Holt Junction railway station

Holt Junction
Location
Place	Holt
Area	Wiltshire
Operations
Original company	Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Platforms	2
History
1857	Opened
1966	Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
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Devizes Branch
Legend
Wessex Main Line Holt Junction Semington Halt Seend Bromham and Rowde Halt Devizes Pans Lane Halt Patney and Chirton Reading to Taunton line

Holt Junction (formerly just Holt Station) was the railway station serving Holt in Wiltshire, England. The station was a stop on the Wessex Main Line and primarily the first station on the west side of the Devizes Branch Line, going on to Semington Halt.^[1]

Holt station was a stop on the London to Westbury line. But in the 1857 it was changed to Holt Junction after the formation of the Devizes Branch line, of which it was the first stop on the line. After the completion of the Devizes line, the junction at Holt allowed the fastest route from London to the West Country. However the Devizes line lost to competition and returned to a branch line in 1900.

The North Wiltshire Dairy Company had a creamery with private siding access to the station. Taken over by Nestlé, milk trains were dispatched via the GWR and latterly British Railways to London on a daily basis.^[2]

Closure

Much like the Devizes station, Holt Junction suffered from reduced traffic after the completion of the Chirton-Westbury line, that by-passed Devizes to reduce the London to Bristol journey time by 5 miles.

Holt Junction station and the entire Devizes Branch Line were closed under the Beeching cuts, the official date of closure being Monday 18 April 1966. Both Holt Junction and the Devizes Branch Line were removed in 1970.

See also

• Devizes Branch Line
• Devizes Station

References

1. See Holt Magazine, "Holt Junction" (1966, Magazine Supplement) and "A Last Look at Holt Junction for Devises Branch" (1967, Magazine Supplement).
2. "Gillespies Report" (PDF). Wiltshire County Council. Retrieved 2012-01-25.

Coordinates: 51°21′13″N 2°11′05″W / 51.35361°N 2.18482°W