It had once been a pretty little junction station, a neat set of station buildings, three small platforms and a surprisingly large goods yard. It was all very much built in the old Great Western standard pattern from when it was a prosperous railway company and it had kept that look all the way through to the days of British Railways despite two wars and a depression. There were two attractive wooden signal boxes, one at the north end accessed off the platform and one tucked away in the goods yard at the south end. There had never been much of a train service here, but the Georgian riverside town it served was quite small and didn’t need that much of a service, five trains a day ran between the two county towns stopping at halts and small stations, another three trains a day started here and ran across the attractive bridge over the river and then into the forest and up into the green-brown hills and finally down into another river valley where it terminated at a junction in the middle of nowhere in the Welsh Marches. A service also operated from the nearest large town where some locals worked in the carpet factories and that was the most frequent of them all, running every hour at peak times. That had been the pattern since the First World War and seemed to be set in stone.
The four lines that converged at the station did get used for goods traffic, it was an useful way to by-pass the big industrial cities of the West Midlands for some heavy freight and coal came down from the collieries by the banks of the river every day, other freight more mysterious freight guarded by sailors went across the river a couple of times a week to a stores depot in those green-brown sheep-studded hills. It was said that they made Naval Mines there, but it was all an official secret, but it was known however that they had special diesel locomotives in the depot because of the nature of the cargo. There was local freight as well in the time honoured mixed wagon-loads, a couple of trains like that each day and just before market days there would be a couple of sheep or cattle vans attached. At harvest time there was usually some additional agricultural freight from the rich farms of the valley. The freight made more money than the passengers, especially during the winter when there were few passengers on the line, but local people needed more coal.
The busiest times for the station had come during the second war, there had been far more traffic then and there had even been some improvements to allow slightly heavier trains through the main line so they could pass through the area without running into the bomb damage of the industrial cities. You still couldn’t use a Castle or a King there, but the local children could see a wider variety of engines. The station, signal boxes and the goods yard kept around eighteen people in good steady jobs even if it wasn’t that busy except at times during the summer.
Not being ‘that’ busy was the problem, the four lines had probably never really made much money and when it had the somewhat arcane accounting practices of British Railways applied, they didn’t make any money. However, they did do vital things, taking children to the schools,distributing coal to coal merchants as well as handling the traffic to the sugar factory and the power station. After the war, however, there were a lot of surplus lorries and vans around and the non-bulk freight started to fall off, the local bus services improved as well, they were as fast as the trains and were both more frequent and often more convenient, as many of the railway stations often not being in quite the right place. Traffic fell, the four lines became quieter and the trains became emptier, what used to be three carriages often became two and one of those was a composite brake.
The axe started to fall on the lines before the Doctor came on the scene, the line across the river was first, truncated in 1961 to a small market town and closed completely to passengers in the spring of 1962, the bus service was extended to replace the three trains a day, it wasn’t difficult and it took people nearer their homes. It stayed open for freight, which had gone down to two trains a week, one taking coal to villages and another taking supplies to the naval depot. All other goods were supposed to go to and from the goods yard in the station, but most of the traffic went onto the roads instead. There were not many complaints from people about this closure.
The line north was closed for passengers as well in 1963 and there were a lot more complaints about that and the notorious local MP got involved, but it still closed all the same. However, the coal trains continued, so the line north was still open at least for the five miles to the collieries. Beyond that, some enthusiasts started a preserved railway, it struggled to start with, but the local MP was involved and raised a lot of funds which allowed part of the railway to be saved on the model of the Bluebell Railway, just about four miles of track was preserved to start with.
The two remaining lines ended up with what they called a joined up service and the old steam trains were replaced by modern diesel multiple units with two coaches. About once every 90 minutes, a DMU would come up from the big town to the station, reverse and make its way down the river to the other riverside small town and from there made its way back to the main line at a small village, reversed again and went back up the main line to the big town, fewer services on a Saturday and, of course, none on a Sunday - which was a shame because people from the industrial areas often used to take a day trip to the station to enjoy the quaint Georgian town and the river.
