"Through the Window" Rail Guides: The Route of the Cathedrals Express

London Paddington to Worcester & Hereford

The Route of the Cathedrals Express

RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE RAILWAY BRITAIN

London Paddington is one of London's grandest and most elegant stations and is an important monument to the work of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It was built by the Great Western Railway in 1854 and was designed by the legendary engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. This famous engineer also designed the S.S. Great Britain, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash. The concourse of the station is called "The Lawn" and has a statue of Paddington Bear. On Platform 1 by the entrance there is a statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The former goods depot can be seen on the right as trains leave the station. This is now redeveloped as Paddington Waterside and links the station with the canalside of the Grand Union Canal. The route from London to Bristol follows Brunel’s original famous Great Western Railway. The station is fronted by the magnificent former Great Western Royal Hotel, which remains a prestigious hotel known as the Hilton London Paddington. In its heyday and even today, London Paddington was the “Gateway to the West” and the starting point for journeys to the Thames Valley, West Country, the Cotswolds and South Wales. From 1998 London Paddington also became the gateway to the world’s busiest airport when it became the terminus of the Heathrow Express service to London Heathrow Airport.

Throughout this “Through the Window” guide we describe views as being left or right from the train facing in the direction of travel out of London.

London Paddington to Reading:

On leaving London Paddington, the train follows the elevated M40 motorway seen on the right briefly before emerging into an area of high rise development. Royal Oak station and Westbourne Park station are passed within a few minutes of departure from Paddington. Kensal Green cemetery and Old Oak Common train depot are passed to the right, while to the left can be seen the pinnacles of Wormwood Scrubs. Kensal Green cemetery is where Thackeray, Leigh Hunt, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and other famous people are buried. Wormwood Scrubs is the big prison. The prison was originally built by convict labour and houses 1400 prisoners. During the First World War, however, Wormwood Scrubs was an important airfield for the RAF. To the left as you pass the Old Oak Common train depot can be seen North Pole Depot which was built for the maintenance of the Eurostar trains through the Channel Tunnel. Next Acton Main Line station is passed through. London Underground trains share the route for much of the way to Ealing Broadway and then the surroundings become more suburban. Beyond West Ealing, Hanwell Recreation Ground can be seen on the right, and beyond Hanwell & Elthorne station the tower of Hanwell Church can be seen on the right. In its churchyard lies Jonas Hanway, the man who introduced the umbrella to Britain in 1750. Soon the line is carried high over the River Brent on the 8 arched Warncliffe Viaduct built in 1837. Soon Southall is reached and to the left can be seen the former Southall Locomotive Depot now home to the GWR Preservation Group's Southall Railway Centre. Just beyond Southall the line crosses the Grand Junction Canal and soon Hayes & Harlington is reached. After West Drayton station the River Colne is crossed. Shortly after this the line to Heathrow Airport can be seen diverging from the mainline via a flyover to the left. Then Iver station is reached. The Grand Junction Canal soon draws up close to the line on the right just as Langley station is reached.

The French style, domed station at Slough dates from 1838 in parts. Here the branch line to Windsor & Eton Central can be seen branching off to the left soon after the station. Before this branch line was opened in 1850 Queen Victoria used Slough station when she travelled to Windsor Castle. The River Thames divides Windsor from its close but no less famous neighbour Eton. After leaving Slough a number of interesting factories line the route, notably the impressive brick home of Horlicks to the right.

After Slough the landscape becomes more rural, while to the left can be seen the continuous stream of planes on their final approach to London Heathrow airport. Soon Burnham station is passed and then Taplow. To the right is Taplow’s 1912 church with its distinctive green spire, and then the train makes its first crossing of the River Thames. Maidenhead Bridge with its two graceful shallow brick arches spanning the river is one of Brunel’s masterpieces. Opened in 1837, it confounded its critics, who firmly believed that such flat arches would surely collapse. The bridge also features in J.M.W. Turner’s famous painting, Rain, Steam and Speed. Maidenhead still retains echoes of its Edwardian charm by the river. Maidenhead station is where the branch to Bourne End and Marlow can be seen branching off to the right.

To the right of the line after Twyford station, where the branch to Henley on Thames can be seen joining the mainline on the right, are the lakes and flooded gravel pits that surround the River Loddon, a River Thames tributary. A deep cutting, the Sonning Cutting, south of Sonning then takes the line towards Reading. The railway enters the town with the River Thames right next to the line on the right hand side. To the right can be seen the white façade of Caversham Park, a 1850s mansion that now houses the BBC’s foreign language section. Before it arrives at Reading station, the line crosses the River Kennet, the River Thames’ link with the Kennet & Avon Canal and the recently reopened waterway route to Bath and Bristol. On the left the great gas holders are passed. Also the line from London Waterloo can be seen on the left as the train enters Reading station.

