Tenbury and Bewdley Railway

Tenbury and Bewdley railway
Tenbury Wells railway station in 1916
Overview
Other name(s)	Wyre Forest line or Tenbury Line
Status	Dismantled
Locale	Worcestershire and Shropshire
Termini	Bewdley Tenbury Wells
Stations	6
Service
Operator(s)	Great Western Railway and the London and North Western Railway
History
Opened	13 August 1864
Closed	8 May 1965
Technical
Line length	15 mi (24 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Signalling	Train Staff system

The Tenbury and Bewdley Railway was an English railway company that built its line from Bewdley to Tenbury Wells between 1860 and 1864. The line connected the Severn Valley Railway at Bewdley with the Tenbury Railway at Tenbury. The Tenbury and Bewdley railway and the Tenbury railway were sometimes collectively referred to as the Wyre Forest line or simply the Tenbury Line. The railway was operated from 1870 jointly by the Great Western Railway and the London and North Western Railway, then by British Railways after nationalisation.

The line closed to passenger trains in 1962 and to goods traffic in 1965; the tracks, sleepers and some infrastructure were subsequently dismantled and removed. There is now no railway activity on the former line, but its trackbed is still extant in sections, particularly where it crosses the Wyre Forest, as it forms part of National Cycle Route 45.

The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway opened its line on 6 December 1852.^[1] Tenbury was a little over five miles from Woofferton station, which opened on that line at the same time, and a branch line was planned between the two: it opened on 1 August 1861 as the Tenbury line.^[2][3][4][5]

While the branch line between Woofferton and Tenbury was under construction, there was enthusiasm to extend the line to Bewdley. There were two immediate problems, gathering enough money to pay the parliamentary deposit, and heading off the suspected hostility of the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway. The former was resolved by getting a £9,600 bank loan.

The bill for the proposed Tenbury and Bewdley Railway went to Parliament in the 1860 session; the S&HR did indeed oppose it, but their opposition was overcome, and the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. cxxviii) was given royal assent on 3 July 1860; capital was to be £120,000. The line would run from a junction with the Tenbury Railway, at Tenbury, to a junction with the Severn Valley Railway at Bewdley, which was then under construction.^[6][7] Around this time, the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway amalgamated with others to form the West Midland Railway.

A working arrangement with the West Midland Railway was concluded, by which the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway Company would receive 40% of gross receipts, after payment of interest on the borrowings.^[8] However the company was unable to raise the money to pay its contractor for the construction, and there was a protracted delay. Eventually in October 1861 instructions were given to commence work.^[9] In September 1862 the Shareholders were informed that arrangements had been made to lease the line to the West Midland Railway, giving a dividend of 4% after the first three years.^[10]

The main line at Woofferton (the former Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway) had been leased jointly to the London and North Western Railway (50%) and the Great Western Railway and the West Midland Railway (together 50%). The Tenbury Railway was carried into the joint line status; the lease took effect on 1 July 1862.^[11]

Meanwhile the construction of the Tenbury and Bewdley had not been progressing well. However eventually preparations were in hand for opening. A serious landslip in Prizeley cutting took place on 24 June, and the planned opening had to be postponed. The earthwork was stabilised, and a ceremonial opening took place on 4 August 1864, although the line had not yet been approved for passenger operation.^[12]

Captain Tyler of the Board of Trade visited the line on 9 August 1864 and gave his consent to opening for passenger trains. The line opened fully on 13 August 1864.^{[note 1][13][7][5][14]}

The line was worked by the Great Western Railway, with which the West Midland Railway had amalgamated in 1863; this was charged at 60% of gross receipts.^[15]