Then the Doctor came with his report and he indicated that the remaining lines should be closed to passenger traffic completely, there were more than enough buses and there could always be more. The MP made a lot more noise and whilst his party lost the election and he retired from the seat, it had been enough for the new Government to not close the line. Eventually, after a second election, it joined the list of forty lines which had a reprieve, as part of the new social railway. Everyone thought this was a good thing as the railway had been saved but it was the start of a sharp decline for the station. The two coach DMU’s were replaced by single coach DMU’s, there wasn’t enough demand for the bigger trains and the service was only run in the one direction, which wasn’t the best thing if you wanted to get from Burlish to Foley Park.
The island platform had long since been abandoned with its handsome awnings removed, there had been no need for it since there was only one service and therefore the station only needed one platform, the footbridge had been blocked off and all trains went from platform 1 where the station buildings were. Parts of the goods yard hadn’t been used for a while but the staff kept that area tidy mainly because they had little else to do. However, the Doctor and the social railway changed all this, the staff at the station were reduced to four, two signalmen and two railmen - one pair per shift, the signals were rearranged so that only one signal box was needed and the railmen looked after the booking office, the parcels office and the goods yard. If extra help was needed, then it came from the depot in the big town and they would arrive by car or by railway van - not enough train services to transport the staff.
It carried on like this for a while, much of the station was boarded up, which meant it looked a little more unsightly and attracted bill posters and marker pen scrawlings. Then the goods service was withdrawn, the demand was too low, all goods were to go to the big town where there was a “concentration depot”. The Americans took over the supply depot in the hills from the Royal Navy and they didn’t like trains, so they took all their cargo by road, which didn’t please the inhabitants of the villages but did please the British Railways Board - they shut the rest of the line over the river and even part demolished the bridge so no one else could use it. Then the Coal Board shut the collieries further up the line, the former MP roared into action and bought the track from just north of the station to the end of the preserved railway with a massively successful share issue, but was then implicated in some dodgy dealings over land sales from the preserved railway and had to resign.
This meant that there would have to be further savings, there was no freight to the station at all now and so they closed the booking office, shut up the station buildings completely except for the waiting room and the toilets which the signalman locked and unlocked and stopped the parcels traffic which were also concentrated at the big town. The guards on the trains were given ticket machines so that tickets could be issued on what they called the Paytrain - many people didn’t bother and some guards didn’t go through the train selling tickets anyone. This was to be the way of the 1970s for the railways, a slow decline with little in the way of change. The station slowly deteriorated, the scrawlers discovered spray paint, the last windows were replaced with chipboard and after a few attempts to gain access by vandals with metal shutters, the toilets were shut due to unsavoury activities and finally the waiting room was closed and replaced by a “bus shelter” which was also frequently vandalised. If you went up the drive to the station on a Sunday, the only signs of railway life were the incongruous station sign and a timetable poster.
The outlook looked even worse at the start of the 1980’s, the new PM was said to hate the railways and there was a report which would have closed nearly every line that wasn’t a mainline outside of the South East. However, that report was quietly buried, which was probably a good thing because the new local MP was very much a party man and would have probably voted to close the station. But other things were happening during the 1980’s and the quaint little Georgian town was growing quite rapidly and with people who wanted to work not just in the town or in the big town, but in the nearby cities. The railway helped with this, it was decided to ‘rationalise” the land on which the station was, the station buildings were sold to a company for offices, half the goods yard was sold for houses and the other half became a car park for the station. The island platform was reopened and a new footbridge put in, which mean that the old one was removed and taken away to a preserved railway. Platform 1, on which the station buildings were was fenced off and became a yard for the offices. The station was also re-signalled at that time and the signal box closed which meant that no railway staff were at the station at all. However, as the town grew, passenger traffic started to rise again at the station, only by small amounts, but it was at least rising, whilst the trains weren’t very fast, the increasing traffic meant that the buses had become slower and as cars had increased in number, some of the buses had been cut back, which made the trains more useful.