Reading is a thriving university town and shopping and business centre. Reading still has a good variety of 19^th century architecture, notably the Royal Berkshire Hospital of 1837 and the 1870s municipal buildings by Waterhouse. The ruins of the Cluniac abbey, founded by King Henry I in the 12^th century, underline the town’s historic importance.

Reading station is an important junction with lines running to Oxford and the Midlands, the West Country and the South West via Basingstoke. Another line to London Waterloo also connects with routes to Surrey and Kent. Reading station has a gracious Italianate façade of 1870 on Platform 4, crowned with a decorative clock tower, but however to the side is the new station complete with shopping arcade.

Reading to Oxford:

On leaving Reading the line to the West Country diverges from the mainline to the left while we continue on the mainline to Bristol, Oxford and the Midlands which continues straight ahead past the Reading train depot which can be seen to the left. To the right are the fields alongside the River Thames that every year around the August Bank Holiday weekend are host to the Reading Festival which is one of the UK's major summer music festivals. The line then turns west to follow the Thames Valley. Just west of Tilehurst station there is a glimpse of Mapledurham House to the right, sited by the river, and there are fine views of the Thames at Pangbourne. West of Pangbourne, the 18^th century Basildon Park can be seen on the left to the south west. The scenery is at its best as the line and the river, pass through the Goring Gap, with rolling hills to the south and wooded banks of the river to the north. The train crosses the river before reaching Goring and Streatley, and again shortly after, and then the landscape becomes more open as the River Thames swings away northwards. After Cholsey, the former branch line to Wallingford can be seen diverging off to the right. This is now home to the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway. On the left to the south can be seen the distant Downs that mark the route of the Ridgeway. As the line approaches Didcot, distinctive features to the north are the twin, rounded mounds of the Sinodun Hills with their Iron Age fort. At Didcot Parkway, another major junction, the Oxford line diverges to the right northwards, while the mainline to Bristol continues westwards.

On the right of the station in the centre of the triangle of lines is the old steam locomotive sheds that are now home to the Great Western Society's Didcot Railway Centre. Some Oxford trains bypass Didcot station and pass round the triangle on the far side of Didcot Railway Centre and on to Oxford. To the north of Didcot is the dominating sight of Didcot Power Station with its vast cooling towers.

While the cooling towers of Didcot Power Station dominate the view to the left, to the right eastwards there is a changing view of the Sinodun Hills. Soon we reach Appleford, which for many years boasted an original example of the GWR "Pagoda" style waiting shelters. Culham meanwhile still boasts a chalet style station of 1845, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Near the village is the site of RNAS Culham (HMS Hornbill), a Second World War airfield used by the Fleet Air Arm. The airfield now houses the Culham Science Centre, an 800,000 square metre scientific research site and home to two nuclear fusion experiments JET and MAST. The START Nuclear Fusion Experiment was also conducted on the site until MAST succeeded it in 1999. Just outside the village is the European School, Culham. Culham Institute is an offshoot of the former Culham teacher training college (Culham College). It is a small charitable research organisation associated with the Church of England and housed in the Educational Studies Department of Oxford University.

The train then makes two more crossings of the meandering River Thames and then there is a good view of the 18th century Nuneham Courtenay, set in its park high up above the curving river. From Radley station there was once a branch line to Abingdon. Looking to the right of the railway eastwards high up on the hillside can be seen the dominating form of Radley College - the famous public school. Approaching Oxford, the line runs alongside the River Thames again and to the right can be seen an iron bridge carries the Kennington branch that serves the MINI car factory at Cowley. This used to be the line from Princes Risborough but today it only survives as far as the Cowley Works. As we pass South Oxford goods yard, the Oxford suburbs now dominate, and then from Hinksey there are the first views of the famous skyline of dreaming spires and towers to the right as well as Oxford Ice Rink. Oxford station is a modern post-Modernist style building dating from 1990.

Directly opposite the railway station is the Oxford Said Business School which opened in 2001 and is built on the site of the former Oxford Rewley Road railway station. This station building was built as the terminus of the LNWR line from Cambridge. It is of historical importance because it used similar building techniques to the famous Crystal Palace. The year 1851 is remembered for its major event - The Great Exhibition - held in Hyde Park, London. To house this Sir Joseph Paxton designed a special exhibition building - "The Crystal Palace". On completion of the exhibition this remarkable building- an early example of industrial building was moved to Sydenham in South London where it was destroyed by fire in 1936. All was not lost, however, as the LNWR commissioned the same builders to construct their new station in Rewley Road, Oxford, to a similar design and using similar building techniques. This too opened in 1851 and in view of its historical significance was subsequently awarded Grade ll* listing. This former station however has been preserved and is now located at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton Road where it reopened in 2002 as a visitor centre.

