Rowden Mill | |
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General information | |
Location | Wacton, Herefordshire, Herefordshire England |
Coordinates | 52°12′21″N2°32′49″W / 52.2057°N 2.5469°W |
Grid reference | SO627566 |
Platforms | 1 |
Other information | |
Status | Disused |
History | |
Original company | Leominster and Bromyard Railway |
Pre-grouping | Great Western Railway |
Post-grouping | Great Western Railway |
Key dates | |
1 September 1897 | Station opened |
September 1949 | Unstaffed |
15 September 1952 | Station closed |
Rowden Mill railway station was a railway station located on the Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway in England.
Opened as part of the final section of the Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway, the railway was bought out of bankruptcy by the Great Western Railway in 1888, who completed the line in 1897. [1]
Post the Second World War, and with the greater use of the motorbus and private cars, traffic on the line fell considerably. Unstaffed as a station from September 1949, the line closed to regular passenger services on 15 September 1952. [2]
On 26 April 1958 a special train organised by the Stephenson Locomotive Society ran from Worcester via Bromyard to Leominster, calling in at Rowden Mill, Fencote and Steens Bridge. The 50 society members/passengers rode on the last train that would run on the complete track before it was removed. The Worcester to Bromyard section was closed under the Beeching Axe in 1964. [3]
Rowden Mill was bought and restored from 1984,. [2] Sections of the track either side of station were also reinstalled. Rolling stock of various types including coaches, brake vans and goods vans have been located on the line at various times in the recent past. In March 1989, Rowden Mill received the British Rail Award in the Ian Allan Publishing Railway Heritage Awards for the Best Renovated Non-Working station. [4] Rowden Mill Station now operates as a holiday letting business, making the station buildings available as accommodation to visiting guests.
Ledbury is a market town and civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and west of the Malvern Hills.
Bromyard is a town in the parish of Bromyard and Winslow, in Herefordshire, England, in the valley of the River Frome. It is near the county border with Worcestershire on the A44 between Leominster and Worcester. Bromyard has a number of traditional half-timbered buildings, including some of the pubs; the parish church is Norman. For centuries, there was a livestock market in the town.
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is a railway museum operated by the Quainton Railway Society Ltd. at Quainton Road railway station, about 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. The site is divided into two halves which are joined by two foot-bridges, one of which provides wheelchair access. Each side has a demonstration line with various workshop buildings as well as museum buildings.
Herefordshire is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire and Powys to the west. The city of Hereford is the largest settlement and the county town.
The Cotswold Line is an 86+1⁄2-mile (139.2 km) railway line between Oxford and Hereford in England.
Leominster railway station lies on the Welsh Marches Line, serving the town of Leominster in Herefordshire, England. It is situated 11+1⁄4 miles (18.1 km) north of Hereford. The station has two operational platforms, for northbound services via Ludlow and southbound via Hereford; in the past, it had three more for discontinued services to Worcester and Kington.
Suckley is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire, England, close to the border with Herefordshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Suckley Knowl, Suckley Green at SO719532 and Longley Green at SO733503.
Honeybourne railway station serves the village of Honeybourne in Worcestershire, England. Opened in 1853, it is on the Cotswold Line and was formerly a busy junction with five platform faces, also serving trains on the Great Western Railway's Honeybourne Line between Cheltenham Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon, which formed part of a strategic route between the West Midlands and the West of England.
Hereford has seen a history of expansion and decline in its railway history.
The Bishop's Castle Railway was a railway company that constructed a railway line in Shropshire, from near Craven Arms to Bishop's Castle. It opened in 1866 but was continuously short of money, and was unable to complete its originally-planned route, nor to provide more than the most basic level of equipment. It closed due to bankruptcy in 1935.
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 Coleford, Monmouth, Usk & Pontypool Railway (CMU&PR) was a standard gauge railway of 16 miles (26 km) which ran from Monmouth to Little Mill, near Pontypool in Monmouthshire, Wales. It was intended to convey the mineral products of the Forest of Dean to the ironworks of South Wales, by connecting to the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway at Little Mill Junction. The NAHR made the onward connection over its Taff Vale Extension line. The CMU&PR intended to acquire the Monmouth Railway, actually a horse-operated plateway, and convert it to locomotive operation.
The Worcester and Hereford Railway started the construction of a standard gauge railway between the two cities in 1858. It had needed the financial assistance of larger concerns, chiefly the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway, and the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway. It opened its line progressively from 1859 to 1861, delayed by exceptionally difficult tunnelling at Colwall and Ledbury. The company was purchased by the West Midland Railway in 1860, and that company amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1863.
Leominster and Kington Railway was one of four branches which served the Welsh Marches border town of Kington, Herefordshire.
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.
Fencote railway station was a railway station on the Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway in Hatfield and Newhampton, Herefordshire, England.
The Bromyard and Linton Light Railway is a 1-mile (1.6 km) single track, 2 ft narrow gauge railway line that runs between Bromyard and the Linton Industrial Estate, just off the A44. The track is laid on the bed of the old BR Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway line. The track runs from an old depot, close to the site of the old Bromyard station, and ends under a bridge near a hospital turned flat block. The bridge was constructed in 1877 and carries a lane. There are disused engines in sheds at the main depot and Linton depot. The present track was used for the disused sandstone quarry.
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.
Hatfield and Newhampton is a civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England, and is 11 miles (18 km) north from the city and county town of Hereford. The closest large town is Leominster 4 miles (6 km) to the west. The parish includes the small village of Hatfield, the former extra-parochial liberty of New Hampton, the site of former abbey lands of Fencote, the preserved Fencote railway station, and the Grade II* listed 11th-century Church of St Leonard.
Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
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Fencote Line and station closed | Great Western Railway Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway | Bromyard Line and station closed |