[There is a gallery of photographs at the end of this article]
The railway from Princes Risborough to Aylesbury opened in 1863 as a broad gauge line run by a subsidiary of the Great Western Railway. It extended the High Wycombe to Princes Risborough branch. The present Aylesbury station was the terminus for the branch line which had only one station – Little Kimble. In 1868 Parliament passed a law stating that all parts of the main railway network must operate on standard gauge so the GWR’s broad gauge lines had to be changed from 7 feet. The Kimble branch was chosen as a trial to see how quickly this could be done and was completed in a weekend. Some of the old rails were used for fencing and you can see parts of the fencing by the footpath crossing. The track bed is so wide because the old trackbed was retained.
There are three claims to fame for Little Kimble Station. It had its own well and a cistern could be filled by pumping water up from the well. The first flush toilets in the village were then installed in the ladies’ waiting room.
In 1914 a double killing took place at the station in a platelayers’ hut. The station boy had to cycle over to Wendover to get the police as there was no telephone at the station. An inquest in the Rose and Crown found that the two dead men had been murdered and a local man was charged at Aylesbury, found guilty and sentenced to death. His solicitors appealed to the recently created Court of Appeal and the sentence was commuted to him being detained at his majesty’s pleasure at Broadmoor.
In 1937 Stanley Baldwin was Prime Minister and he was living at Chequers. Unlike most Prime Ministers who tended to go up to London from Wendover he travelled up via Little Kimble. There was a crisis in the Conservative Party over the proposed marriage of King Edward VIII to Wallis Simpson. Baldwin spoke to the Station Master and when he returned to London on the Monday most of the rebels had dropped their support for the King. When the Times asked Baldwin why he thought this was he said, “Maybe they spoke to the station master!”
More recently President Clinton and his wife were delivered to Little Kimble Station by the Royal Train.
Below is a gallery of photographs if you click on the first thumbnail it will display the pictures – use the arrows to the sides to move through the display
