How Highworth got its railway
By the 1870s Swindon was booming and Highworth, up on its hill, wanted a share. The town's answer was to build a railway of its own — though the dream very nearly didn't survive.
A town with big plans
The Swindon & Highworth Light Railway Company was formed in 1873, and Parliament gave its blessing in June 1875. The plan was a modest single-track "light railway" — built cheaply, with gradients as steep as 1 in 40 and tight curves, because that was all the little company could afford. It set out to raise its money by selling shares to local people.
Money troubles
Things went wrong almost from the start. Bad weather and a struggle to raise funds meant the first sod wasn't cut until March 1879 — four years after the Act. And when the Board of Trade inspected the finished line in 1881, it refused to let it open without expensive improvements that the little company simply couldn't pay for. As one local historian put it, the railway went bust before a wheel had turned.
The Great Western to the rescue
In July 1882 the company was taken over by the mighty Great Western Railway, which finished the job properly. A second inspection on 30 April 1883 found nothing to complain about, and on 9 May 1883 the first passenger trains finally ran. Highworth had its railway at last — ten years after the idea was born.
The route and its stations
The branch left the Great Western Main Line at Highworth Junction, about a mile east of Swindon station, and climbed five and a half miles north-east through farmland to the terminus below Highworth's hilltop. There were four stations along the way.
Stratton
First stopThe first stop out from the junction, serving the village of Stratton St Margaret. It kept handling goods traffic right up to the end of the line's life.
Stanton
Country halt Walkable todayA quiet country stop whose busiest years came in wartime. Today its old trackbed runs along the western edge of Stanton Country Park — one of the loveliest places to walk the route.
Hannington
Wooden stationA small wooden station with a little goods yard. Much of its traffic was agricultural — milk above all. The front edge of its platform can still be found today, poking through the grass.
Highworth
TerminusThe end of the line: a single platform and a small station building at the foot of the town. It opened with the line and outlasted every other station, with trains calling until 1962.
Curious where the platforms stood? Skip ahead to what survives today.
What the trains carried
This was never a glamorous railway. It was a working country branch, and what it worked hardest at was carrying the produce of the farms around Highworth down to Swindon and the wider world.
Milk above everything
Milk was the branch's most important cargo. Local histories record up to five milk vans — "Siphons", as the Great Western coded them — coupled to the rear of the morning passenger train. Highworth milk joined the great flow of churns the GWR carried from the West Country's farms every day.
Passengers and parcels
Passenger trains shuttled townsfolk down to Swindon for work, shopping and the main-line connections, with agricultural goods, coal and parcels filling the goods yards along the way.
Industry arrives
In the early twentieth century the branch grew busier as industrial sites sprang up along it, including a Brunner Mond munitions factory opened in 1916 during the First World War. The country branch was quietly becoming a workhorse.
The railway at war
The branch line's finest hours came in wartime, when this sleepy country railway suddenly mattered a great deal.
Spitfires at South Marston
In 1941 a new spur was laid from the branch at Kingsdown Road to serve the Vickers-Armstrongs aircraft factory at South Marston, where Spitfires were built. The junction got its own signal box in 1942. Special workers' trains ran to a factory platform with an art deco concrete shelter from 1941 to 1944, and again briefly from December 1956 to June 1957.
Army camps at Stanton
Little Stanton station saw its peak traffic between 1939 and 1941, shipping in coal and equipment for the Vickers works and handling post and supplies for army camps in the surrounding countryside.
Workers for Swindon Works
Throughout the war and long after, the branch carried Highworth people to their jobs "inside" — at Swindon's great railway works. These workmen's trains became the line's lifeline, and they would be the very last trains it ever ran.
The last trains
Like so many country branches, the Highworth line faded after the war as buses and cars took its passengers. But it took a long, fond goodbye.
Goodbye to passengers, 1953
Public passenger services ended with closure from 2 March 1953, the last public trains running at the end of February. But the line didn't fall silent: unadvertised workmen's trains kept running for Swindon Works employees, who travelled free.
The final train, 1962
The last workmen's train ran to Highworth on the rainy evening of Friday 3 August 1962, and the line beyond Kingsdown Road Junction closed officially on 6 August. After nearly eighty years, Highworth was a railway town no more.
A lingering stub
The lower two and a half miles hung on a little longer, serving the former Vickers factory branch until June 1965 and the Plessey works until July 1966. A short vestigial stretch near Highworth Junction survived in industrial use, latterly alongside a metal recycling yard.
Key dates
The whole story at a glance — from hopeful beginnings to the rainy night the last train ran.
- 1873
Swindon & Highworth Light Railway Company formed by local promoters.
- 1875
Act of Parliament authorises the line in June.
- 1879
First sod finally cut in March, after years of delay over money and weather.
- 1881
Board of Trade refuses to pass the finished line; the company cannot afford the fixes.
- 1882
The Great Western Railway takes over the bankrupt company in July and completes the line.
- 9 May 1883
The branch opens to passengers, with stations at Stratton, Stanton, Hannington and Highworth.
- 1916
Brunner Mond munitions factory opens beside the line during the First World War.
- 1941
Spur built at Kingsdown Road to the Vickers-Armstrongs Spitfire factory at South Marston; workers' trains begin.
- 2 March 1953
Closure to public passengers — though free workmen's trains to Swindon Works carry on.
- 3 August 1962
The last workmen's train runs to Highworth on a rainy Friday evening; official closure follows on 6 August.
- 1965–66
The remaining stub closes: Vickers branch traffic ends in June 1965, Plessey factory traffic in July 1966.
What survives today
Walk the fields between Swindon and Highworth and the old railway is still there if you know where to look. Most of the route can still be traced — and much of it makes a lovely walk.
Stanton Country Park
Country park WalkThe easiest place to walk the old line. The trackbed of the Swindon & Highworth Light Railway runs along the western side of this 74-hectare country park and nature reserve, with woodland, a lake and a ranger centre nearby. Old rails have even been found along the route here.
Hannington's lost platform
RelicIn a patch of rough ground near Swanborough, the front edge of Hannington station's platform still pokes through the grass. Walkers exploring the route have also spotted old bridge-rail fencing posts and a mile post.
Highworth station site
Town trailThe terminus itself vanished under housing as the town grew, but its alignment can still be traced from Station Road through the Windrush development. Best of all, the original station sign survives — it's on display at the Highworth Community Centre.
Sources & credits
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highworth_branch_line
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highworth_railway_station
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannington_railway_station
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanton_railway_station
- https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol4/pp280-293
- http://www.highworth.freeuk.com/history.htm
- http://highworthhistoricalsociety.org.uk/highworth-light-railway/
- https://www.gps-routes.co.uk/routes/home.nsf/routeslinkswalks/stanton-country-park-walking-route
- https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3314220
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Highworth_station,_1950_(geograph_5160164).jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Disused_station_platform,_Hannington_Station_(Highworth_Branch_Line),_near_Swanborough_(geograph_3314220).jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trackbed,_Swindon_and_Highworth_Light_Railway,_Stanton_Park,_Swindon_(1)_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1526415.jpg
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Information compiled June 2026 — please check details with venues before travelling.