The rebuilding of a donated station building which is currently under construction at the Didcot Railway Centre, saw the foundations laid by a descendent of the father of the Great Western Railway.
The original Heyford station was donated to the Great Western Society in 1986, where most of the building was dismantled from its original site and transported to Didcot piece by piece, thanks to the aid of volunteers.
Heyford station building is based on a Brunel design station and it seemed fitting that Brunel's great-great-great-grandson, Jim Noble and his son Zeb came to lay the first plinth stones of the 1850 GWR style building on Wednesday 12th June at the stations new site at the Didcot Railway Centre.
Jim has been involved at several events at Didcot over the years, from leading Christmas parades often dressed up as great-great-great-grandfather complete with stovepipe hat, to participating in celebrations of the 175th anniversary of the Didcot – Oxford line.
Similar station buildings stations also existed at Aynho, Kidlington and Heyford, these style of buildings had recognisable features such as a large booking office porch, a canopy that ran right around the building being held up with cast decorative Victorian ironwork featuring a lion's head mask filling the depth of the valance. The buildings also featured a recessed section on the platform side.
Reconstruction of Heyford station came about after space became available to reconstruct the building. It was a great incentive to remove all the stored parts that were starting to become untidy and were getting in the way around the site at Didcot.
Although most of the building was saved, there were still a few parts that hadn't survived or have since been lost during its time in storage.
Preparations for the building's reconstruction began three years ago, which saw work on preparing the ground before the reinforced concrete foundations were cast and laid, along with installation of ducts and pipes. Only now has it been possible to start construction of the building its self.
The original plinth stones had to be left behind at Heyford station as they were too heavy to lift and transport to Didcot, this has meant that new stones have had to be made and cut to size, this has been done thanks to a donation from a benefactor.
The new stones have had to be made to a smaller size than the originals, this is to allow for a cavity between the two walls to allow insertion of a damp-proof course which the original building never had, though in spite of this they still individually weigh over a third of a ton each.
Work on the building's reconstruction is currently being carried out by a contractor, who will be working alongside a volunteer team from the Great Western Society over the course of the summer.
