The start of Butts Road (now Park Road) was renamed Station Road when the railway came to Faringdon in 1864. The station closed in 1963 and the only part of Station Road now remaining is the very short section from the Marlborough Street/ Gravel Walk crossroads up to The Swan public house at Christopher Square on the corner with Bromsgrove.
Also see our house by house tour of Station Road in the Year 2000.
See Faringdon Streets for an indexed list of all streets in Faringdon.
A Tour of Station Road in the 1900s
c1988 & 1992/3. Looking from the top of Marlborough Street. This section up to The Swan public house, the tall building on its own in the background, is still called Station Road. Turners Fishing Tackle is on the right at #4, now VIP Hair & Beauty Studio, and previously Watts (greengrocer), then Westall (baker). Next door is the new purpose-built Faringdon Fire Station with its practice tower being built, after it moved from a temporary location in Marlborough Street in 1961. On this site in the 1890’s there were extra classrooms for the school in the Lechlade Road, which were later sold to a corn merchant. In the 1930s Swindon Co-Operative Society had a hall built behind Mr Indge’s shop. The hall was still being used during the day to take the overflow from the primary school in 1960. It was also used almost every evening for meetings. Beyond are 5 terraced cottages (shown below).
c1925 Boffin’s butcher shop soon after it opened in 1923. It also was demolished to make way for the new fire station in 1961. Standing outside are Thomas Boffin and Lovell Drawbridge. Thomas’s son Lewis eventually took the business over from his father. Then together with fellow worker Harry Gill, they set up Boffin & Gill’s at premises next to the White Hart Hotel on Gravel Walk. In 1977 they moved the business to #7 London Street. Lewis left the running of the business to Harry when he retired in 1989 but it went into receivership at the end of 1993 and the premises became the current fish and chip shop.
1994/5. Closer views of the terraced cottages beyond Faringdon Fire Station with The Swan across the road in the background.
1961. Running up the centre from the bottom left corner is Station Road, Gravel Walk, then Lechlade Road. In the very bottom left corner are the terraced cottages shown above, followed by the brand new Fire Station that has just been built, so no practice tower yet.
Across the road, the large low building is the old WW1 hangar, occupied by Frank Lane’s Agricultural Engineering workshops. Other shops here were W. Absolom drapers and before that a coal yard. All now demolished in order to widen the road for better access to the new bypass. Right back to where the long row of terraced cottages on Bromsgrove remain.
c1900. Back on Station Road, a little further up and looking left into Bromsgrove is Christopher Square. The Swan Inn is on the right. On the far side of the Square is the Baptist Chapel. The next tall building to the left that looks like part of the chapel has since been demolished.
1953. Looking towards Christopher Square and Station Road from Bromsgrove. The Swan Hotel is dead ahead. The Baptist Chapel is on the right. A car can be seen passing along Station Road in front of Eagle Motors car repair workshop and stores. This used to be Clare’s Coaches. Tommy Clare started up with an ex-Army lorry at the end of WWI doing haulage and later on branched out into coach travel.
The buildings have been demolished and the side-road, now called simply Eagles leads to a new housing estate. The house to the right of the garage, with the two upper windows visible, was Elliott’s sweet shop, which was run by Mrs Long. It is the last one on a row of old cottages and had to be demolished in order to widen the road. What was left was made into a small public garden (see below).
1953. Back on Station Road. The road is very quiet and lacking in vehicles – only 1 in 10 households in the UK owned a car at this time. In the 1970s, it all had to be straightened up and made wider for when it became a main route to the new bypass. The walled garden to the right of the Swan Hotel had to be moved back. Eagle Motors opposite is boarded up and destined to become the start of the Eagles housing development. The sweet shop and low stone wall sticking out from the right is definitely in the way and therefore just had to go.
The Swan Hotel now marks the end of Station Road, since the railway station, which was further up the road, was closed in 1963. The road now continues from here as Park Road.
Continue with A Tour of Park Road in the 1900s
Trade Adverts in Local Media
The following shops and businesses were advertised in Station Road, Faringdon in the years stated:
ABSOLOM W., draper, Station Rd, FA 1907, 1914, 1915, 1919. #1?
EAGLE COACHES, T.H.Clarke, FA 1931. Eagle Line, Station Road, coach operator, FV 1972, 1973.
EAGLE MOTORS (FARINGDON) LTD., Station Rd, general engineers, FDS 1949, 1952, 1953, FCP 1953.
PUGH’S, Fish and Chips, London Street & Station Road, FCP 1953.
THE PORTWELL PRESS, Station Road, printers, FDS 1978.
TURNERS TACKLE & BAIT, 4a Station Road, FF 1991-1996, FCC 2006.
WATTS HENRY, baker (greengrocer?), FA 1904. #4
WESTALL WILLIAM, baker, Station Rd, FA 1902 was taken over by his son George. #4
Media Key: FA = Faringdon Advertiser; FDS = Faringdon Dramatic Society; FV = Faringdon Venture; FF = Faringdon Folly; FCP = Faringdon Coronation Celebrations Programme 1953; FCC = Faringdon Chamber of Commerce 2006.
References:
- The Changing Faces of Faringdon and Surrounding Villages – Bk 1 p8. By Rosemary Church, Jim Brown, Millie Bryan and Beryl Newman. Robert Boyd Publications. Now out of print.
- Faringdon Advertiser 24th July 1931 p4 – The New Faringdon Hall.
Researched by Ian Lee, December 2019.