IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Hampdens Way, OX49 5EE

Watlington Sports Ground football pitch and cricket match

Cattle grazing in the parkland of the Shirburn Estate beside the road into Pyrton from the B4009.

The B4009 has changed its identity since the M40 transit. It is now called the Shirburn Road.

The parkland around Shirburn Castle was laid out between 1780 and 1807 and includes clumps and lines of holm oak.

This is pretty representative of the whole area between Shirburn and the road to Pyrton.

Just visible through the trees are the surviving chimney stacks of the otherwise derelict station building. The open area in front was the former approach to the station and its goods yard. This was the terminus of the single track line from Princes Risborough, opened in 1872 and closed here at least by British Railways in 1957. The section from Chinnor northwards to Princes Risborough remained open for the cement works traffic originally and remains open as a heritage railway today. It was originally intended to extend the line from Watlington to Wallingford to create a link between Cholsey on the Great Western Main Line and Princes Risborough, but the connection was never made because of financial constraints. The station is some way out of Watlington and actually in the neighbouring parish of Pyrton. If the connection to Wallingford had been made the station here would undoubtedly have been moved southwards to be nearer Watlington. Some idea of the lack of traffic on the line can be judged by the fact that in its 85 years of existence few if any houses were built near the station, and it remained as isolated when it closed as it was when it was opened. Apart from the overgrown buildings the only other reminder of its existence is the Station Road name of the lane leading to it.

Please see Image for details of the station. This long corrugated shed was evidently part of the station infrastructure, possibly as a carriage shed for the terminus of the line, or possibly as a goods shed, although such a facility certainly existed on the other side of the station. More than 50 years after the station was closed completely to goods traffic at the start of 1961, and remembering that it would not have been new then, the shed roof remains in remarkably good condition.