Ann Middleton is commercial manager at Didcot Railway Centre

WHAT, you may ask, could The Great British Bake Off possibly have in common with Didcot Railway Centre?

The answer is Welford Park.

The famous bakers’ tent is pitched in the Welford Park estate, some 5¼ miles northwest of Newbury, while the railway centre’s branch line ticket office originated from Welford Park Station.

The station was located midway along the 12½ mile ex-GWR Lambourn Valley Branch Line, connecting Newbury with Lambourn in Berkshire.

Although the line closed to passenger traffic in 1960, a special passenger service operated on November 3, 1973, between Newbury and Welford Park, giving the public a final opportunity to ride the line.

Having acquired Welford Park Ticket Office, the Great Western Society dismantled the building and transported it to Didcot Railway Centre, where it was restored and re-built alongside the newly constructed Didcot halt.

As the building’s framework and cladding were mainly made of wood, much of the cladding had succumbed to the ravages of time and weather. The lower ends of the cladding timbers in particular were in very poor condition.

It was therefore decided to cut away the rotten timber, whilst retaining as much original material as possible. A dwarf brick wall was then laid, providing a base upon which the building could stand.

Having no floor and, more importantly, no ticket window, it was clear these omissions would have to be addressed prior to the building coming in to use. So it was that a number of bags of cold asphalt came to be procured at an advantageous price from a builders’ merchant in Slough, being transported the 34 miles to Didcot, courtesy of a member of the project team and his trusty company car, a Ford Cortina, before being laid to form the floor. Unfortunately this didn’t do the car’s rear suspension much good but made for very light steering!

The same member also volunteered to obtain dimensions of an authentic GWR ticket office window, complete with 'mouse hole', via which payments were received and tickets dispensed.

Measurements were taken from such a window during an early morning visit to Windsor & Eton Central Station, much to the bemusement of commuters there queueing to purchase tickets at an adjacent window.

Finally, a piece of glass, cut to include the all-important 'mouse hole', was duly purchased and fitted to complete the project.

You can see this for yourself when next you visit Didcot Railway Centre.