Leominster and Kington Railway

Last updated February 28, 2023

Construction

Proposed in 1853, the company was formed by William Bateman-Hanbury, 2nd Baron Bateman of Shobdon Court. It received royal assent as a broad gauge line in July 1854, subject to provision for a junction with the standard gauge Kington and Eardisley Railway be provided.

On 14 November 1854, the company agreed the offer of Thomas Brassey and William Field to construct the line for £70,000. Further, they would work from opening and pay the shareholders a 4% dividend per annum. Engineered by David Wylie of Shrewsbury, Lady Bateman cut the first sod at Kington, with a silver spade into a special built barrow that can be seen preserved today at the Leominster Museum. Section from the Leominster railway station of the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway to Pembridge, opened for goods traffic on 18 October 1855, at a cost of £7,000 per mile.

But, with additional costs, the company was struggling, and in April 1856 Brassey and Field, who held £20,000 or one quarter of the company's stock, advanced the company £10,000 at 5%. The second section from Pembridge to Kington opened in August 1857. There were no tunnels or viaducts on the entire single-track line of 13 miles 25 chains (21.4 km) in length, which had cost £80,000 to construct.

Inspected by Colonel Yolland for the Board of Trade on 22 July 1857, a certificate authorising the opening was withheld because a level crossing had been built at Pembridge instead of the overbridge authorised by the Act of Parliament.

Operations

Eventually, it was agreed to open the line under a temporary order, subject to retrospective application and government approval of the level crossing. The line opened on Tuesday, 28 July 1857, with a train consisting of 32 coaches and two engines travelling from the joint GWR/LNWR station at Leominster to Kington, stopping briefly at all stations along the line. When they reached Kington, the directors retired to the Oxford Arms Hotel, where with 300 guests then Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Hastings CB presided over lunch. The return journey was completed with dinner for the same 300 guests at the Royal Oak Hotel, Leominster, presided over by Lord Bateman. Bateman remained chairman for 22 years, and had a private station built at Ox House.

In 1862, the line was leased to the West Midland Railway, which taken over by the Great Western Railway, amalgamated the line on 1 July 1898. This meant that by 1874 a journey from Kington to Leominster took 40 minutes, to Hereford 1 hour 20 minutes, and to Shrewsbury 3 hours and 30 minutes.

As the line was rural, and based in the Welsh Marches farm district, the main revenue was earned from transporting goods to the various markets. Sheep and cattle which had been driven to Kington on the various drovers trails, were now transported to their original destination of Hereford by train. Often on market days, seven or eight cattle trucks were attached to the Hereford-bound passenger service, specifically for bull transportation.

Titley Junction was the busiest intermediate station on the line with up to 30 trains a day passing through. It was the connection point for the LK&R with the Kington and Eardisley Railway south to the Hay Railway, and the L&KR's own line to Presteigne.

After completion of this extension, the K&ER extended north from Kington to a small station at New Radnor, in the hope of completing a cross-Wales mainline to Aberystwyth, but this never happened.^[1]

Kington & Presteigne Railway

The Kington & Presteigne Railway opened on 9 September 1875. Commencing at Titley Junction, it passed through Leen farm, to Staunton-on-Arrow, in front of the Rodd farm via Corton into Presteigne.^[2]^[3] By 1929 it was possible to join one of the three steam trains a day - each way - and make the 6 hour journey to London. The passenger service on this line ended in 1951, but a freight service continued to run every other day until the line was finally closed in 1964.

World War II

With need for new hospital capacity out of the reach of Nazi Luftwaffe bombers, the British government looked at sites in the Welsh Marches, which had the convenience of being accessible.

A hospital camp was built by the British Army at Hergest, which later acted as a clearing point for two general hospitals built by the US Army in 1943. The first dedicated hospital train arrived shortly after the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940. After the US Army Artillery arrived in late 1943, the camp had received 11 hospital trains for one hospital, carrying up to 300 patients per train. Between 4 January and 28 April 1945, the other hospital had received 10 trains and admitted 2,413 patients. All the hospital trains arrived from Southampton.

The camp was developed as RAF Shobdon, a glider training camp for both the Normandy and Arnhem campaigns.

Closure

After the war, the line struggled to compete with local bus companies, who used cheaply sold former military buses. The westernmost portion of the line, from Kington to New Radnor, closed to passenger traffic in 1951, although freight traffic continued until 1964.

Kingfisher Line

A 1-mile (1.6 km) section was reopened in 2005 at the site of the former Titley Junction station. Known as the Kingfisher Line, it is privately owned and is open to the public only by prior arrangement.^[4]

Related Research Articles

Kington is a market town, electoral ward and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. The ward had a population of 3,240, while the 2011 Census registered a population of 2,626.