The 1990’s were better again for the station, traffic continued to rise and for the first time in years, the number of services was increased slightly, because the end of all freight on all parts of the line due to the closure of the sugar factory in 1992 and the power station in 1999 meant that certain changes could be made. Some long standing track works were done rather than just applying yet another temporary speed restriction - there was one near the sugar factory which had been temporary for around 12 years. There was also an increase in Saturday services, at first during the summer timetable only, but eventually all year round. The preserved railway made a suggestion that it could run trains into the station on a Sunday, this had been made before and rejected, but this time it was accepted under certain conditions, it proved to be a success and brought in a little much needed revenue, there were complaints about the state of the station though. In fact it was such a success that it was extended to Saturdays and Bank Holidays as well. The privatisation of the railways worried some people in the town, but the new Central Trains franchise guaranteed services on the line for the duration of the franchise and they promised some new DMU’s to run on the line as the single carriage ones were getting very busy.
Central Trains was generally regarded badly in the wider area, but they did well enough for the town. Modern two coach DMU’s became the norm on the “Severn Shuttle” as it was branded and they worked well with the preserved railway in creating a set of new station buildings, including a new booking office which was open 7 days a week and was run by the preserved railway. Toilets, a kiosk and a waiting room were provided, the shelters on the platform were replaced with more fitting ones for the preserved railway passengers as well. The preserved railway started operating to the station whenever they were open, which meant 7 days a week in the summer. Passenger numbers rose by 50% over that decade and everyone said that the station was safe again. However, Central Trains problems were in other areas mainly in timekeeping anywhere near Birmingham New Street and they lost the franchise in 2007 to London Midland.
The last 10 years have seen further rises in traffic, with the station now seeing 105,000 National Rail passengers a year. This has been down to the introduction of a 2-hourly Sunday service, making Monday to Saturday services onto a 45minute base by adding a passing loop back in running in both directions again and by providing three services a day directly to and from Birmingham, this was such a success that there is now an hourly through service to Leamington Spa via Birmingham Snow Hill. Local community volunteers and the preserved railway have ensured that the station is maintained well, kept tidy and has attractive flower beds. The biggest change was in 2009, when the old station buildings became vacant again following a bankruptcy, allowing for them to be purchased by the preserved railway and refurbished and reopened. The Severn Valley Railway now exclusively uses Platform 1, whilst London Midland use the island platform. This allowed the modern buildings to removed again and makes the station look very much like it did in the 1950’s apart from the modern ticket machine and the 1960’s footbridge, there is even a plan to try and reconstruct the old awnings and footbridge using Heritage Lottery funds.
Whilst it certainly isn’t what it used to be in terms of routes, there is little doubt now that Bewdley is now more firmly on the railway map than it has been for over sixty years.
The four lines that converged at the station did get used for goods traffic, it was an useful way to by-pass the big industrial cities of the West Midlands for some heavy freight and coal came down from the collieries by the banks of the river every day, other freight more mysterious freight guarded by sailors went across the river a couple of times a week to a stores depot in those green-brown sheep-studded hills. It was said that they made Naval Mines there, but it was all an official secret, but it was known however that they had special diesel locomotives in the depot because of the nature of the cargo. There was local freight as well in the time honoured mixed wagon-loads, a couple of trains like that each day and just before market days there would be a couple of sheep or cattle vans attached. At harvest time there was usually some additional agricultural freight from the rich farms of the valley. The freight made more money than the passengers, especially during the winter when there were few passengers on the line, but local people needed more coal.
The busiest times for the station had come during the second war, there had been far more traffic then and there had even been some improvements to allow slightly heavier trains through the main line so they could pass through the area without running into the bomb damage of the industrial cities. You still couldn’t use a Castle or a King there, but the local children could see a wider variety of engines. The station, signal boxes and the goods yard kept around eighteen people in good steady jobs even if it wasn’t that busy except at times during the summer.
Not being ‘that’ busy was the problem, the four lines had probably never really made much money and when it had the somewhat arcane accounting practices of British Railways applied, they didn’t make any money. However, they did do vital things, taking children to the schools,distributing coal to coal merchants as well as handling the traffic to the sugar factory and the power station. After the war, however, there were a lot of surplus lorries and vans around and the non-bulk freight started to fall off, the local bus services improved as well, they were as fast as the trains and were both more frequent and often more convenient, as many of the railway stations often not being in quite the right place. Traffic fell, the four lines became quieter and the trains became emptier, what used to be three carriages often became two and one of those was a composite brake.