Oxford is one of the great centres of European learning and has been a university town since the 12th century. The city is renowned as "The City of Dreaming Spires". Oxford is famous for Oxford University and its gothic towers and cloisters and wealth of handsome buildings. There are many buildings of interest in the city including Christ Church Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren's Sheldonian Theatre, and the 18th century Radcliffe Camera. Undoubtedly the most famous feature is the dreaming spires, colleges and quadrangles of Oxford University. However there are other attractions in this world famous university city including the River Thames, the Ashmolean Museum, the covered market and the great shopping streets - The High, Cornmarket and Broad Street. Apart from Oxford University and the famous Bodleian Library there is also Oxford Brookes University.

Oxford University’s libraries are among the most celebrated in the world, not only for their incomparable collections of books and manuscripts, but also for their buildings, some of which have remained in continuous use since the Middle Ages. Among them the Bodleian, the chief among the University’s libraries, has a special place. First opened to scholars in 1602, it incorporates an earlier library erected by the University in the fifteenth century to house books donated by Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester. Since 1602 it has expanded, slowly at first but with increasing momentum over the last 150 years, to keep pace with the ever-growing accumulation of books and papers, but the core of the old buildings has remained intact. These buildings are still used by students and scholars from all over the world, and they attract an ever-increasing number of visitors.

The Oxford Martyrs were tried for heresy in 1555 and subsequently burnt at the stake, on what is now Broad Street, for their religious beliefs and teachings. The three martyrs were the bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, and the Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.

During the English Civil War, Oxford housed the court of King Charles I in 1642, after the king was expelled from London, although there was strong support in the town for the Parliamentarian cause. The town yielded to Parliamentarian forces under General Fairfax in the Siege of Oxford of 1646. It later housed the court of King Charles II during the Great Plague of London in 1665-66. Although reluctant to do so, he was forced to evacuate when the plague got too close.

By the early 20th century, Oxford was experiencing rapid industrial and population growth, with the printing and publishing industries becoming well established by the 1920s. Also during that decade, the economy and society of Oxford underwent a huge transformation as William Morris established the Morris Motor Company to mass produce cars in Cowley, on the south-eastern edge of the city. William Morris built his first car in Oxford at Cowley Works in 1913 and today Cowley Works is home to the MINI which is owned by BMW. By the early 1970s over 20,000 people worked in Cowley at the huge Morris Motors and Pressed Steel Fisher plants. By this time Oxford was a city of two halves: the university city to the west of Magdalen Bridge (from where students traditionally jump into the River Cherwell every May Day morning) and the car town to the east.

Oxford is also famous for Blackwell's bookshop (today the publishing empire consists of Blackwell UK Ltd, Blackwell Book Services and Blackwell Publishing), and marmalade (Frank Coopers of Oxford). Today the famous Frank Coopers brand is part of Premier Foods. But you can still find Frank Coopers marmalade. Oxford is also associated with many famous literary figures and books including JRR Tolkein, Philip Pullman, Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland), Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse Mysteries), C.S. Lewis (Narnia), Kenneth Graham (Wind in the Willows), Lawrence of Arabia, P.D. James, Dorothy L. Sayers, and many more. Also Oxford has sporting traditions, as on the 6th May 1954, Roger Bannister, as a 25 year old medical student, ran the first authenticated 4 minute mile at the Iffley Road running track in Oxford.

So Oxford is a world renowned centre of learning with its two universities and famous as the "city of dreaming spires". However it also has an industrial past as well with the MINI car plant at Cowley, publishing and finally jam making etc.

Oxford to Worcester:

On leaving Oxford about 220yds north of the station, the line crosses the Sheepwash Channel which links the Oxford Canal to the River Thames. Immediately east of the current line is a swing bridge over the channel which used to carry the LNWR line to its Oxford Rewley Road rail station. This former station however has been preserved and is now located at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton Road where it reopened in 2002 as a visitor centre. The swing bridge is listed as a historic structure. The built up area east of the railway, visible across the Oxford Canal, is Jericho, a district which originated as lodgings outside the city walls where travellers could rest if they arrived after the gates were locked. Next the train passes the broad expanse of Port Meadow on the left westwards with its wild ponies and the Oxford Canal whose terminus is just by the station on the right eastwards. The former LNWR line now branches away to the north east. This line, the "Varsity Line", used to extend to Cambridge via Bletchley and Bedford. The line between Oxford and Bletchley closed to passengers in 1968 but a service to Bicester calling at Islip resumed in 1987. The line passes through Wolvercote. To the left westwards, Lower Wolvercote was a centre for paper making, mainly for the Oxford University Press from the 17th century until 1998 and is the site of Godstow Abbey, a Benedictine nunnery founded in the 12th century. To the east, Upper Wolvercote includes Wolvercote Cemetery where J.R.R. Tolkien (famous for his Lord of the Rings book trilogy) is buried and the setting of one of the gateways between universes in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials novels.

