1966 was a happening year for Britain. England won the World Cup, The Beatles topped the charts with We Can Work It Out, and Carnaby Street was leading the way for the fashionistas of the Swinging Sixties. Unfortunately, it was far from a happening year for the tiny village of Adlestrop in Gloucestershire, which lost its railway station as part of the brutal Beeching Cuts, part of a massive overhaul of the country’s railways. However, this charming country station has been immortalised in the poem Adlestrop by Edward Thomas, written during a journey undertaken by the poet in June 1914.
If the wording of the poem is anything to go by, underuse of the station was a likely reason for the closure:
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop – only the name
The poem goes on to describe the flora and fauna around the station, consisting of willows, willow-herb, grass and meadowsweet, and a singing blackbird, with the poet imagining it being joined by all the birds of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
Adlestrop village - geograph.org.uk - 2499726. Photo by Michael Dibb, via Wikimedia Commons.
Adlestrop lies at the eastern extreme of the Cotswolds, near the border with Oxfordshire. The famous Daylesford Organic farm shop is just to the south, and Moreton-in-Marsh is a couple of miles north-north-west. The station was opened in 1853 on what is now called the Cotswold Line (Moreton-in-Marsh is on the same line, and still retains its station) but was originally part of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway. The parish church of St Mary Magdalene dates from the 13th century, but was rebuilt around the mid-18th century.
The other notable building in the village is Adlestrop Park, a Grade II listed building built by the Leigh family in the 18th century. The house was used as a school for a time, but this closed in 1989. Jane Austen was a regular guest at the Rectory in Adlestrop, and it is believed that Adlestrop Park was the inspiration for Mansfield Park. The house is now privately owned.
Adlestrop House - geograph.org.uk - 2485976. Photo by Michael Dibb, via Wikimedia Commons.
Map of the area.
