Culham station through time
Downgrade to unmanned station and site clearance, 1966-1999
M.Hale, Courtesy of the Great Western Trust
The station on 15th May 1966
First published by O.P.C. in 1976, the book An Historical Survey of Selected Great Western Railway Stations - volume 1 by R.H.Clark includes this image from the Great Western Trust archive. This interesting book is now published by Crécy Publishing Limited. A sole passenger (or train spotter) can be seen occupying the bench on the right. The tall telegraph pole has gone, but the original shelter remains on platform 1 and the lattice footbridge still retains its roof.
Just visible on the left is a single lever frame. Above the lever one can make out the closed white gate which used to seperate the public station forecourt from the cattle pens. It is quite removed from the position of a similar gate as shown on the 1908 plan above. It is possible that it was repositioned when RNAS Hornbill was opened and the estate road to Nuneham House was closed.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
The ticket office in the late 1960s
This image is taken from a 6cmx6cm negative in our collection. Whilst dated as being in the 1960s, it is possible to deduce that this photograph was taken sometime during the latter part of that decade as there is no sign of the signal box and just visible on platform 1 is the horrible replacement waiting shed. The station still looks reasonably tidy although pretty desolate now. In this view the gate giving access to the cattle loading dock can be seen from the opposite direction to that shown in earlier photograph.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
This undated 35mm colour slide was taken by an unknown photographer. As with the previous image, it is possible to deduce that it was taken in the latter half of the 1960s. Whilst the brackets are still present, there are no fire buckets hanging from them, and the large black board above, which was visible in earlier images, has disappeared as has the signal box. There are several small notices and five large posters attached to the building, the nearest two posters being an advert for BR Seaspeed ferry services and a timetable showing Departures. Seaspeed was a joint BR/SNCF venture operating hovercraft across the channel and to the Isle of Wight. It is believed to have been formed in 1965 with the first scheduled service being in June 1966.
John Faulkner, Lens of Sutton Collection, courtesy of S. C.Jenkins
Culham Station on 19th August 1968
This photograph comes from the Lens of Sutton collection. It is particularly useful as, when compared with the 1966 view taken from almost the same spot, it illustrates (and helps to date) the changes that had taken place. The station name board is still in place, but the signal box has been demolished having been replaced by a metal fence. The telegraph pole which stood adjacent to the signal box has also been removed. It will be some years before the cattle dock area is filled in to create extra parking space though. The waiting room on platform 1 has been replaced by an ugly prefabricated shed which is obviously quite new and still clean. This view is useful as it also shows the original wooden platform fencing and the gate which would have given access to the cattle loading dock.
Unknown photographer, courtesy of N.Hardern
The Ticket Office and station in the early 1970s
The first image is known to date from the early 1970s and it gives a useful sight of the roofless footbridge and the white fencing to the left of the ticket office with the opening in it giving access to platform 2 and footbridge across to platform 1.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
The second image is taken from a 6cmx6cm negative in our collection. Whilst dated as being in the 1960s we believe that the photograph had to have been taken sometime during the early 1970s as the signal box and sidings are missing and the footbridge does not have a roof but retains its valance. It must therefore have been taken after August 1968 and before 1975. The photographer is standing beyond the platform limit and underneath the relatively new road bridge. Two figures, possibly in railway uniform, can be seen standing together with their backs to the cameraman outside the waiting shelter on platform 2, otherwise the station is deserted.
It is interesting to compare this image with the one from August 1985, later on this page, which was taken from a similar position almost opposite on the Down platform. Other than the footbridge losing its valance, very little seems to have changed during the intervening 12 or 15 years.
PictureOxon POX0126971
The Ticket Office in 1975
Two visitors survey a sad looking Ticket Office in this photograph taken by an unknown observer in 1975.