New Radnor is a village in Powys, Wales, to the south of Radnor Forest, and was the county town of Radnorshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presteigne</span> Human settlement in Wales

Presteigne is a town and community in Radnorshire, Powys, Wales on the south bank of the River Lugg. Formerly the county town of the historic county of Radnorshire, the town has, in common with several other towns close to the Wales-England border, assumed the motto, "Gateway to Wales". The border wraps around three sides of the town. Nearby towns are Kington, Herefordshire to the south and Knighton to the north, and surrounding villages include Norton and Stapleton. The town falls within the Diocese of Hereford. The community has a population of 2,710; the built-up area had a population of 2,056.

Eardisley is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of the centre of Kington. Eardisley is in the Wye valley in the northwest of the county, close to the border with Wales.

Hereford railway station serves the city of Hereford, England. Managed by Transport for Wales, it lies on the Welsh Marches Line between Leominster and Abergavenny, is the western terminus of the Cotswold Line and also has an hourly West Midlands Trains service from Birmingham New Street. The station has four platforms for passenger trains and two additional relief lines for goods services.

Leominster railway station lies on the Welsh Marches Line serving the Herefordshire town of Leominster in England. It is situated 11+1⁄4 miles (18.1 km) north of Hereford.

Hereford has seen a history of expansion and decline in its railway history.

The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway was an English railway company that built a standard gauge line between those places. It opened its main line in 1853.

The Hay Railway was a narrow gauge horse-drawn tramway in the district surrounding Hay-on-Wye in Brecknockshire, Wales. The railway connected Eardisley in Herefordshire, England, with Brecon in Wales. The Brecon terminus was Watton Wharf on the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal.

Titley is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. It lies on the B4355 between Kington and Presteigne.

The Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway (HH&BR) was a railway company that built a line between Hereford in England and a junction with the Mid-Wales Railway at Three Cocks Junction. It opened its line in stages from 1862 to 1864. It never had enough money to operate properly, but the Midland Railway saw it as a means of reaching Swansea, and from 1869 the Midland Railway was given exclusive running powers over the HH&BR. There was then a long-running dispute over whether the Midland inherited rights of access previously granted to the HH&BR.

Titley Junction railway station was a station in Titley, Herefordshire, England. The station was located nearly two miles south of Titley village.

The Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway was a 24.5-mile (39.4 km) single track branch railway line, that ran between a junction near Bransford Road on the West Midland Railway line south of Worcester to the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway line south of Leominster.

The Kington and Eardisley Railway took over the Kington Tramway, which served the Welsh Marches border town of Kington, Herefordshire. In 1874 it opened a 6 miles 72 chains (11.1 km) line south from Titley Junction to a junction with the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway, 5 chains east of Eardisley. A year later it replaced the remainder of the tramway with a branch west to New Radnor. Between these two branches it had running powers on the Titley Junction to Kington section of the Leominster and Kington Railway. The Eardisley branch closed in 1940, the New Radnor branch in 1951.

Presteign Railway Station was a railway station serving the town of Presteigne, Radnorshire, Wales. It was a terminus on the Leominster and Kington Railway.

New Radnor railway station was a station in New Radnor, Powys, Wales. The terminus station opened in 1875 and closed in 1951.

Forge Crossing Halt railway station was a station in Titley, Herefordshire, England. The station, on the Presteigne Branch Line of the Leominster and Kington Railway, was opened in 1929 and closed in 1951.

Staunton on Arrow is a village and civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England. The village is 17 miles (27 km) north-west of Hereford and 8 miles (13 km) to the west of Leominster. Within the parish is the site of the Iron Age hill fort of Wapley Hill.

Kington Rural is a civil parish in west Herefordshire, England, and is approximately 17 miles (30 km) north-west from the city and county town of Hereford. The parish borders Wales at the west, and contains the hamlets and small settlements of Upper Hergest, Lower Hergest, Chickward, Bredward, and Kingswood at the south, and Bradnor Green and Rushok at the north. The nearest town is the market town of Kington which, with its parish, is to a large extent enclosed by Kington Rural. Significant landmarks of the parish are the Castle Twts motte and bailey earthwork, Hergest Court 15th-century manor house, and Hergest Ridge on the England–Wales border.

References

Helen J. Simpson. The day the trains came - the Herefordshire railways.

↑ "Railways in Powys". Powys.org.uk. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
↑ "Kington Town Site". Archived from the original on 9 December 2006. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
↑ "Google Mapping - route of the Kington & Presteigne Railway" . Retrieved 1 June 2008.
↑ "The Kingfisher Line". Titley Junction Station. Archived from the original on 12 January 2011.

External links

History of the Leominster and Kington Railway

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[1] "Railways in Powys". Powys.org.uk. Retrieved 8 January 2010.

[2] "Kington Town Site". Archived from the original on 9 December 2006. Retrieved 19 February 2007.

[3] "Google Mapping - route of the Kington & Presteigne Railway" . Retrieved 1 June 2008.

[4] "The Kingfisher Line". Titley Junction Station. Archived from the original on 12 January 2011.

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