Worcestershire - Honeybourne

Honeybourne is a village in the Vale of Evesham 3½ miles to the east of Badsey.

In September 1915, Jack Sladden was travelling from Evesham to London on the train and passed through Honeybourne and Blockley.  He mentioned some fellow passengers who had omitted to change at Honeybourne for Birmingham.  These days it is no longer possible to travel from Honeybourne to Birmingham by train but, until the 1960s, one could.

Honeybourne station was opened in 1853 by the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway (later part of the Great Western Railway) on the line from Oxford to Worcester.  The station became a junction in 1859 with the opening of a 9½ mile link to Stratford-upon-Avon, which was continued south to Cheltenham by 1906.  The single track from Honeybourne to Stratford was doubled in 1908, shortly before the route took on main line status with the routing of express passenger trains between Birmingham Snow Hill and Bristol Temple Meads via the newly-opened North Warwickshire Line.

British Railways closed the station in 1969 on the last day of services between Stratford and Cheltenham.  But, with increased use of the Cotswold Line from Worcester to London, the station was reopened in in 1981 with a single platform.  Work completed in 2011 saw this part of the line restored to double track and the station enlarged to two platforms.