The Tenbury and Bewdley Railway was an English railway company that built its single-track standard-gauge 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 opening by the West Midland Railway, then by the Great Western Railway, then by British Railways until closure.
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 after 101 years of operation. There is now no railway activity on most of the former line, but its trackbed is still extant in sections, particularly where it forms part of National Cycle Route 45 through the Wyre Forest.
Conception
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 Railway.[2][3][4][5] While the branch line between Woofferton and Tenbury was under construction, there was enthusiasm to extend the line from Tenbury to Bewdley, where it would connect with the then-under-construction Severn Valley Railway.[6] 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, as planned.[7] Around this time, the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway amalgamated with others to form the West Midland Railway, which would later operate the Tenbury and Bewdley.
Construction and railway politics
The Tenbury and Bewdley Railway (illustrated in red) and Tenbury line (illustrated in orange).
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]
Tenbury Wells Station, with ex-Great Western Diesel railcar in 1949
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 branch 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 been slowly progressing.
Opening
After the completion of construction, just as the line was being readied to open in June 1864, a serious landslip in Prizeley cutting took place, and the planned opening had to be postponed. The earthwork was stabilised, and a ceremonial opening took place a month later on 4 August 1864, although the line had not yet been approved for passenger operation.[12] This would occur on 9 August 1864, when Captain Tyler of the Board of Trade visited the line and gave his consent to the opening of the line for passenger trains. The line opened fully on 13 August 1864.[note 1][13][7][5][14]
Bewdley to Kidderminster loop line
Bewdley railway station, the terminus of the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway and Kidderminster loop line, in 1963, two years before the dismantling of the line. The station still exists as part of the Severn Valley Railway.
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 due to the cost, the line was opened on 1 June 1878 and enabled trains from the Tenbury direction to run direct towards Kidderminster, for Birmingham. This line is now preserved as part of the modern day Severn Valley Railway.[15]
The passenger train service on the line varied little over the 101 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.[16][17][18][19][20]
Route
From Bewdley, the line ran north on a single track line alongside the Severn Valley Railway for a distance of about a mile, before diverging to the west to cross the River Severn using Dowles Bridge (52°23′08″N2°19′30″W / 52.3855°N 2.3249°W / 52.3855; -2.3249 (Dowles Bridge)). Between Woofferton and Newnham Bridge, the railway was largely built along the bed of the disused Leominster Canal, and made use of a substantial aqueduct built for the canal to cross the River Rea.[10]
Operating companies
From opening in 1864, the Tenbury and Bewdley was operated by the West Midland Railway, which amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1869.[21] Due to this, the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway was operated by the GWR from 1869 until nationalisation in 1948, after which it was operated by British Railways until closure in 1965.[7]
Stations
Station Name
Opened
Closed
Notes
Tenbury
1 August 1861
1 August 1962
Renamed Tenbury Wells 1912
Newnham
13 August 1864
1 August 1962
Renamed Newnham Bridge 1873
Neen Sollars
13 August 1864
1 August 1962
Cleobury Mortimer
13 August 1864
1 August 1962
Wyre Forest
1 June 1869
1 August 1962
Dowles Bridge
Bewdley
1 February 1862
5 January 1970
Later reopened as part of the Severn Valley Railway heritage line.
The view northward from Cleobury Mortimer towards Ditton Priors on the Cleobury Mortimer & Ditton Priors Light Railway.
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.[22] 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,[23] passenger trains following on 21 November 1908.[24]
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.[25]
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.[26] In 1960 the railway line was closed but the Royal Navy continued to use the depot as a non-rail-connected base until 1965.
Decline and closure
The trackbed of the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway in the Wyre Forest. The bridge pictured was constructed to span the rails, but now spans National Cycle Route 45, which occupies this part of the trackbed.
In 1948, after WW2, the then owner/operator of the Tenbury and Bewdley, the GWR, was amalgamated with the other "big four" railway companies to become British Railways, which assumed ownership of the line. Running up to the 1960s, the rural nature of the Tenbury and Bewdley line resulted in a steep decline in passenger and freight business as roads were constructed which duplicated the line and reliable road transport developed. It therefore became plain to British Railways that the line was heavily loss-making. As such, closure was proposed in 1960, but a case was made against it concerning the hardship that closure of the line would cause to the locals served by it, especially to schoolchildren who relied on the trains. Despite this, the decision was taken to close the Tenbury line from Tenbury Wells to Woofferton completely from 31 July 1961, severing the Tenbury and Bewdley from its connection with the Shrewsbury to Hereford mainline, and therefore the overall British mainline network at one end. One passenger train each way daily would run from Kidderminster via Bewdley to Tenbury Wells on the then-remaining section of the line for a trial period of one year, at times suitable for the schools.[27] 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.[28]
The remains of Dowles Bridge. The rails were supported by iron lattices which spanned the stone columns, they were removed on closure of the line.
After closure, a goods service was retained on the branch along its length between Tenbury and Bewdley. All connections with the Shrewsbury and Hereford main line had been removed at Woofferton on 12 November 1961, leading to further decline. 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, after a period being used for the storage of surplus goods wagons, on Good Friday, 16 April 1965, the line was closed and only dismantling traffic continued to use the line.[29][14] In March 1966, with lifting of the track completed, the spans of Dowles Bridge were dismantled, leaving only the supports standing in the River Severn.[30]
Current state of the line
As of April2025[update], much of the Tenbury and Bewdley railway's trackbed is fading back into the countryside, no indication of railway activity is present on much of the line, though some embankments, stations, viaducts and bridges survive. Today, the original branch off of the Severn Valley Railway is used as a siding to a point shortly outside of Bewdley; the supports of Dowles Bridge remain standing in the River Severn; the trackbed is walkable for a few miles between Dowles Road and an edge of the Wyre Forest as part of the Mercian Way; and the stations of Bewdley, Wyre Forest, Cleobury Mortimer, Neen Sollars and Newnham Bridge are extant as private residences, Tenbury Wells railway station having been demolished and the site used for various industrial purposes.[30]
Notes
↑ Probably another ceremonial opening, followed by a public opening on 14 August 1864.
1 2 Rex Christiansen, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 13: Thames and Severn, David and Charles (Publishers) Limited, Newton Abbot, 1981, ISBN0 7153 8004 4, page 113
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