Chris Leigh,

Consultant Editor

All buildings have interesting stories to tell and old stations are no exception. I make no apology for my love of Tetbury station (see p40) and it has an interesting tale to tell.

At first sight, it appeared to be a standard GWR red brick design. However, appearances can be deceptive. The Tetbury Railway built the branch, opened in 1889, to little more than light railway standards and the station buildings at Tetbury and Culkerton were made from timber. It’s interesting to note that by 1913, just 22 years later, the station at Tetbury had fallen into such disrepair that the Great Western had little option but to rebuild it. A standard GWR design was used, with red bricks on a plinth of several courses of blue engineers’ bricks. However, in order to reduce the cost, serviceable materials from the original structure were reused. These included the unusual combined doors and window frames on the platform elevation, much of the awning and the equally unusual corner-hung roof slates. I have a copy of the original drawing, which specified exactly which parts were to be reused, even down to the shelves in the parcels office.

The result was a GWR building in turn-of-the-century style with some much older features, including the cast iron decorative brackets that supported the canopy.

The resultant building was very distinctive, particularly with its canopy which covers not only the platform side, but also one end. It looked as if it might once have also covered the other two elevations, and on the original wooden structure it did just that. However, the brick structure followed GWR practice with the canopy only over the platform and the entrance gateway.