By Nick McCamley A thoroughly researched, well written and truly fascinating account of this diminutive Wiltshire community situated on the River Avon, Kennet and Avon Canal and Railway between Bradford on Avon and Bath. Particularly strong on social and industrial history.
A lot has happened at Avoncliff Halt since the West Wiltshire Railway Users Group appeared in 1989: then we had an average of 8 ‘on request’ (of which more later) trains a day in each direction. There were no shelters, no information points, no seats, and (though we didn’t know it at the time) no … Read more
When the railway was constructed it consisted of a single broad gauge track, the width being 7ft 1/4inch, though the cuttings, embankment and ballast were all built to take a double track of broad gauge. It was planned to open the 91/2 mile track from Bradford junction to Bathampton on 20th January, 1857, but upon … Read more
The Old Court, a square horseshoe-shaped building facing north towards the river and situated at the western end of Avoncliff, was built as a group of weavers’ cottages during the late 18th century. Over the years, The Old Court has changed use from the Bradford Union Workhouse from 1836 to 1914, a convalescent home for the wounded soldiers during the 1914 Ð 18 war, a residential hotel known as the Old Court between 1922 and 1948 and a conversion to 14 self-contained flats from 1952 to 1987 when it was eventually developed into 12 separate houses and changed its title to Ancliff Square the name it holds at the change of the millennium.
