On 10 May 1849, the Exeter express train ploughed into empty good carriages adjacent to the platform at Shrivenham station, resulting in the deaths of 8 passengers and the serious injury of almost 30 more.

At the inquest, the finger of blame was initially pointed at the station porters, James Weybury and William Willoughby, who had blocked the line with the good carriages while they were in the process of unloading them.

However, their manslaughter convictions were later overturned when it became clear that greater responsibility for the accident lay with 20-year-old signalman George Pargeter, whose gross negligence had cause the crash.

Pargeter had not informed the porters that the Exeter express was running late, and so the line needed to remain clear. Despite knowing the train was due, Pargeter abandoned his signal box to use the toilet at the nearby Victoria Tavern, leaving the signals set to ‘all clear’. On returning and seeing the train approaching the station, Pargeter made the official arm gesture to the driver of the train to indicate that the line was clear. If Pargeter had glanced even briefly in the direction of the station he would have seen that the line was blocked and would have had ample opportunity to avert the disaster.

Despite the terrible loss of life that resulted from his dereliction of duty, Pargeter was sentenced to just three months in prison.

On 15 January 1936, the Penzance to Paddington passenger express train struck stationary goods carriages and derailed a mile west of Shrivenham station. The five goods carriages had, unbeknownst to the driver, become detached from the train pulling them at some point between Swindon and Shrivenham. Their absence was also not noticed by the signalman on duty at Shrivenham station.

The five carriages drifted to a stop near Bourton Bridge, where, to his horror, the guard on duty at the rear of the carriages saw the Penzance to Paddington express approaching at speed from about a mile and a half away. Despite his best efforts to warn the oncoming express of the danger, the darkness of the January morning meant that the driver did not notice the guards' desperate warning until it was too late.

The Penzance to Paddington express ploughed into the stationary carriages at high speed. Both trains were violently derailed in the collision, with the engine and first three passenger carriages of the express train bearing the brunt of the damage.

The engine came to rest on its side with another carriage across it, and the driver was trapped beneath coal in the mangled wreckage. It took two hours to dig him out, and he was hailed as a hero for the concern he showed for other passengers during his ordeal, but he died of his injuries later in the hospital. The second victim was a female passenger from Cornwall. In addition, 23 people sustained significant injuries.

During the inquest, the cause of the collision was determined as a failure in the train's coupling hook that could not have been detected during routine inspection. A verdict of 'accidental death' was issued, with no negligence or blame placed on railway workers.

On 5 March 1889, Thomas Farmer had spent the day at Faringdon market and was perhaps a little worse for wear when he caught the train back to Swindon. At around 9:15pm the train stopped at Shrivenham and Mr Farmer, mistakenly believing that he had arrived at his destination, got out of the train and onto the platform.

He realised his mistake just as the train was starting to pull away from the platform, and attempted to jump back onto the moving train, only to slip between the footboard and the carriages. The station-master ran to his aid but, in a somewhat slapstick moment, was tripped up by Mr Farmer’s flailing walking stick. Mr Farmer then fell between the carriage and platform and onto the tracks where the rear end of the train ran over his body, killing him almost instantly.

On the evening of 3rd December 1904, Mr Newman, a navy working on the line near Shrivenham, was stuck by an express train from Paddington and instantly killed. Newman had finished work for the day at around 1pm and was walking along the line in the company of two other men. Due to the foggy weather and noise from a milk train passing on the other line, Newman didn’t see or hear the express train bearing down on him.

The driver of the train, which was driving at 58mph at the time of the collision, confirmed that conditions were very foggy and said he didn’t see the man on the tracks until he was about three feet in front of the engine. The Faringdon Advertiser describes Newman being ‘caught by the express, and literally knocked to pieces’.