Wilmcote Station

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Wilmcote station was one of three intermediate stations on the Stratford-on-Avon Railway (the other two being Claverdon and Bearley). This 9¼ mile single track, mixed gauge railway was opened on 9th October 1860 as a nominally independent branch from the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway at Hatton. It was operated by the Great Western with broad gauge stock until a connection with the Stratford branch of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway allowed narrow gauge (4'8¼") trains to run through from Worcester via Honeybourne in 1863. Six years later on 1st April 1869 the broad gauge rail was removed. In 1883 the Stratford-on-Avon Railway Company was absorbed by the Great Western Railway. The '1885 Ordnance Survey Map' shows Wilmcote having just one short siding located behind the platform. In essence this short siding was more akin to a head shunt to the loop line which ran from the station to the Blue Lias Lime and Cement Works, which had its own extensive network of sidings. By 1904 a second much longer siding was installed (as seen in image 'gwrwil654a') thought to be used by local merchants principally for receiving coal. The following table shows the volume of goods traffic by category. Of particular interest are the figures for general goods forwarded in 1903 which amounted to 3,245 tons. The significant decline to 384 tons in 1913 followed by further declines in 1923 (155 tons) and 1933 (60 tons) is most likely explained by the closure of the adjacent Blue Lias Lime and Cement works. Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith note in their book 'Stratford to Birmingham' that 'other items listed as being despatched from Wilmcote included blackcurrants, straw, rabbits and mushrooms. They also produced the following table:

Wilmcote	1903	1913	1923	1933
Passenger tickets issued	10325	14164	12754	14987
Season tickets issued	*	*	130	493
Parcels forwarded	1395	6190	7044	1098
General goods forwarded (tons)	3245	311	92	84
Coal and coke received (tons)	1260	-	8	8
Other minerals received (tons)	344	1289	390	826
General goods received (tons)	207	384	155	60
Trucks of livestock handled	-	-	-	8
* not available

The population of the village didn't contribute too significantly to goods inwards or outwards or even the number of passenger journeys because according to the National Census for 1961, the village's population only amounted to 602. The doubling of the line had a slight impact upon the number of staff employed at Wilmcote station rising from three prior to the building of the North Warwickshire line to five during the 1930s. The new station was built on the south side of south of the road. The North Warwickshire Railway was opened in stages with the new Wilmcote station being opened on 9th December 1907 although the new 27 lever signal box opened a little before opening on 3rd November and remaining open until 12th June 1966. The goods yard remained unaltered with the basic station facilities now being used the goods yard staff and others working on the line. By 1923 the goods yard had been equipped with a Weigh Bridge and Office (this facility might have been available earlier but it isn't show on either the 1885 or 1904 Ordnance Survey map). The Railway Clearing House's Hand Book of Railway Stations states that in 1894, when the station was just a single platform with one siding, the station offered only a general goods facility together with passenger and parcels services. The 1928 Edition reported exactly the same facilities being offered with no facilities for Furniture Vans, Carriages, Portable Engines and Machines on Wheels; Live Stock; Horse Boxes and Prize Cattle Vans; and Carriages (road vehicles - Ed) by Passenger Train. However, as can be seen by the figures above, some livestock was handled in 1933 with eight trucks being accommodated at Wilmcote. The figures regrettably do not indicate whether this figure was inward or outward traffic or even both.

Access by road to the original station was via a drive which ran from what was to become Station Road just before the road crossed the Stratford Canal. This access road remained in place for goods traffic after the rebuilding of the station. However passengers for the new station had to make do with a sloping footpath which ran from the road adjacent to the bridge to the station. Passengers arriving or leaving from a road vehicle would have to alight or board their transport whilst blocking the road, much as is the case in the second decade of the 21st century. The main facilities were located on the up platform and built with brick walls and a tiled roof. The canopy, which ran more or less the full length of the building, projected outwards to the rails and covered half the width of the platform. This structure had three rooms; a clerks booking office, a ladies waiting room with en-suite toilet, and a booking hall which also doubled as a general waiting room. The gentlemen's facilities were, as usual, provide at one end of the building and accessed from off the platform with a vanity screen to protect the modesty of the gentlemen inside. The down platform consisted of a similar but smaller building with two rooms, the booking office not being required. As was the case across the UK, post-World War Two saw a marked increase in competition from road traffic which with its door to door facility made the railways not at all competitive. This resulted in the wholesale closure of goods yards throughout the country during the 1950s and 1960s, which in the case of Wilmcote was 11th November 1963. Fortunately, Wilmcote is a popular destination for visitors arriving by train to visit Mary Arden's House, Shakespeare's mothers home. This might explain why unlike many stations on the line which have had their historical buildings demolished to be replaced by a bus shelter structure it still retains its 1907 buildings.

Ian writes, ' I live in Canada, but am originally from Wilmcote. The pictures of Wilmcote station brings back vivid memories. My grandfather (Arthur Robbins) was a signalman in the Wilmcote box. Probably from the late 1930s until he retired in the 1960s. I have many happy memories of being in the box watching him work. I also took the train every school day from Wilmcote to Stratford for high school. The other interesting information I found was the information about the tram link to the Wilmcote quarries. As a small lad I played in the Gypsy Hall quarry site. My grandfather, lived in an old quarry workers Cottage in station road, just down from the station. (Now demolished)'.

Much of the information on this and other pages of Warwickshire Railways is derived from articles or books listed in our 'bibliography'.

Wilmcote Station (41)

Wilmcote Blue Lias Lime Quarries (2)