Railway Station memories (From Burnham & Highbridge Weekly News)

Railway Station memories

5:42pm Thursday 20th March 2008

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EARLY glimpses of Highbridge Railway Station are unearthed in three photographs sent in from the Highbridge History Project.

Highbridge Station opened to passengers in August 1854 as part of the Somerset Central Railway section to Glastonbury, before being absorbed into the Somerset and Dorset Railway in 1862.

Three pictures, some more than a century old, give an insight into the development of the station and how it came to be what it is today.

The first of the three photographs featured shows the Station in the 1870s, with an old steam engine pulling up to the platform.

The age of the picture is signalled not only by the men dressed in caps and suits at the station, but also by the wooden platforms the passengers are waiting on.

Photograph number two gives an overview of Highbridge Station in around 1905, where the platforms are no longer made of wood.

Advertising hoardings and privet fencing flank the station, which appears bigger and busier than thirty years previous.

The final photograph shows a group of workers building new platforms at the station in 1932.

The builders pose in the mud and stone foundations of the emerging platform - with a demonstration of their skilful craftsmanship evident on the opposite station side.

Have you got any memories of Highbridge Station in its early years? Perhaps you have some pictures of the station you want to share with readers?

To get in touch with the Weekly News about any of your memories or to send in photographs write to: Weekly Memories, Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News, Royal Clarence House, High Street, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 3AT, or e-mail: newsdesk@burnhamnews.co.uk.

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