Great Western Coffee Shop

Taking into account respective sizes, a tiny piece of railway history interests me far more than most old railway buildings. So it was with a tinge of sadness that I noticed that the arm of the road sign just west of Childrey and still saying "Challow Station" was broken. About a third of it is missing. The station closed in 1964 and whenever I cycled past it in the 70s and 80s I glanced at it with a small smile. When it is repaired  I wonder if it will retain the old name?

I suspect that it was broken by a lorry or something similar, though the thought did cross my mind that someone might have tried to remove it for their collection. Unlikely, TBH.

When a few weeks ago some of us were discussing the Victorian subway  near the Roebuck Hotel on the Tilehurst/Purley boundary, I came across a reference to a GWR boundary post being removed, eventually followed by an anonymous phone call saying that it could be found in Sulham Wood.

On a cycle ride in the 1970s I paused halfway between Basingstoke and Alton where the former railway trackbed crossed the road. Facing the road there was a sign with a notice saying something or other and I realised it was attached to the back of an original railway sign. (I can't remember the inscription.) Eventually it disappeared - to a good home, I hope.

Back in the 1960s a storm uncovered traces of the Sidmouth Harbour Railway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidmouth_Harbour_Railway) and several of the wooden piles were exposed. I took one of them home. You may regard this as rescuing it or appropriating it. I wrote an article about the harbour for the local rag, for which I got paid £1.

On a completely different note, it was around then and only yards away that I met a fantastic French girl who didn't speak English. I still have a photo of her. But you don't want to know about that.

The settlement around the site of the old station, which is quite some way from Challow, is still called Challow Station.  What other name would you use to describe the location.  So Jewsons Builders Merchant's Address is "Challow Station, Faringdon SN7 8NT"

Ah, that's interesting - and reassuring. I knew that the station site had been redeveloped but haven't passed it for some years.

I do recall either Highclere or Burghclere Station still on a road junction sign in the late 90's south of Newbury, can't remember where though to see if it's still there. Woodhay Station nearby also appeared on road signs, again can't quite remember where. I also recall a low sign lasting long after a bridge was removed somewhere in Berkshire, again my memory really isn't up to much. I should have taken more photos but you assume some things will never change.

A Reading corporation set down only bus stop remained for years in Appleford Road decades after the last bus ran down there, gone now. The terminus set down stop on the Henley Road County Boundary loop of the main road remained and was even replaced a few years back even though a single deck bus would struggle to fit down the section of road as it's so overgrown.

Ironically at the other end of the old number 25 route in Reading, the bus stop remains in the turning circle in Fords Farm but has not been used in years.   See here on Google last year.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/fordsfarm.jpg)

Meanwhile in Swindon there is a stop near me which hasn't been used in 10 years since the bus lane was removed.   It even survived the lamppost it is attached to being replaced.   The workmen duly affixed it to the replacement column.

When I still worked there a year back, Ford's Farm terminus was still used for short unscheduled turns by Reading Transport to get vehicles back on time, so I guess the bus stop is still available for use. It is a useful turning point. When the 25 was turning there every ten minutes, there was a rather unfortunate fence behind a bush that rotted a bit quicker than the others nearby.

Reminds me of the story of the soldier coming to the end of his National Service. His last ever job in uniform was painting the kerbs in his camp. In his boredom, he knocks over the can of paint which runs all over the road. After a moments panic he carefully spreads the paint all over the road and produces a large, neat white square. Several days later he is demobbed and leaves the Army. Many years later he happens to return to the very same camp and is amazed to see that his white square is still there, having been carefully repainted many times over the intervening years   ;D ;D

Looking at the sign on Google Street View, it's a modern one anyway - that's definitely a computerised typeface. https://goo.gl/maps/9DA42CSw8muyzr1y6

(Or to be precise, it's Arial... yuk. It really should be Transport Heavy and not all-caps, but highway authorities are even worse at designing fingerposts than they are at TSRGD-mandated road signs, which is saying something.)

It was, six years ago. I was going to add that to my opening post but, like you, couldn't remember which station it was. It's probably Burghclere, and I think that the buildings are now a private house, so the signpost remains as valid as that for Challow Station.

Burghclere railway station (originally named Sydmonton) was on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. It was further from the village of Burghclere than Highclere railway station but Burghclere station was relatively busy, serving the larger village of Kingsclere.

Is that clere clear?

Googling also brought up the Burghclere miniature railway (http://www.burghcleresportsclub.co.uk/miniature-railway/)

Woodhay was more convenient for Highclere village, Highclere station was in Burghclere and Burghclere station was the next to the south. I guess it was all to do with the powerful landowners but hardly helpful for a railway struggling to build passenger traffic. Woolhampton/Midgham must be a similar reason.
Both Highclere and Burghclere stations have their buildings, platforms and WW2 signal boxes remaining. Woodhay still had platforms and the WW2 signal box when I first found it in the late 80's. I remember a rave happening there a few years later. 

Clearing out some old paperwork, I came across these photographs that I took of the remains of Sidmouth Harbour Railway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidmouth_Harbour_Railway) that came to light after a cliff-fall c1968.