the section north of Darlingscott Junction. By applying something resembling logic therefore, it seems likely after 1889 that goods were trans-shipped at Longdon Road to and from horse drawn tramway wagons. If so it would have been a very clumsy affair, time consuming and labour intensive. There is also the matter of the GWR considering a steam railmotor service to Stratford-upon-Avon but no evidence has been found of any track relaying in connection with this. The GWR is known to have inspected the tramway in connection with the railmotor idea but that was as far as it got before the railmotor idea was quietly dropped. As an aside, the 1892 Kelly's Directory for Worcestershire, Page 14, noted that the horse tramway was disused in 1891, making reference to the Stratford-upon-Avon to Shipston-on-Stour section but with relevance to the section through Alderminster.

Longdon Road railway station was provided with a normal height platform east of the level crossing and on the Down side of the line. The platform, on a curve, was around 170ft long which appears to have been the approximately standard platform length on the Shipston-on-Stour branch excluding Moreton-in-Marsh, or ’Moreton-in-the-Marsh’ as it was then commonly but erroneously called. The platform was oil lit and remained so for its entire life. The station building was the usual, for this line, external frame wooden affair with flat roof sloping towards the rear. Apart from the construction method, all three such buildings on the Shipston-on-Stour branch differed in detail. West of the level crossing was a small goods yard complete with weighbridge and a diminutive wooden hut as the weigh office. The level crossing was given proper railway type swing gates and a keeper's cottage was provided (this is sometimes described as a Stationmaster's house). The goods yard, such as it was, contained two sidings of which one was laid directly on the alignment of the former horse tramway with the second shorter siding being to its north side. These had been re-laid in 1917 and again in 1924, on both occasions with second-hand rails no longer fit for use on main lines - common practice on branch lines. Some, at least, of these second-hand rails were inside keyed. The siding that laid directly on the former tramway alignment ended abruptly, without a buffer stop, at a somewhat mysterious gate across the former tramway trackbed. The reason for this odd arrangement is unclear, though at the time the siding was installed, the tramway track had yet to be lifted so one might assume the gate marked the boundary between tramway and railway despite the whole system being owned by the GWR. Horse drawn wagons arriving from the Alderminster direction were, perhaps, required to stop at the gate and await instructions. Whatever the reason, lifting of the tramway track was the reason for the abrupt ending of the railway siding; the increasingly decrepit gate remained in situ for many years afterwards.

No goods shed or yard crane was provided at Longdon Road but in 1902 a horse landing (dock) was provided. This was served by the longer of the two sidings and backed onto the running line, the side backing onto the running line being fenced off. The shorter of the two sidings was generally used by coal merchants. At some point in time a lock-up was provided on the station platform and at the west end of the station building. The lock-up was constructed using the corrugated iron so beloved of the GWR and its main purpose was the safe storage of parcels.

Another building at Longdon Road was a PW hut constructed using brick and wood. Adjacent to this hut, which is rarely seen in photographs due to being hidden behind the cottage, was a 4-lever ground frame which controlled the points and facing point locks. As with all ground frames on the Shipston-on-Stour branch, the frame was unlocked by key attached to train staff.

Immediately west of the level crossing the new connecting chord curved sharply southwards. The chord was steeply graded, 1:54 easing to 1:77 falling in the Down (towards Shipston) direction. This was one of two locations on the branch where stop boards were provided, at which Down goods trains were required to stop for the brakes to be pinned down before proceeding. In the Up direction, i.e. towards Moreton-in-Marsh, trains had to climb the gradient while negotiating the curve and this was considered a challenge by locomotive crews.

ongdon Road was also provided with a goods loading gauge of the standard GWR adjustable type. There was nothing unusual about that except that the gauge was positioned over the running line. The reason for this was possibly the points leading to the goods sidings being too close to the level crossing, leaving no option other than to position the gauge east of the level crossing over the running line. Due to the points trailing in the Down (towards Shipston) direction, the branch goods train would drop off and/or collect any wagons at Longdon Road on its way to Shipston-on-Stour. Collected wagons would then be taken forward to Shipston and then to Moreton-in-Marsh on the return trip. This operational necessity was normal anywhere in the country where single-ended sidings were present.

Figures for Longdon Road tickets sales, goods receipts and tonnages, do not appear to have survived unlike the same records for Shipston-on-Stour. In the period 1903 - 1923 Longdon Road had a staff of three and this was probably the case from opening in 1889. Whether the three included the level crossing keeper is unclear although level crossing keepers were not usually classed as station staff. At withdrawal of the passenger service in 1929 a single staff member was employed and he, a Leading Porter, remained until complete closure of Longdon Road in 1941.

The two sidings at Longdon Road along with goods loading gauge had been removed by August 1952. The station itself had been illuminated by four oil lamps but after the passenger service ceased two of these were removed, leaving the two nearest the level crossing, presumably for the benefit of the sole member of staff who remained until 1941. The running-in board and other fittings were also removed, then after 1941 all that remained was the wooden station building which itself had been removed by the 1950s leaving just the increasingly decrepit and weedy platform as well as the horse landing.

The cottage at Longdon Road survived the demise of the Shipston-on-Stour branch as did all others. At the turn of the 21st century a much larger house was built on the site of the former junction and goods yard with the cottage being an integral part of it. Two of the rather ornate cast iron level crossing gate posts survive on the west side of the road although in 2022 one, the pivot post, was partially hidden between a bush and a tree. On the other side of the road, the site of the station platform is now very heavily overgrown but the south east end of the platform, including the ramp are clearly seen. The south-to-east connecting chord has disappeared back into the land and is now only visible from the air as a faint crop mark. A farmyard has been extended over part of its course.

Tickets Michael Stewart. Route map drawn by Alan Young. Proof reading by Alan Lawrence.

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