Nailsea and Backwell Railway Station - History

History

The first section of the Bristol and Exeter Railway's (B&ER) main line opened on 14 June 1841 between Bristol and Bridgwater. Opened as "Nailsea", it was for a while the first station on the line west of Bristol, the next being Clevedon Road (which was renamed Yatton in 1847). The line, engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was built as 7 ft 1⁄₄ in (2,140 mm) broad-gauge but it had been reconstructed as a mixed-gauge line to accommodate local 4 ft 8 1⁄₂ in (1,435 mm)-gauge traffic by 1 June 1875. Services were operated by the Great Western Railway (GWR) on behalf of the B&ER until 1 May 1849. The B&ER then took over its own workings until the company was amalgamated into the GWR on 1 January 1876. Broad-gauge trains ceased operation on 20 May 1892.

Due to its being built on an embankment, lightweight building materials were used for the station: the platforms originally rested on timber supports for most of their length. Station buildings, including a goods shed and a combined ticket office and waiting room, were built on the eastbound platform in the 1860s. There was a signal box on the eastbound platform by the 1880s which controlled a crossover between the two tracks; sidings at the west end of the station were controlled by a second signal box, and had a connection to the Nailsea Colliery. A footbridge, built by E. Finch and Co. of Chepstow, was erected in 1907; until then access between the two platforms was by a track-level crossing. The station was renamed "Nailsea and Backwell" on 1 May 1905.

When the railways were nationalised in 1948, the GWR became the Western Region of British Railways. Goods traffic from the station ceased on 1 June 1964. The main station buildings had been demolished by the 1980s but their foundations can still be seen behind the shelters on the eastbound platform. The shelter on the westbound platform was still present in 1986. In the 1980s the car park was expanded, and new metal and glass shelters were provided. The station reverted to the name "Nailsea" on 6 May 1974, and was still known by that name at the end of 1994.

British Rail was split into business-led sectors in the 1980s, at which time operations at Nailsea and Backwell passed to Regional Railways. Local services were franchised to Wales and West when the railway was privatised in 1997, which was in turn succeeded by Wessex Trains, an arm of National Express, in 2001. The Wessex franchise was amalgamated with the Great Western franchise into the Greater Western franchise from 2006, and responsibility passed to First Great Western, a subsidiary company of First Group.

Extra seating was provided in 2006 following action by the Severnside Community Rail Partnership, and in 2008 overgrown foliage was cleared from the car park to improve sightlines and help with security. The station was repainted at the same time, and decorated with silhouettes of students from Backwell School.