Soon the Worcester line diverges left away from the mainline to Banbury and the North. So far, the line has been close to the River Thames but the river now swings away to the south through a landscape dotted with gravel pits. Then we enter the Evenlode Valley and we cross the River Evenlode many times and arrive at Hanborough. Hanborough serves the nearby village of Long Hanborough which lies a little way to the south. In the old goods yard is the Oxford Bus Museum. To the right is the village of Bladon and its church. This is on the edge of the Blenheim Palace estate and is the burial place of Sir Winston Churchill. Blenheim Palace is the ancestral seat of His Grace The Duke of Marlborough. In January 1965 Hanborough was the destination for the funeral train of Sir Winston Churchill hauled by SR Battle of Britain class steam locomotive No. 34051 Winston Churchill. Sir Winston Churchill was buried in the nearby churchyard at Bladon on the edge of the Blenheim Palace estate. Then we reach Combe station as the river continues to follow the line. Building the line through Combe was difficult with several deep cuttings, four crossings of the Evenlode, and the diversion of a length of the river. To the south, just after the third river crossing are the remains of North Leigh Roman Villa. 0.9 miles beyond the villa, the line crosses the route of Akeman Street Roman road. Next we reach Finstock station. Between Finstock and Charlbury the large deer park to the west of the line is Cornbury Park, venue for the Cornbury Music Festival. The stately home at the centre of the park is Cornbury House, currently owned by Lord Rotherwick. The woodlands south west of the park are the remains of Wychwood Forest named after the Hwicce, one of the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Britain. The next station then is Charlbury. This is notable for the original station building, a wooden chalet-style structure in the Italianate architecture of Isambard Kingdom Brunel together with the early station nameboard this is a Grade II listed building. To the south lies Wychwood Forest. The line is now heading south west and the remains of D'Oyley Castle, built around 1129 can be seen to the north west as the train enters Ascott under Wychwood. The radio tower visible 1.8 miles south of Ascott station is at Leafield Technical Centre, a motorsport industry site, formerly the HQ of the Arrows Formula 1 team, and now the Super Aguri Formula 1 team. Sadly this team went into administration in May 2008. We quickly reach Shipton station which serves the village of Shipton under Wychwood which lies to the south. There is a memorial on the village green to 17 local people who died on the Cospatrick ship which caught fire off in the South Atlantic in 1874 on its way to Auckland, New Zealand. Only three of the 477 passengers survived. Still following the Evenlode, the line now turns again to head north west. There is another level crossing near Bruern Abbey, founded as a Cistercian monastery in the mid 12th century but which is now an Adam style country house bought in 1946 by the late Michael Astor, son of Nancy Astor. It is now Bruern Abbey School.

As we pass through pleasant rolling countryside we reach Kingham. This lies between the villages of Kingham and Bledington and is the nearest station to Chipping Norton. Just after we cross the A436 the village of Adlestrop can be seen to the right. Adlestrop once had a railway station and was immortalised by Edward Thomas'' poem Adlestrop which was first published in 1917. The railway station closed in 1966, however the local bus shelter contains a bench which was originally on the platform. A plaque on the bench quotes Thomas’s original poem which describes an uneventful journey he took on 23 June 1914 on an Oxford to Worcester express. He did not alight from the train but his poem has immortalised the village ever since.

Adlestrop

Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform, What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Then the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the Birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

A poem written by:

EDWARD THOMAS

The line then follows the route of the Fosse Way (an old Roman road) into Moreton in Marsh. The Cotswold Line at last leaves the River Evenlode which drains into the River Thames and enters the catchment of the River Severn. The first level crossing appears. The building west of the crossing is a brick works and the neighbouring pits were the site of jurassic clay extraction for the works. The village to the north is Paxford. The large country house to the west is Northwick Park, former home of Edward Spencer-Churchill and site of an American Army hospital during the Second World War and afterwards a centre for Polish refugees. The old stone village of Chipping Campden on the Cotswold Way footpath and once had a rail station. From here the line goes into cutting, then the 875yd Campden Tunnel under the Cotswold escarpment. In 1851 unrest among the navvies building the tunnel resulted in a riot - the 'Battle of Campden Tunnel'.

