Oxford News
Bridge to link rail past to rail future
7:00am Thursday 23rd February 2012
One of the oldest parts of Oxford’s railway history is set to be the centrepiece of a landscaped area alongside a bridge forming part of a new Rail link to London.
The Oxford Preservation Trust has already raised £400,000 to restore the old Buckinghamshire Railway swing bridge, just north of the city’s station, to its former glory.
The bridge, built in 1851 to a design by the engineer Robert Stephenson, the man behind the pioneering locomotive Rocket, has fallen into disrepair since it was last used by a freight train in 1985.
Chiltern Railways is set to help create a landscaped space worthy of a scheduled monument, next to a new bridge carrying tracks for the firm’s planned Oxford to London Marylebone service, via Bicester.
In a document detailing designs for stations and bridges between Oxford and Bicester, the firm says: “The widening of the railway bridge over the Rewley Abbey Stream provides an opportunity to improve the setting of the Scheduled Monument and the area surrounding it.
“A landscape strategy has been developed for the swing bridge in consultation with Oxford Preservation Trust and English Heritage.”
The plans, expected to cost about £500,000, envisage footpaths, wrought iron fencing and low-growing plants to open up views of the old bridge.
Preservation trust director Debbie Dance said: “Plans by Chiltern Railways for a fast track to London are an opportunity – indeed the last opportunity – for us to restore the swing bridge and save this important bit of Oxford’s railway and industrial heritage.
“It will be great to see this area improved and, at the same time, to be able to give access and to tell the story of transport in Oxford – railway past and railway future coming together.
“Chiltern’s contribution to the project is crucial to the success of this scheme. Together with the support of Network Rail, Persimmon Homes, the Railway Heritage Trust and English Heritage, we feel confident we will raise the funds needed to make the project happen.”
Last November the fundraising drive secured a £90,000 grant from the Waste Recycling Environmental Network (Wren).
The bridge, designed to open to allow boats through, fell into disuse after British Rail stopped running trains to a coal yard at the former Rewley Road station.