| Summary : A signal box at Templecombe Railway Station (NHRE number 502956) erected in 1938 as part of a station re-building scheme, altered in 1967 and 1983. It is a Southern Railway type 13 box consisting of a long ground floor housing equipment and staff accommodation, and a smaller upper storey where the operating floor is located. It is built in the International Modern Style, of brown brick with cement decorations and a flat roof with overhanging concrete canopy to the upper floor. The upper floor, which has rounded corners, has four large three-light operating windows on each side, though the original timber windows have been replaced in uPVC. The ground floor is much longer and rectangular in shape. It has four window openings facing onto the railway line; the two central ones have been blocked, and there is a doorway to the west return. Attached to the east end of the signal box is a brick-built structure with a flat-roof. The interior of the signal box has undergone alteration. Its signalling equipment originally comprised a mechanical frame manufactured by the Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. Ltd. (their 'A2' pattern type which was designed in 1924) and totalled 60 levers. The original lever-frame has been reduced in length to 16 levers (including 4 spares) at the Yeovil (east) end. Part of the interior has been converted to a ticket office. The building was assessed for listing in 2011 but failed to meet the required criteria. |
More information : The Templecombe Junction Railway was the link line which connected the separate lines of the London & South Western Railway (L&SWR) and Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR). The first railway station at Templecombe was opened in 1860 by the Salisbury & Yeovil Railway (S&YR) (NRHE number 1359751). Two years later, the Dorset Central Railway opened its own 'lower' station. However, after 1867 many S&DJR trains called only at the Upper station so in 1887 the lower station was closed (NHRE 502957) and replaced by Templecombe Lower Platform a little further south. In 1938 the station was modernised and a new 60-lever, type 13 signal box in the International Modern style, was erected.
Modern Movement signal boxes first appeared on the London Underground railways by 1933 and were used by the London Passenger Transport Board for all subsequently built signal boxes. Of the main line companies the Southern Railway was the keenest, reflecting the optimism of the Southern Electric era, and built virtually all new signal boxes in the ¿modern style¿ from 1935. None of the other companies¿ designs had quite the same ¿Odeonesque¿ style as the Southern Region 1930s designs. The first two Southern Region signal boxes were Millbrook and Southampton Central but these were built to a more usual rectangular plan with two horizontal glazing bars in the operating floor windows. In 1936 the first type 13 design was built at Surbiton. Characteristics were rounded corners and plate glass but with timber-framed windows to the operating floor. The larger signal boxes had a lower storey that extended in both directions to provide full accommodation for maintenance staff. This style of box quickly adopted the nicknames ¿Queen Mary¿ or ¿Odeon¿. By 1940 more than a dozen examples had been built to this design which is described in ¿The Signal Box¿ by the Signal Box Study Group of 1985 as ¿one of the most striking of all 20th century box designs¿.
Goods traffic at Templecombe ceased in 1965 and the Lower Platform was closed the following year. In 1966 the S&DJR route was also closed, along with the Upper station. The signal box remained operational but its original lever-frame was reduced in length from 60 to 16 levers in 1967. At some later date all the points were converted to clamp-lock operation. In 1983, in response to a local campaign, Templecombe Station was re-opened; at the same time the signal box was modified to serve partly as the ticket office.
The signal box at Templecombe Railway Station was erected in 1938 as part of a station re-building scheme, and is situated at the west end of the eastbound platform. It is a Southern Railway type 13 box consisting of a long ground floor housing equipment and staff accommodation, and a smaller upper storey where the operating floor is located. It is built in the International Modern Style, of brown brick with cement decorations and a flat roof with overhanging concrete canopy to the upper floor. The upper floor, which has rounded corners, has four large three-light operating windows on each side, though the original timber windows have been replaced in uPVC. The ground floor is much longer and rectangular in shape. It has four window openings facing onto the railway line; the two central ones have been blocked, and there is a doorway to the west return. Attached to the east end of the signal box is a brick-built structure with a flat-roof.
The interior of the signal box has undergone alteration. Its signalling equipment originally comprised a mechanical frame manufactured by the Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. Ltd. (their ¿A2¿ pattern type which was designed in 1924) and totalled 60 levers. The original lever-frame has been reduced in length to 16 levers (including 4 spares) at the Yeovil (east) end. Part of the interior has been converted to a ticket office.
Transport buildings and structures of all types form key elements in our historic environment and those dating from before 1840 are of international significance as being amongst the earliest railway structures in the world. However the 1840s saw a massive expansion in the network and rigorous selection is therefore required for buildings after c.1860: reflecting the quantity of what remains and the standardisation of design. Signal boxes have declined in numbers from 10,000 to some 700 and designation has attempted to protect a representative sample of the principal types and preference is given to examples that have minimum impact on rail safety (e.g. those on preserved sites or lines).
As set out in the English Heritage Selection Guide (2007) for Transport Buildings to merit designation, signal boxes should either represent a relatively early phase of architectural design or technological development, or should demonstrate some significant later technological novelty and innovation, or new architectural design.
One of the operators to adopt the architecture of the Modern Movement was the Southern Railway. Many of its stations and signal boxes were built in this style; Surbiton being the earliest type 13 signal box, erected in 1936. These signal boxes were adopted widely by the Southern Railway (SR), but odd examples were also used on the Great Eastern and later by the London & North Eastern Railway, and the design continued to be employed into the 1950s, albeit with power rather than mechanical frames. Post-war examples of this design survive at Streatham, South Croydon, Balham and Purley. There are currently two type-13 signal boxes on the SR that are listed: Woking in Surrey (1937, Grade II), and Horsham, West Sussex (circa 1938, Grade II). English Heritage has undertaken a Thematic List Review of Railway Structures looking at a wide variety of structures in a national context. As part of this assessment, Woking was identified the best surviving example of a type-13 box. Horsham was also considered to be a good example which had additional interest for its historic association and group value with a listed railway station. The Railway Review does not recommend any further type-13 signal boxes for listing.
The signal box at Templecombe Railway Station is understood to be the most westerly example of this type of box and its architecture reflects the characteristic features of the International Modern style including the flat concrete roof, overhanging eaves, and moulded corners. However, it has crucially lost its operating room windows. Much of the architectural interest of signal boxes lies in their fenestration, and the loss of the original timber glazing detracts significantly from the interest of the box. That said the operating floor windows at both Horsham and Woking appear to have also been replaced, and it must be acknowledeged that changes such as this are reversible.
During the mid-20th century the interior of type 13 boxes was described as being spacious and modern. In 1983, when Templecombe Station was re-opened to passenger traffic, the signal box was sub-divided to provide a waiting area and a ticket office. Although a new waiting room has since been installed on the platform, the booking office arrangements continue. Intactness is a very important consideration when assessing signal boxes for listing, and the changes that have taken place at Templecombe have significantly compromised the layout of the operating floor. In addition the original lever-frame has been reduced in length from 60 to 16 (including four spare) levers. Most of the station structures at Templecombe have been demolished, only the signal box, former mainline platforms and the goods shed (which is now in commercial use) remain from the pre-1967 period, reducing the signal box¿s group value and claims to special interest.
In summary, Templecombe signal box is not recommended for listing. Whilst it is a striking example of a signal box in the International Modern style, it is not of sufficiently early date to be notable as a mechanical signal box, and does not represent an important phase in the development of signal boxes and signalling technology. Its internal layout has been altered and the signalling equipment has been much reduced and is not sufficiently rare or intact to qualify in its own right for designation. (1) |