The axe started to fall on the lines before the Doctor came on the scene, the line across the river was first, truncated in 1961 to a small market town and closed completely to passengers in the spring of 1962, the bus service was extended to replace the three trains a day, it wasn’t difficult and it took people nearer their homes. It stayed open for freight, which had gone down to two trains a week, one taking coal to villages and another taking supplies to the naval depot. All other goods were supposed to go to and from the goods yard in the station, but most of the traffic went onto the roads instead. There were not many complaints from people about this closure.
The line north was closed for passengers as well in 1963 and there were a lot more complaints about that and the notorious local MP got involved, but it still closed all the same. However, the coal trains continued, so the line north was still open at least for the five miles to the collieries. Beyond that, some enthusiasts started a preserved railway, it struggled to start with, but the local MP was involved and raised a lot of funds which allowed part of the railway to be saved on the model of the Bluebell Railway, just about four miles of track was preserved to start with.
The two remaining lines ended up with what they called a joined up service and the old steam trains were replaced by modern diesel multiple units with two coaches. About once every 90 minutes, a DMU would come up from the big town to the station, reverse and make its way down the river to the other riverside small town and from there made its way back to the main line at a small village, reversed again and went back up the main line to the big town, fewer services on a Saturday and, of course, none on a Sunday - which was a shame because people from the industrial areas often used to take a day trip to the station to enjoy the quaint Georgian town and the river.
Then the Doctor came with his report and he indicated that the remaining lines should be closed to passenger traffic completely, there were more than enough buses and there could always be more. The MP made a lot more noise and whilst his party lost the election and he retired from the seat, it had been enough for the new Government to not close the line. Eventually, after a second election, it joined the list of forty lines which had a reprieve, as part of the new social railway. Everyone thought this was a good thing as the railway had been saved but it was the start of a sharp decline for the station. The two coach DMU’s were replaced by single coach DMU’s, there wasn’t enough demand for the bigger trains and the service was only run in the one direction, which wasn’t the best thing if you wanted to get from Burlish to Foley Park.
The island platform had long since been abandoned with its handsome awnings removed, there had been no need for it since there was only one service and therefore the station only needed one platform, the footbridge had been blocked off and all trains went from platform 1 where the station buildings were. Parts of the goods yard hadn’t been used for a while but the staff kept that area tidy mainly because they had little else to do. However, the Doctor and the social railway changed all this, the staff at the station were reduced to four, two signalmen and two railmen - one pair per shift, the signals were rearranged so that only one signal box was needed and the railmen looked after the booking office, the parcels office and the goods yard. If extra help was needed, then it came from the depot in the big town and they would arrive by car or by railway van - not enough train services to transport the staff.
It carried on like this for a while, much of the station was boarded up, which meant it looked a little more unsightly and attracted bill posters and marker pen scrawlings. Then the goods service was withdrawn, the demand was too low, all goods were to go to the big town where there was a “concentration depot”. The Americans took over the supply depot in the hills from the Royal Navy and they didn’t like trains, so they took all their cargo by road, which didn’t please the inhabitants of the villages but did please the British Railways Board - they shut the rest of the line over the river and even part demolished the bridge so no one else could use it. Then the Coal Board shut the collieries further up the line, the former MP roared into action and bought the track from just north of the station to the end of the preserved railway with a massively successful share issue, but was then implicated in some dodgy dealings over land sales from the preserved railway and had to resign.
This meant that there would have to be further savings, there was no freight to the station at all now and so they closed the booking office, shut up the station buildings completely except for the waiting room and the toilets which the signalman locked and unlocked and stopped the parcels traffic which were also concentrated at the big town. The guards on the trains were given ticket machines so that tickets could be issued on what they called the Paytrain - many people didn’t bother and some guards didn’t go through the train selling tickets anyone. This was to be the way of the 1970s for the railways, a slow decline with little in the way of change. The station slowly deteriorated, the scrawlers discovered spray paint, the last windows were replaced with chipboard and after a few attempts to gain access by vandals with metal shutters, the toilets were shut due to unsavoury activities and finally the waiting room was closed and replaced by a “bus shelter” which was also frequently vandalised. If you went up the drive to the station on a Sunday, the only signs of railway life were the incongruous station sign and a timetable poster.