It is apparent that not a lot of maintenance has been carried out in recent years and the building has been left to rot. The presence of railway posters does show that the station is still in use however. Various flues protrude through the roof and the door to the Waiting Room is painted in a light colour which matches the window frames. On the large version of this image a pair of old ceramic telephone wire insulators can be seen on the roof just above the doorway with the broken wire left dangling and the corner of the valance appears to have been damaged by a tall vehicle. The underside of the canopy looks to be in a terrible state and the bricks and stonework are stained with algae. Close examination reveals that the glass in both panes of the window in the Ladies' Cloakroom has been smashed with the window temporarily boarded up from the inside. The window bars have been removed, presumably to facilitate its repair.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
July 1976
Dated July 1976, this 35mm slide was taken from track level, just beyond the end of the Didcot platform and provides a general view of both platforms and station buildings at the time. The remnants of the cattle dock can be seen and the large white gate which once separated the forecourt from the yard is visible. The yellow sign in the foreground is a distance marker reading 56 miles and 1 chain from datum. Measurments must have changed over time as the 56-1 marker is now located further towards Oxford on the 'new' Platform 2.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
Culham in winter 1976
Here are a series of four undated 35mm colour slides which appear to have been taken towards the end of 1976. The remnants of the broken glass seen in the 1975 view have been removed but the window remains boarded up, and the posters look to have been changed. Access to Platform 2 is to the side of the left most fence post in the final view, just out of shot. For some reason a number of the stone window sills have been painted white.
The original footbridge remains, but the signal box, brick waiting shelter on Platform 1 and the Goods Shed have long gone. The footbridge roof which is visible in the earlier images from the 1950s and 1960s was removed at some point, but the supports and valance were left in situ certainly until 1973. In the view here these too have mostly been removed as has the white wooden gate to the cattle dock, and the white wooden platform fencing has been replaced by a chain link fence with concrete posts.
It will be a few years before the new Platform 2 is built and so some hints of trackbed where the sidings were can just be made out in an enlargement of the view from the old road bridge. In the distance can be seen some of the original hangars from RNAS Hornbill, now lying within Culham No. 1 Site. On the second slide Station House can just be seen on the right behind the Ticket Office.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
25th June 1977
Not a lot seems to have happened between the series of slides above and this one which is marked as having been taken on 25th June 1977. The trees are now all in leaf and the posters have been updated, but that is about all. Although not visible from this angle, presumably the broken window has been repaired by now.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
Early 1978
This 35mm slide is marked as being taken in March 1978, and so it dates from only a few months after that above which was taken early in the summer the previous year. Although nothing seems to have changed much during the few years the above slides cover, it is apparent that the posters were changed from time to time. The dark area visible beneath the near end of the platform is where point rodding and cabling would have emerged from the signal box which, until about ten years previously, stood a few feet back from the platform edge.
Photograph © Jeremy Tilston
BR poster taken in 1979
'Have a good trip!', Inter-City poster at Culham. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tilston when he visited Culham station sometime in 1979.
The ticket office will have been closed to the public for a year or two by now, and the general air of abandonment is evident in this picture. We can see the curiously painted white window sill and green algae on the walls which is a sign of persistent damp.
An old telephone cable can just be seen crossing above the poster and entering the office throught the wooden window frame. Nobody ever seemed much bothered to remove redundant cable of any description during any of the refurbishments, including the mains cabling serving the defunct strip lights under the platform canopy. A new telephone cable had been installed at some point however and enters the building via a hole in the waiting room wall wending its way down to a modern master socket fixed to the wall. Even that was not operational as there was at least one line break which had to be fixed when Entikera moved in. There were many lengths of cut telephone cable dangling from various places outside, going from nowhere to nowhere. It was amazing how much tidier the building looked once these had been cleared away.
PictureOxon POX0134937
Culham in 1980
This unattributed photograph shows Platform 2 and the Ticket Office as viewed from the footbridge. Whilst being taken within a year of those above and below, being in monochrome, it is perhaps a little kinder to the station. Gaps can however be seen in the dagger board valance and bushes are growing behind the wooden Gents' toilet screen. The area which the cattle dock and associated trackwork once occupied now seems completely devoid of features. Just to the far end of the platform a patch of plain tarmac and a gap in the platform supporting wall indicate where the 'new' signal box once stood. The platform edge appears to have been newly painted as white paint has run over the edge and dripped onto the ballast below. The white paint on the stone bay window sill and door surrounds, together with other white 'detailing' looks very fresh too - perhaps completed as part of the same project.
