171 years ago this week

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From "On this Day" from the Well House Collection

On Thursday, 31 August 1848, the Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette announced:

MELKSHAM CHEESE MARKET OPENING OF THE RAILWAY

The great cheese market will be held on Tuesday next, on which day the line of railway from Thingly to Westbury, passing through Melksham and thus opening up all the surrounding country to that place, will be open'd for public traffic. The great facilities which will be thus afforded to Melksham, as a place of business, will, doubtless, ensure a large supply of cheese, and a good attendance of dealers.

The opening of the rail line through Melksham was such an important achievement that some very influential men met on the first floor of the new cheese hall (what we know now is the Town Hall); not least of which was in attendance the man credited with bringing the rail through Melksham, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

A further link to the goings on at the opening - http://twhc.org.uk/train1848.html?

From "The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Swindon to Bristol Line" by Colin G Maggs ISBN 0-7509-3402-4

THINGLEY JUNCTION TO TROWBRIDGE AND WESTBURY

On 5 September 1848 the first section of the single broad-gauge Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth Railway opened between Thingley Junction and Westbury. Brunel, the line's engineer, had strong objections to facing points, especially away from stations where speed might be high, so at Thingley Junction trains had to stop and reverse into a siding before they could proceed to Melksham. The line eventually reached Salisbury on 30 June 1856 and Weymouth on 20 January 1857. The WSWR. was converted to narrow gauge in June 1874, the first in the area to be altered. Traffic grew to such an extent that the Weymouth line was doubled in the 1880s and the Salisbury branch between 1896 and 1901.

The opening of the Patney & Chirton to Westbury line on 1 October 1900 meant that Weymouth trains could use a shorter route and so traffic through Melksham decreased. Because the line connected the Bristol to Reading, and Westbury to Reading lines, it proved useful as an alternative route in the event of one becoming blocked, while the opening on 10 March 1895 of the North loop at Bradford Junction had already offered an alternative route between Bathampton and Chippenham. The local passenger service from Chippenham to Trowbridge was withdrawn on 18 April 1966, and the intermediate stations closed. The line was singled on 26 February 1967. However, increased road congestion has resulted in a passenger service being reintroduced, and Melksham station was reopened on 13 May 1985.

Dating from the gauge conversion: