Sutton Park
Opened in 1879, the station stood on the Midland Railway's
Walsall to Water Orton branch. The building of Sutton Park station and its line
was highly contentious as it bisected Sutton Park which was a very prosperous
and wealthy area and was met with significant resistance from local landowners
and local residents.
The station itself is approximately five minutes from the
LNWR's Sutton Coldfield station and 10 minutes from the MR's Sutton Town
station (which is the next station towards Water Orton). Because Sutton Park
was seen by the MR as a natural place of beauty and was therefore a popular
destination for Victorians to picnic it was built to accommodate trains that
would terminate at the station from Birmingham instead of progressing onwards
to Walsall. This resulted in the station having three platforms, the up being a
stand-alone structure whilst the down platform was situated on an island with
the third platform being both an arrival as well as departure platform.
The number of stations within such a confined area (in what
was not a densely populated area) contributed to the closure of the MR's Sutton
Town in 1924 shortly after the formation of the LMS. Passenger traffic remained
relatively light on the line because most passenger were commuters and the
ex-LNWR route provided a more direct route to Birmingham. Passenger traffic
finally ceased on this section of the line in 1964 together with its local
goods yard although goods traffic continues to use the line as a through route
to this day.
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