A dark prefab hut or tool store can be seen at the end of the platform. We are not sure what this was used for or when it first appeared, but it is not there in the photograph from 1977.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
The Ticket Office in October 1982
This image is taken from a 35mm slide in our collection and shows the old ticket office from a slightly higher vantage point on the footbridge. The prefabricated concrete shelter is still there on platform 1, but the dark hut has disappeared from the end of platform 2.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
The Ticket Office on 12th April 1983
This image is taken from a 6cmx6cm negative in our collection. It is interesting to compare it with the similar view from the early 1970s above. Noticeable differences are the removal of some of the flues from the roof, the absence of signage and the newish wire fence with its concrete posts. Close examination also reveals that the doors facing the station forecourt have changed colour to match those opening onto the platform. The station lighting would appear to have been upgraded and the footbridge handrails are different. Although still using the original span, the height of the footbridge had been increased by the addition of short extension pieces to the tops of the cast iron support columns.
Photographs © Roger Winnen
Culham on 21st April 1983
We are grateful to Roger Winnen of the Cornwall Railway Society for making available these two photographs which he took on a visit to Culham in April 1983.
In the first photograph a stopping train, headed by an unidentified class 47, is seen drawing into the station. This image is unusual as it is one of only a few we have seen which shows a number of pasengers actually waiting for a train. The station building has been closed to the public for some time but the original platform 2 is still in use.
The second photograph shows an unidentified HST set about to pass through. The remains of the cattle dock can be seen to the right, but all associated trackwork and the signal box has long gone.
The Ticket Office in February 1984
These photographs from the Historic England archive were taken by Michael Hesketh-Roberts in February 1984. The office looks a bit sad although some tidying up has been done but old flues, such as the long one from the Station Master's office, are still visible and the building looks almost unchanged since its closure to the public.
Whilst the ticket office has not been operational for some time, the name 'Culham' still appears above the Waiting Room door and a timetable poster remains on the wall otherwise only shadows remain as an indication of where posters would have been fixed in better days. Just visible in the bay window and Waiting Room door on the platform side are two 'To Let' notices.
Duncan Hagen, author's collection
The Ticket Office in November 1984
A note on the back of this large 6½"x6" print indicates that the photograph was taken by Duncan Hagen on 7/11/1984. At the beginning of the year, in February, planning permission had been granted for the then occupant of Station House to develop the ticket office as a hobby room and for storage. This was subject to the submission and acceptance of details of a proposed gate across the entrance to the old Gent's toilet. Work would appear to have commenced as the white porcelain cistern which once served the urinals, and can be seen in previous photographs, has been removed, as has the flue pipe above what once was the station master's office. Permission to remove the wooden toilet screen was also granted but is yet to be demolished, however, the toilet entrance is now blocked off with a large piece of particle board.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
The old road bridge in August 1985
The note on the back of this photograph states that it dates from August 1985. It was taken from a vantage point on the Down platform which is no longer available to visitors as access beneath the bridge is prohibited for safety reasons, and so it provides a good reference image of the old road overbridge which can no longer be repeated. This view serves to highlight the much greater useable length of the platform at the time.
Unknown photographer, author's collection
The station in late 1987
This photograph reveals a tidy but totally deserted station. Written on the back is the date 15/9/87. The view is somewhat unusual as it has been taken from the trailing driver's cab of a DMU as it is drawing out of the station on its way towards Appleford and Didcot. The prefabricated waiting room which replaced the original building on platform 1 can be seen, and between the bridges on the right the open shelter is visible. It is not known when this shelter was demolished, but it may have survived in use until the old platform 2 was closed in 1993.
Photographs © Michael Culham,
The Ticket Office in June 1989
Mid 1989 saw a visit by Michael Culham and his wife whilst over from Canada on honeymoon, and we are grateful to him for making available some of the photographs which he took at the time. Whilst the ticket office, which by now had been out of railway use for some years, looks rather uncared for, the view of the footbridge and waiting shelter on platform 2 records a reasonably tidy but deserted scene. Earlier in the decade the height of the footbridge had been increased by the addition of short extension pieces to the tops of the cast iron support columns. The footbridge approach steps were replaced at the same time but the span itself looks to still be original.
