Heritage Open Days 2024

We were very pleased that Entikera Limited (trading as Mp Fine Art Printing
Click or tap link to open a new page and visit the Mp Fine Art Printing website) agreed to open up the Old Ticket Office to the public as part of the national Heritage Open Days scheme. 2024 marked both the 10th anniversary of their moving into the building, and 180 years since it was built. The national theme of the Heritage Open Days was Routes, Networks and Connections which was particularly appropriate. The building is normally used as their office and workshop and is not open to visitors, so this offered a rare opportunity to see inside. They made space for us to display many items which are not normally kept in the building.

The offices were open between 9am and 5pm on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th September, and we were kept busy on both days as visitor numbers far exceeded our expectations. Many local publications including the Round & About magazines, the Culham Mouthpiece, Dorchester Newsletter, Abingdonblog, and the Oxfordshire Local History Association had been kind enough to promote the weekend in their August and September editions. The weather helped too and it was estimated that over 400 people visited in total, with the entire stock of the free Discovery Trail booklets running out during Sunday afternoon! It proved popular with both young and old alike. Using the booklet visitors could, amongst other things, search out our length of broad gauge rail, discover graffiti from 140 years ago and try to find the mark where a fatal shot ricocheted from the ticket counter top in 1868.

Visitors could explore the building and its surroundings where there are a few surprises waiting to be discovered. They could see the old ticket office window, original tickets dating back to the 1890s and Edmondson date punches. Many took home a souvenir ticket after having it stamped with the date and cancelled as in years gone by. Items on display in the two rooms which were open to the public also included a re-creation of Culham signalbox with genuine GWR instruments, GWR memorabilia comprising original books, staff magazines, jigsaws and uniforms; model railway items including wagons from local coal merchants; an illustrated history of Culham station featuring copies of original plans from 1843; and albums containing copies of old railway posters, original GWR paperwork and publicity leaflets.

Available in return for a voluntary donation towards its printing cost was our new 76 page A5 size full colour booklet which was first produced and published in May 2024 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Great Western Railway selling its first promotional jigsaw puzzle. The full range and backround of these puzzles spanning 1924 to 1939 is covered in the relevant pages of this website, but the booklet gathers all the information together and provides the opportunity to further expand upon certain aspects and detail. Slices of home-made gluten-free 'Railway Cake' proved to be very popular, especially so for those visitors who were gluten intolerant.

Some duplicate items from our collection were for sale, but there were many free souvenirs to take home too. These included the souvenir tickets, postcards of the Old Ticket Office, colouring sheets, balloons, vintage railway postcards and the Discovery Trail booklet of course. Freely available to download from this website are coloured sheets, in various scales, with which models of the Old Ticket Office on Platform 2 and the original Waiting Rooms on Platform 1 can be made. Free sample packs of acid free card were available for aspiring model makers and all the packs went together with over 50 sheets of foamboard.

One highlight of Sunday morning came when Royal Scot paid us a visit just before 10:30. All the visitors in the ticket office decamped onto both platforms to enjoy its passing, with others standing on the road bridge from where they could see it approach around the curve from the Appleford river bridge.

Amongst many interesting visitors there was a retired signalman who started at Culham as a lad porter before returning as a signalman, the great grandson of a station master from the 1880s, and several train drivers who said they often passed. The furthest travelled came from Sussex, and the oldest was 96. Transport included a range of vintage cars, a Rover bicycle dating from 1888 and, on Saturday, the train. All were very welcome and the event was judged to be a great success with much positive feedback being received.