The outlook looked even worse at the start of the 1980’s, the new PM was said to hate the railways and there was a report which would have closed nearly every line that wasn’t a mainline outside of the South East. However, that report was quietly buried, which was probably a good thing because the new local MP was very much a party man and would have probably voted to close the station. But other things were happening during the 1980’s and the quaint little Georgian town was growing quite rapidly and with people who wanted to work not just in the town or in the big town, but in the nearby cities. The railway helped with this, it was decided to ‘rationalise” the land on which the station was, the station buildings were sold to a company for offices, half the goods yard was sold for houses and the other half became a car park for the station. The island platform was reopened and a new footbridge put in, which mean that the old one was removed and taken away to a preserved railway. Platform 1, on which the station buildings were was fenced off and became a yard for the offices. The station was also re-signalled at that time and the signal box closed which meant that no railway staff were at the station at all. However, as the town grew, passenger traffic started to rise again at the station, only by small amounts, but it was at least rising, whilst the trains weren’t very fast, the increasing traffic meant that the buses had become slower and as cars had increased in number, some of the buses had been cut back, which made the trains more useful.
The 1990’s were better again for the station, traffic continued to rise and for the first time in years, the number of services was increased slightly, because the end of all freight on all parts of the line due to the closure of the sugar factory in 1992 and the power station in 1999 meant that certain changes could be made. Some long standing track works were done rather than just applying yet another temporary speed restriction - there was one near the sugar factory which had been temporary for around 12 years. There was also an increase in Saturday services, at first during the summer timetable only, but eventually all year round. The preserved railway made a suggestion that it could run trains into the station on a Sunday, this had been made before and rejected, but this time it was accepted under certain conditions, it proved to be a success and brought in a little much needed revenue, there were complaints about the state of the station though. In fact it was such a success that it was extended to Saturdays and Bank Holidays as well. The privatisation of the railways worried some people in the town, but the new Central Trains franchise guaranteed services on the line for the duration of the franchise and they promised some new DMU’s to run on the line as the single carriage ones were getting very busy.
Central Trains was generally regarded badly in the wider area, but they did well enough for the town. Modern two coach DMU’s became the norm on the “Severn Shuttle” as it was branded and they worked well with the preserved railway in creating a set of new station buildings, including a new booking office which was open 7 days a week and was run by the preserved railway. Toilets, a kiosk and a waiting room were provided, the shelters on the platform were replaced with more fitting ones for the preserved railway passengers as well. The preserved railway started operating to the station whenever they were open, which meant 7 days a week in the summer. Passenger numbers rose by 50% over that decade and everyone said that the station was safe again. However, Central Trains problems were in other areas mainly in timekeeping anywhere near Birmingham New Street and they lost the franchise in 2007 to London Midland.
The last 10 years have seen further rises in traffic, with the station now seeing 105,000 National Rail passengers a year. This has been down to the introduction of a 2-hourly Sunday service, making Monday to Saturday services onto a 45minute base by adding a passing loop back in running in both directions again and by providing three services a day directly to and from Birmingham, this was such a success that there is now an hourly through service to Leamington Spa via Birmingham Snow Hill. Local community volunteers and the preserved railway have ensured that the station is maintained well, kept tidy and has attractive flower beds. The biggest change was in 2009, when the old station buildings became vacant again following a bankruptcy, allowing for them to be purchased by the preserved railway and refurbished and reopened. The Severn Valley Railway now exclusively uses Platform 1, whilst London Midland use the island platform. This allowed the modern buildings to removed again and makes the station look very much like it did in the 1950’s apart from the modern ticket machine and the 1960’s footbridge, there is even a plan to try and reconstruct the old awnings and footbridge using Heritage Lottery funds.
Whilst it certainly isn’t what it used to be in terms of routes, there is little doubt now that Bewdley is now more firmly on the railway map than it has been for over sixty years.