Didcot Parkway

[bramling]

To keep this thread moving, would contributors now like to consider Haddenham and Thame Parkway?

That one’s easy - “Haddenham for Thame”.

 

[didcotdean]

Local councils at various levels in the past have tried to get the Parkway suffix removed at Didcot because of the false perception in the minds of many that a Parkway station is well away from the location it is named for. The excuse given by the railway is that this would be too expensive and complicated etc, although of course a name change has been effected at Bicester where it suited.

Historically the station was constructed in the middle of nowhere being some distance away from the village more often then spelt Dudcote (population 141), and was at the end of a short spur road to connect with the Wallingford-Farringdon turnpike (the present day Broadway). The immediate area even south of the station was still largely undeveloped until after the Second World War - the link is to an aerial photo from 1928.

 

[HowardGWR]

Swindon should really be called Swindon Parkway as the lovely old hill top town is a mile away or more. On the same basis one could call Temple Meads - 'Bristol Parkway'.

 

[Gwenllian2001]

Port Talbot must be the silliest application of Parkway, being in the town centre. I've never heard anyone use the title except p.a. announcements. For everyone else it remains simply 'The Station's.

 

[yorksrob]

When the Bee Gee's sing "living it up, on the nights on Broadway", for some reason I always hear "Living it up, on Didcot Parkway".

Quite ironic as on the occasions I had reason to change there in the early noughtoies, the buffet had been refused a license !

 

[jimm]

It perhaps should be remembered that when Didcot was renamed Didcot Parkway, it really was nowhere particular. Didcot itself was just a scrappy little settlement. As others here have pointed out, except for it being a junction, it was the arrival of car plus train commuting from the wider area that gave the idea.

A scrappy little settlement?

The station name got Parkway added in 1985. The population of Didcot according to the 1981 census was already 15,000 and growing, so not exactly on the 'little' side.

People had been coming in from places like Wantage in their cars a long time before 1985, even before HSTs first turned up. Adding Parkway was largely a marketing ploy to emphasise the expansion in car parking provision and the new station building.

 

[The Planner]

Local councils at various levels in the past have tried to get the Parkway suffix removed at Didcot because of the false perception in the minds of many that a Parkway station is well away from the location it is named for. The excuse given by the railway is that this would be too expensive and complicated etc, although of course a name change has been effected at Bicester where it suited.

It suited because someone paid for it, ie; a massive outlet village.

 

[didcotdean]

The local councils have poured money into the Didcot Parkway area over the years, money in some cases diverted from other schemes planned for Didcot that are still unbuilt, eg a dedicated pedestrian and cycle tunnel under the railway near Cow Lane. Should have insisted on the name change I suppose before doing this.

 

[didcotdean]

When the Bee Gee's sing "living it up, on the nights on Broadway", for some reason I always hear "Living it up, on Didcot Parkway"

Broadway in Didcot was really named after the one in New York in the 1930s. As the old turnpike it had been variously known as Harwell Road and Wantage Road in different parts and a unified and separate name was thought desirable as it was developed. Not many places along it to live it up though ...

 

[Andyjs247]

It suited because someone paid for it, ie; a massive outlet village.

It didn’t and doesn’t suit the town of Bicester being overwhelmingly rejected when it was put to a public consultation. Yet money talks!

 

[edwin_m]

Then there was Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway, similar to Haddenham in that it's actually in Alfreton but linked by the A38 to Mansfield so probably the least inconvenient station for that town up until opening of the Robin Hood Line. It then returned to being called Alfreton, as it was before it closed in the 60s. Is this the only Parkway station to have lost the name?

 

[yorksrob]

Broadway in Didcot was really named after the one in New York in the 1930s. As the old turnpike it had been variously known as Harwell Road and Wantage Road in different parts and a unified and separate name was thought desirable as it was developed. Not many places along it to live it up though ...

I do like the fact that its all interlinked though !

 

[jimm]

It suited because someone paid for it, ie; a massive outlet village.

That's simply not true - Chiltern Railways chose to do it.

A Bicester Village spokeswoman said it was Chiltern Railways' decision and that no money had changed hands.

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11...ter_Village_after_Chiltern_Railways_decision/

 

[The Planner]

Someone still paid for it regardless.