The next station is Honeybourne station. From 1905 to 1977 this was the junction with the GWR's Cheltenham to Stratford upon Avon line. The track to the north remains as a link to the large ex-military depot at Long Marston. The large compound to the north with high walls, chapel & floodlights is Long Lartin prison. The line crosses the River Avon into Evesham. Opposite Evesham's station is the former Midland Railway station, once on the Ashchurch & Barnt Green line. The line then crosses the River Avon again and follows it towards Pershore. The line crosses over the main Birmingham to Bristol main line and then passes through Norton Junction. The junction links this line to the main Birmingham to Bristol line.

Soon we enter Worcester Shrub Hill station. The present station building was designed by Edward Wilson and built in 1865. It is a Georgian-style building mainly of engineering brick with stone facings. Originally there was also a trainshed which was removed in the 1930s. Between this station and Worcester Foregate Street station there are fine views over the city of Worcester to the left including its famous Worcester Cathedral. Worcester Foregate Street station is the station for the city centre, cathedral and shops.

The City of Worcester lies on the River Severn. The city is most famous for its 12th century Worcester Cathedral. Worcester was the site of the Battle of Worcester (3 September 1651), when King Charles II's attempt to regain the crown by force was decisively defeated, in the fields a little to the west and south of the city, near the village of Powick. After being defeated, King Charles II returned to his headquarters in what is now known as King Charles house in the Cornmarket, before fleeing in disguise to Boscobel House in Shropshire and his eventual escape to France. Worcester was one of the cities loyal to the King in that war, for which it was given the epithet "The Faithful City".

The Royal Worcester Porcelain Company factory was founded by Dr John Wall in 1750, although it no longer produces goods. A handful of decorators are still employed at the factory and the Museum is still open. The factory's former site includes a visitor centre and the independent Worcester Porcelain Museum. The Museum houses the world’s largest collection of Worcester Porcelain. The collections date back to 1751 and the Victorian gallery, the ceramic collections, archives and records of factory production, form the primary resource for the study of Worcester porcelain and its history.

Also in Worcester is the factory that makes the city's most famous product, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. Worcester Cathedral dominates the city and the current building, formally named The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, was begun in 1084 while its crypt dates from the 10th Century. The chapter house is the only circular one in the country while the cathedral also has the distinction of having the tomb of King John.

Worcester's most famous citizen was composer Sir Edward Elgar, whose father ran a music shop at the end of the High Street; a statue of Elgar stands near the original location of that shop. His birthplace is a short way outside Worcester in the village of Broadheath. There is also the Elgar Birthplace Museum which you can visit. Every three years, Worcester becomes home to the Three Choirs Festival, which dates back to the 18th century and is credited with being the oldest music festival in Europe. The location of the festival rotates each year between the Cathedral Cities of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester.

Worcester to Hereford:

As the train leaves Worcester Foregate Street station there are further fine views over the city as we continue on our way towards Hereford. Next the train soon comes to Malvern Link station. Great Malvern station follows. To the right can be seen the distinctive ridge of the Malvern Hills. A couple of miles later, the closed Malvern Wells station appears. After the former Malvern Wells station, the line enters the 1584yd long Colwall New Tunnel. It is a rebuilt tunnel; the entrance to the old tunnel can be seen to the north. During the Second World War, the old tunnel was used by the Royal Navy to store torpedoes. When the tunnel is below the ridge of the Malvern Hills, the line passes from Worcestershire to Herefordshire. The line arrives at Colwall station. The plant next to the station is used by the Coca-Cola Company to bottle Malvern Water, a local mineral water. After the plant, Ledbury and Hereford stations end the journey on the line.

The name "Hereford" is said to come from the Anglo Saxon "here", an army or formation of soldiers, and the "ford", a place for crosing through a river. If this is the origin it suggests that Hereford was a place where a body of armed men forded or crossed the River Wye. The Welsh name for Hereford is Henffordd (or Henfordd). Hereford Cathedral dates from 1079 and contains the famous Mappa Mundi, a medieval map of the world dating from the 13th century which was restored in the late 20th century. It also contains the world famous Chained Library. Today Hereford is known chiefly as a trading centre for a wider agricultural and rural area. Products from Hereford include: Bulmers cider, beer, leather goods, nickel alloys, poultry, chemicals and cattle, including the famous Hereford breed. Hereford is also one of the host locations for the annual Three Choirs Festival, originating in the eighteenth century and one of the oldest music festivals in Europe, and it is held in Hereford every third year, the other venues being Gloucester and Worcester.