Railway History
These pages contain photos and information about local railway history.
Last revenue earning train in Wells 1965.
Wells Tucker Street Station 1885.
Train arriving from Wookey date unknown.
This picture was taken at Mytholmes viaduct on KWVR approx 1980 to 1985. The tender is a narrow one from a narrow cab engine, tender no. 3305.
City of Wells Railway History
Wells is a small cathedral city and civil parish in the Mendip district of Somerset, England, on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills.
The name Wells derives from the three wells dedicated to Saint Andrew, one in the market place and two within the grounds of the Bishop's Palace and cathedral. During the Middle Ages these wells were thought to have curative powers.
Although the population, recorded in the 2001 census, is only 10,406, it has had city status since 1205.
Railways in Wells
Wells has had three railway stations. The first station, Priory Road, opened in 1859 and was on the Somerset Central Railway (later the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway) as the terminus of a short branch from Glastonbury.
A second railway, the East Somerset, opened a branch line from Witham in 1862 and built a station to the east of Priory Road.
In 1870, a third railway, the Cheddar Valley line branch of the Bristol and Exeter Railway from Yatton, reached Wells and built yet another station, later called Tucker Street.
Matters were somewhat simplified when the Great Western Railway acquired both the Cheddar Valley and the East Somerset lines and built a link between the two that ran through the S&DJR's Priory Road station.
In 1878, when through trains began running between Yatton and Witham, the East Somerset station closed, but through trains did not stop at Priory Road until 1934.
Priory Road closed to passenger traffic in 1951 when the S&DJR branch line from Glastonbury was shut, though it remained the city's main goods depot. Tucker Street closed in 1963 under the Beeching Axe, which closed the Yatton to Witham line to passengers. Goods traffic to Wells ceased in 1964.