After the Tenbury and Bewdley railway was completed, there were lots of passengers travelling between stations on the line and Birmingham. The route to Birmingham, which included a portion of the Severn Valley Railway, connected to the line to Birmingham at a point near Hartlebury station. This was a roundabout way, as the distance between the SVR and the line to Birmingham was far shorter between Bewdley and Kidderminster. The travel time between the Wyre Forest line and Birmingham could therefore be reduced if a relatively small railway was constructed between Bewdley and Kidderminster. This was referred to as the Bewdley Curve, Bewdley Loop, Kidderminster loop or Kidderminster loop line. It was a line of three miles between Bewdley and Kidderminster. After much hesitation by the GWR, the line was opened on 1 June 1878 and enabled trains from the Tenbury direction to run direct towards Kidderminster, for Birmingham.^[16]

v t e Tenbury & Bewdley Railway
Legend
Welsh Marches line to Hereford Woofferton Woofferton Junction Welsh Marches line to Shrewsbury Easton Court Tenbury Wells Newnham Bridge Neen Sollars Cleobury Mortimer Cleobury Mortimer & Ditton Priors Light Railway Brown Clee Hill quarries Wyre Forest Wyre Forest Dowles Bridge over River Severn dismantled 1964 Severn Valley Railway to Bridgnorth Bewdley Severn Valley Railway to Kidderminster

The passenger train service on the line varied little over the roughly 100 years in which the line was operational. In 1895, there were four trains daily (apart from Sundays) between Bewdley and Woofferton, with an additional two on the Tenbury to Woofferton section. By 1910 this had changed to five and four respectively, remaining similar from 1922 to 1962, when the line was closed to passengers.^{[17][18][19][20][21]}

From opening, the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) operated the line under a lease. From 1 January 1869, the lease of the Tenbury Railway was converted to outright ownership under an agreement of 1 December 1868.^[22] Under this, the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway company was transferred jointly to the ownership of the GWR and the LNWR from 1 February 1870, who subsequently operated the line until nationalisation.^[7]

The Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway was authorised under a light railway order, the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway Order 1901, on 23 March 1901.^[23] It was to build a line from a junction with the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway at Cleobury Mortimer. After considerable delay the line was opened to goods traffic on 19 July 1908,^[24] passenger trains following on 21 November 1908.^[25]

For some years the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Railway was simply a rural branch line; its passenger service ceased in 1938. The increasing international tension following the Munich crisis of 1938 resulted, among other things, in a search for sites for the storage of naval ordnance. A site at Ditton Priors was considered to be suitable, and preparations were made to construct what became the Royal Naval Armaments Depot, Ditton Priors. It opened in 1940, and the majority of the traffic moved by rail.^[26]

The site eventually extended over a very considerable area, and the development brought much goods traffic to the CM&DPR and also the Tenbury and Bewdley line. At the end of World War II the depot was used for decommissioned armaments. In 1955 the branch line was transferred to the ownership of the Ministry of Defence (Admiralty) for £40,000.^[27] In 1960 the railway line was closed but the Royal Navy continued to use the depot as a non-rail-connected base until 1965.

The rural nature of the Tenbury and Bewdley main line resulted in a steep decline in business as reliable road transport, for both passengers and goods, developed. It became plain to British Railways that the line was heavily loss-making. Closure was proposed in 1960, but a case was made concerning the hardship that closure of the line would cause, especially to schoolchildren who relied on the trains. The decision was taken to close the line from Tenbury Wells to Woofferton completely from 31 July 1961. One passenger train each way daily would run from Kidderminster via Bewdley to Tenbury Wells for a trial period of one year, at times suitable for the schools.^[28] In fact the experimental service for schoolchildren started during the school holidays, and this inauspicious start was followed by minimal use of the trains. The decision was taken to discontinue them, closing the entire line to passenger use; the closure took place on 1 August 1962, a Wednesday.^[29]

After closure, a goods service was retained on the branch only as far as Tenbury from Bewdley. All connections with the Shrewsbury and Hereford main line had been removed at Woofferton on 12 November 1961. The goods service to Tenbury was withdrawn on 6 January 1964. The goods service to Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors continued, but that business dwindled further, and on Good Friday, 16 April 1965, the line was closed and only dismantling traffic continued.^[30][14] With lifting of the track completed, the spans of Dowles Bridge were dismantled in March 1966 leaving only the supports standing in the River Severn.^[31]

• Beddoes, Keith; Smith, William H. (1995). The Tenbury & Bewdley Railway. Wild Swan Publications. ISBN 1-874103-27-5.

• Severn Valley Railway