Polsham

Introduction

The railway station at Polsham was a simple intermediate station on the branch of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR) from Glastonbury to Wells in the county of Somerset. On 28-August-1854 the Somerset Central Railway (SCR) opened a single-track broad-gauge (7' 0¼") line from a junction with the Bristol & Exeter Railway (B&ER) at Highbridge to a terminus at Glastonbury and this was the first section of the future S&DJR. Within four years work had begun on extending the line at both ends, with a westwards extension from Highbridge to Burnham opening on 3-May-1858 and an eastwards extension from Glastonbury to Wells opening a year later on 15-March-1859. The station at Polsham was opened subsequently in December 1861 as the only intermediate station on the Wells Branch.

Sometime after 1859 the SCR began the construction of another extension eastwards from Glastonbury, this time going towards Bruton with the aim of meeting up with the northwards expansion of the Dorset Central Railway (DCR) from Wimborne. The new Bruton extension diverged from the Wells extension about a mile north-east of Glastonbury at a location known subsequently as Wells Branch Junction. The Bruton extension was constructed as standard gauge (4' 8½") to match with the DCR, with the existing SCR system becoming mixed-gauge, and it was opened on 3-February-1862, although the entire through route to Wimborne was not opened until 1863. On 1-September-1862 the SCR merged with the Dorset Central Railway (DCR) to form the Somerset and Dorset Railway (S&DR). The broad gauge fell into disuse and was removed from the S&DR system about 1870.

In 1874 the S&DR opened its new 'Bath Extension' line from its existing station at Evercreech (which then became Evercreech Junction) to Bath Junction and in 1875 the S&DR became the S&DJR when the line was leased jointly by the Midland Railway (MR) and London & South Western Railway (L&SWR). After the Grouping of the railways of Great Britain in 1923 the S&DJR remained a Joint line, but now under the control of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) and the Southern Railway (SR), who were the successors to the MR and L&SWR respectively. The railways of Great Britain were nationalised in 1948 and in 1950 the Joint line west and north of Evercreech Junction came under the control of British Railways (Western Region) (BR(WR)). Polsham station was closed on 29-October-1951 when the entire Wells Branch was closed to all traffic.

To be completed...