Bengeworth Railway Station - Railways of the Vale of Evesham

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Railways of the Vale of Evesham
Bengeworth
Bengeworth Station, looking north (26th August 1947).  LMS 2-6-4T no. 2326 heads an Ashchurch train (W A Camwell?)
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Opened in 1864, the station was located in the Hampton district of Evesham, just south of the main Evesham to Pershore Road, and just west of St Andrew's Church.  The railway crossed the road by means of a girder bridge before arriving at the station.  

Despite its location, the station was not named “Hampton” but “Bengeworth” as the railway already had a “Hampton” station on the line between Birmingham and Derby, and wanted to avoid any confusion this might cause.  The choice of name didn’t go down well with the local residents, especially as the actual Bengeworth area of the town was some distance away to the east, but attempts to get the station renamed were unsuccessful, and the name was kept throughout its existence.  

The station had two platforms, with the main station buildings on the down (east side) platform, and was initially intended more for passenger use, rather than freight.   However, with the abundance of orchards in the land to the south of the station providing produce that would require transport out the area, it is not too surprising that the Midland Railway added freight facilities to the station three years after it was originally opened, in 1867, and these were also located on the east side of the station complex.  A signal box was sited at the south end of the down platform.    

The station closed in June 1953, and housing was subsequently built on the site.  The trackbed to the north of the station became an access road to a water treatment facility.   

[An abridged version of this article was published in the "Evesham Observer" newspaper of the 31st March 2017.  The photograph used in this article was not the one above, but one supplied to my late father John Kyte for use in his book about Sir Henry Fowler, and I am not authorised to use it here.]
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