 

[jimm]

Yes - Chiltern Railways, as a result of the decision that the company took.

 

[Reliablebeam]

I've learnt some interesting things from this thread!

I'm not totally conversant with the history of the area but you can see from the location of the old farmhouses and the Victorian buildings around Didcot town that the station can't really have been in the town (village?) centre when built. The centre of gravity is of course totally shifted now towards the station but this seems to be a fairly recent thing. Didcot has of course also absorbed a few villages in it's expansion and I suspect will have to do so again given the demand round here - the residents of the now rather affluent surrounding villages are going bonkers about some of the proposed developments. I don't really know what's best here - at the end of the day Didcot has the train station, a feature sadly lacking in Abingdon, Wantage and some of the other larger villages and towns round here, some of which receive a less than stellar bus 'service'.

 

[jimm]

There wasn't much of anything at all in the vicinity when the first GWR station was built at Didcot.

The description in The Illustrated Guide to the Great Western Railway, by George Measom, published in 1852, has the following to say about Didcot - illustrated by an engraving of the then station, which I think was later destroyed by a fire:

As for the village itself, it requires but very little description; for, with the exception of a quaint old church, worth a glance - and that is all - an ancient rood or churchyard-cross and a few gabled, pretty cottages, there is nothing worthy of notice. The village, however, has been greatly increased since the establishment of a large station here.

The book is well worth tracking down in the 1983 facsimile edition published by Berkshire County Library service if you want a snapshot of the GWR and the places it served in the mid-19th century.

 

[didcotdean]

Didcot hasn't really absorbed any 'ancient' settlements of any size, although it abuts Harwell and East Hagbourne fairly closely, and individual old farmhouses have been built around. Until the First World War development was mainly because of the presence of the railway, but it wasn't that extensive. There was a cluster of houses plus the two pub/hotels built around the station which are visible in the photo I linked to. Many of the old half-timbered houses in the village itself were replaced by bigger ones (a few survived). The GWR itself built the workers' houses up Station Road. 'New Town' (later known as Northbourne) was built south of the turnpike by local landowners and speculative builders - formally incorporated into Didcot in 1935. The real expansion was the coming of the Army and the ordinance depot.

 

[kevjs]

To keep this thread moving, would contributors now like to consider Haddenham and Thame Parkway?

Was wondering about that one - back in the 1990s visiting family in that area we'd nearly always end up going to Didcot Parkway with it's shiny new trains (Networkers) rather than Oxford (which was where we'd arrive coming from the North West) with the odd London trip from Goring & Streatley - but nowdays all the extended families journey's (north or south) are via Haddenham and Thame Parkway - presumably it's improvements in the Chiltern Mainline and cheaper costs that have made that more attractive over the years?

 

[ian1944]

On the other hand, Horwich Parkway does have a dual use. Cars from the area are parked while their users go to such as Manchester, and the station handles passengers patronising the nearby Middlebrook retail/leisure/business park and the BWFC stadium.

 

[Sheddyone]

Then there was Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway, similar to Haddenham in that it's actually in Alfreton but linked by the A38 to Mansfield so probably the least inconvenient station for that town up until opening of the Robin Hood Line. It then returned to being called Alfreton, as it was before it closed in the 60s. Is this the only Parkway station to have lost the name?

Sandwell & Dudley Parkway dropped it's Parkway shortly after opening.

 

[Taunton]

Bristol Parkway is hardly in the middle of nowhere. It's surrounded by housing estates and offices

It is now, it wasn't when it was built. It was unusual in an existing main line, Paddington to South Wales, just touching the edge of a major metropolitan area but having no station there. The station, and the adjacent motorway junction, have together drawn most of the expansion of the urban area all around them. Diversion of the Bristol-Birmingham line through the station, which happened while it was at the planning stage, was a double benefit. It was a WR initiative, and initially was built very cheaply to come in under a price where they would have had to get BR HQ approval for the investment. It is now up in the top group in the West of England for revenue.

Although built for long distance traffic, one of the largest flows now is commuting to Bristol Temple Meads, which was never envisaged when the station was designed.

