Shepton Mallet - Transport

Transport

The A37 road passes through Shepton Mallet from north to south; it follows the line of the Fosse Way between the south of the town and Ilchester.

The A361 from Frome skirts the eastern edge of Shepton Mallet on its way to Glastonbury, and the A371 from Castle Cary passes through the town on its way west to Wells; for some distance, both routes follow the line of the A37.

Shepton Mallet had railway stations on two lines, both now closed. The first station, called Shepton Mallet (High Street) in British Railways days, was on the East Somerset Railway branch line from Witham and opened in 1859. The line was extended to Wells in 1862 and later connected to the Cheddar Valley line branch of the Bristol and Exeter Railway from Yatton to Wells via Cheddar. Through services between Yatton and Witham started in 1870. The line was absorbed into the Great Western Railway in the 1870s.

A second station, later called Shepton Mallet (Charlton Road), opened in 1874 with the building of the Bath extension of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. This station was some distance east of the centre of the town and was approached on the Charlton Viaduct.

Both stations closed in the 1960s as part of the Beeching Axe. Shepton Mallet (High Street) closed with the withdrawal of passenger services on the Yatton to Witham line in 1963, though part of the former East Somerset line remains open for freight and as a heritage railway. Shepton Mallet (Charlton Road) closed in 1966 with the closure of the Somerset and Dorset line. Nowadays, the nearest Network Rail station is Castle Cary, some eight miles south of Shepton Mallet.

A bus service to the town is provided by First Somerset & Avon.