GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington Spa Station: gwrls3914

A plan of the work proposed at Leamington Spa that was deposited with parliament to accompany the Great Western Railway (Additional Powers) Act, 1936. This parliamentary act, which was approved on 31st July 1936, contained a diverse selection of powers to:

• Construct railways and other works in connection with their undertaking
• Authorise financial arrangements with respect to certain works and facilities to be provided under an agreement with the Treasury -
• Abandon certain railways (including parts of the existing Marlborough Railway and Rhondda & Swansea Bay Railway and construction of several new railways authorised in 1911 and 1912)
• Raise additional capital - Other purposes

The work at Leamington Spa involved the stopping-up and removal of a footbridge which passed over both the GWR’s Oxford & Birmingham Railway and LMS’s Rugby & Leamington Railway near the western end of Leamington Station. To replace the public right of way along this footbridge, it authorised the construction of a new footpath between the northern end of the extinguished footbridge and Lower Avenue (at or near its junction with Warwick Road) and to carry the footpath under the two railways by means of the existing subway near the eastern end of the station.

The parliamentary act specified that the new footpath was required to be not less than eight feet wide and have either gas or electric lighting installed. The new footpath and existing subway was to be open to the public in perpetuity and at all times maintained and lighted by the Royal Leamington Spa Corporation. The construction of these new works was required to be completed before the existing footbridge could be stopped-up and the public rights of way extinguished.

The removal of this footbridge, which can be seen in 'gwrls850', paved the way for the extension of the platforms northwards during the rebuilding of Leamington Spa Station in 1939.

Robert Ferris

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