GWR Route: Stratford Upon Avon to Honeybourne

Evesham Road Crossing Halte: gwr_everd928

View of the crossing and the Halte (sic) looking north towards Stratford on Avon station shortly after it opened on 17th October 1904. The unusually low platforms are constructed with timber facings in-filled with ballast all in extremely good condition. The platforms are approximately 12 inches high which is rather low for platforms and more reminiscent of the practice adopted in the early days of railways. The bolts visible to the platform facing indicates that there were similar boards at the back with the bolts passing through the ballast to tie the two together. Whilst the platforms are rudimentary in nature the provision of gas lighting on the platform demonstrates that there was a minimum standard of passenger care although whether this included shelter is unknown.

David Woodcock writes, 'It is interesting that the timber balks which keep the low-level platform surface (cinders, gravel?) in place appear to be painted white. The early timber high-level GWR halts/haltes/platforms also seem to have their platform edge planks painted white from inauguration, even when lamps were provided. It is a common misconception that white platform edges only appeared as an Air Raid Precaution associated feature in World War II. While they became much more common (but certainly not universal) in 1939, I have identified pre- Great War examples of this practice on the Great Eastern, Great Northern and London North Western Railways and on some early London tube lines. Many stations on the Isle of Wight gained white platform edges during the Great War (World War I) and, post-grouping, the Southern introduced the practice on certain platforms on electrified lines - at Waterloo and Victoria for example'.

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