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Varsity Line

1846 establishments in EnglandEngvarB from October 2013Rail transport in BedfordshireRail transport in BuckinghamshireRail transport in Cambridge
Rail transport in CambridgeshireRail transport in Milton KeynesRail transport in OxfordshireRailway lines in the East of EnglandTransport in Oxford
Bletchley railway station 1833441 f81b42a2
Bletchley railway station 1833441 f81b42a2

The Varsity Line was the main railway line that linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated by the London and North Western Railway. In World War II, the line became a strategic route for freight avoiding London, and additional connections were made to nearby lines to improve it, but was not greatly used for its intended purpose. After the war, the line was again scheduled to be developed as a strategic route, but that scheme was never fully implemented either. Passenger services were withdrawn from most of the line on 1 January 1968, and only the Bletchley–Bedford section remained open for passenger traffic. In 1987, the section between Oxford and Bicester was reopened, followed in 2015 by a connection to the Chiltern Main Line at Bicester, enabling Chiltern Railways to operate an Oxford to London passenger service. There are funded plans for the entire line to be re-established by the mid 2020s, partly on a new route and under a new name – East West Rail.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Varsity Line (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.968 ° E -0.818 °
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MK17 0PL , Mursley
England, United Kingdom
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Bletchley railway station 1833441 f81b42a2
Bletchley railway station 1833441 f81b42a2
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Nearby Places

Mursley
Mursley

Mursley is a small village in and also a civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about three miles east of Winslow and about seven miles south west of Central Milton Keynes.The village name is Old English in origin, and is thought to mean 'Myrsa's woodland clearing'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Muselai, with the form Murselai being attested from the thirteenth century.The village was at one time a more important place; it was once a market town, by virtue of a royal charter granted in 1230, and the centre of the local deanery. "The prosperity of the town continued until well into the 17th century" but around the middle of the 18th century, Mursley was described as having "dwindled into a neglected village', being 'small and depopulated', the parish having about 66 families and 258 souls."There was at one time a manor in the locality called "Salden", within which stood a manor house built by the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1589 until 1603, John Fortescue of Salden (1531–1607). The manor house was visited by King James I and Anne of Denmark in 1603. It has since disappeared. Actor David Tomlinson, who played George Banks in Mary Poppins and Mr. Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, lived and raised his children in Mursley until his death on 24 June 2000. Tomlinson became notorious around the village for flying very low in his Tiger Moth and on one occasion he crash landed in a field near his house and was tried for, but acquitted of, reckless flying.The Beechams estate in the village draws its name from Sir Thomas Beecham who resided in Mursley Hall which used to exist on the site of this estate.Mursley's Church of England School is a Victorian, Church of England primary school. It is a voluntary controlled infant school, which has approximately 45 pupils from the age of four through to the age of seven.

Snelshall Priory
Snelshall Priory

Snelshall Priory was a Benedictine priory in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom, built around 1200. The priory was founded after Sybil d'Aungerville granted land at Tattenhoe to Lavendon Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery of 'White canons' who most likely started a cell at Snelshall. This did not thrive and was abandoned about 1207. About 1219, the founder's son brought in Benedictine monks, increased the endowment and the new monastery began again. However Snelshall Priory paid 1 mark a year to Lavendon until 1232, at which point the Bishop of Lincoln decided that Snelshall owned its own lands and chapel. The priory accumulated various land through gifts, but even with all these grants, in 1321 when Henry Burghersh visited, it was so poor that "the monks scarcely had the necessities of life and had to beg even for these". Yet the priory remained until the mid-sixteenth century. In 1529, Bishop Longford found "irregularities" among the two or three monks that remained, and as a result all women, married and unmarried, were barred from the precinct of the priory. Only two women, both over 48 years old and of "unexceptional character", were retained as servants. In 1535, there remained three monks, two priests (of which one was a novice), the prior's parents with "all their goods" and eight servants. The house was in ruin, and later that year the priory was suppressed and turned over to The Crown.The house was possibly rebuilt around 1540, possibly by Sir John Fortescue. Much of the priory's land went to the Longueville family. It is not known when the house was demolished. The stones were recycled to build the nearby St Giles's Church, Tattenhoe.