A VOLUNTEER group in Wargrave has installed planting areas to avoid a “rather bleak” future for their train station.
About 10 residents and members of the Wargrave User Group shovelled three and a half tonnes of topsoil and pebbles on to designated planting areas on Saturday, January 10.
The installation comes as part of renovations carried out at the station by both the group and Great Western Railway, including installing the station gardens.
The volunteer group say they have been working to improve the services and overall atmosphere of the station for about 12 years.
Philip Meadowcroft, of Watermans Way, Wargrave, founded the group about 20 years ago.
He previously served as chairman, and is still a member of the group.
Mr Meadowcroft said: “Members saw the future of Wargrave station looking rather bleak.
“It was a very dull station with some very horrible equipment and it’s now a rather better one.
“We found some more money to buy pebbles and topsoil and filled a rather dank piece of land, which we did to make it seem more welcoming.”
Mr Meadowcroft added that it took the group about two hours to finish shovelling the soil and pebbles.
He said: “There were some very hardworking people on this job. I mean, to move three and a half tonnes of material in two hours, it’s a lot.”
The work was partly funded by Wargrave Parish Council and a portion of profits from the 2024 Wargrave Festival, which donated about £500 between them.
The Wargrave Festival is held every two years, with the next one being held this June.
When planting is finished, it will complete the renovation of the station approach, where about 18 families each have a small strip of land, measuring about 2m, where they can grow and maintain a wide range of plants and flowers.
This is in addition to the seven summer and winter planters along the station railings. Mr Meadowcroft said: “There are no rules, no costs, you just grow what you like. I didn’t think it was going to be at all successful but it has been remarkably so, and going for about seven years now.”
The whole area is bound by 18 x 2.4m “sleepers” or guards, which the group purchased themselves.
GWR then installed them using one of its community funds, amounting to about £1,500. The guards run along the platform on the car park side of the station.
Mr Meadowcroft said: “Our work on the station has been a very small, local effort from the parish. But, beneath it all, we’re very proud of what we have achieved. We don’t just shovel soil and move pebbles.”
The group also managed to raise about £150 themselves to put towards the planters, notably at the last Wargrave Festival Open Gardens event in 2024. The event is mainly focused on residential gardens in the village that welcome visitors for the day but a number of members are Women’s Institute stalwarts and they prepared tea and cakes for the group to sell in the station car park.
Mr Meadowcroft told of the support that the Open Gardens event has had from “guest visitors”, notably from Theresa May who attended the festival in 2022 and 2024.
He added that Norman Topsom MBE, from Henley, the former Twyford station master, also attended in 2024 and is expected to be at this year’s festival.
Mr Meadowcroft said the planting work complements GWR spending a “vast” amount of money on new motion-sensored lighting at Wargrave station in the past month.
Mr Meadowcroft said: “With the plants, the station has really come together. We’ve also got the history of the line in the shelter, so if the train is late, you’ve got plenty to read.
“It’s so important that we have a train service. I think people will usually travel as far as Twyford and forget that the Henley branch line is a remarkably successful little piece of business, particularly for the students. The carriages are pretty full, at least three times a day.
“Having the flowers and plants at the station, especially in the summertime, it’s definitely much more welcoming than it was.”