 

[gallafent]

(re Bicester Town -> Village) Yes - Chiltern Railways, as a result of the decision that the company took.

Exactly. It was a completely pragmatic decision at that. A /lot/ of the traffic on the trains which stop there consists of tourist-shoppers ( ), and since the two endpoints of the line (Oxford and London) are also quite popular among same group of tourist-shoppers, highlighting that these are the trains you need to get from London by having “Bicester Village” on the information boards at Marylebone (and Oxford) is a no-brainer. Likewise the on-board automated announcements (for Bicester Village only) being made in English, Arabic, and Mandarin is a pragmatic move to improve the experience of those passengers most likely to need audio announcements (since reading station signs and on-train matrix displays written in the Latin alphabet is more difficult when it's not your first writing system!).

As an aside (and more parkway-related ), I really think that Oxford should be renamed Oxford Central (or maybe Hauptbahnhof ) now that there's an Oxford Parkway, … and with the possibility of futher “Oxford” stations appearing in the not too distant future should the Cowley branch be reopened to passenger traffic (“Oxford Business Park”, “Oxford Science Park”, … come to think of it, perhaps we could rename the main station “Oxford University Business School” )

 

[MarkyT]

As an aside (and more parkway-related ), I really think that Oxford should be renamed Oxford Central (or maybe Hauptbahnhof ) now that there's an Oxford Parkway, … and with the possibility of futher “Oxford” stations appearing in the not too distant future should the Cowley branch be reopened to passenger traffic (“Oxford Business Park”, “Oxford Science Park”, … come to think of it, perhaps we could rename the main station “Oxford University Business School” )

I don't think that's necessary. To me, that there is no qualifier indicates it is the primary station for the city already. It is other stations that claim the city name that need extra detail about position or function. If a different name was desired Oxford station could claim to be Central, but I prefer Main or perhaps Prime.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Didcot hasn't really absorbed any 'ancient' settlements of any size, although it abuts Harwell and East Hagbourne fairly closely, and individual old farmhouses have been built around. Until the First World War development was mainly because of the presence of the railway, but it wasn't that extensive. There was a cluster of houses plus the two pub/hotels built around the station which are visible in the photo I linked to. Many of the old half-timbered houses in the village itself were replaced by bigger ones (a few survived). The GWR itself built the workers' houses up Station Road. 'New Town' (later known as Northbourne) was built south of the turnpike by local landowners and speculative builders - formally incorporated into Didcot in 1935. The real expansion was the coming of the Army and the ordinance depot.

So, Didcot *was* a Parkway station when built* - but the name implied a proper settlement - only to earn the ephithet "Parkway" when it became the centre of a small, but significant, town.
True Irony.

* Perhaps at the time it was more of a "Horse + Carriageway"

 

[70014IronDuke]

...
As an aside (and more parkway-related ), I really think that Oxford should be renamed Oxford Central (or maybe Hauptbahnhof ) now that there's an Oxford Parkway, …

Someone will come along in a minute and suggest an even more novel "Oxford General".

 

[HowardGWR]

Someone will come along in a minute and suggest an even more novel "Oxford General".

Well, I was about to, naturally -see my username, but you saved me the trouble.

 

[70014IronDuke]

...
Although built for long distance traffic, one of the largest flows now is commuting to Bristol Temple Meads, which was never envisaged when the station was designed.

Is it? I didn't know that. Any idea of the proportion of users? ARe they local, or do they drive in from distance and park? Would be interesting to look back at the original forecasts for usage back in the planning, I bet!

 

[didcotdean]

The issue in Didcot is currently from people increasingly parking in roads all round the town for the railway instead of using the car parks, especially in Cow Lane and the residential streets off it.

 

[DidcotDickie]

The issue in Didcot is currently from people increasingly parking in roads all round the town for the railway instead of using the car parks, especially in Cow Lane and the residential streets off it.

Yes, and not helped by the limited capacity of the temporary Foxhall car park. When the new one opens this should alleviate capacity but I suspect that (a) parking charges will rise to pay for it and (b) people will have got used to 'free' on-road parking. Given that outside the Controlled Parking Zones in Oxford, enforcement is practically non-existent, I don't see this problem being resolved anytime soon.