Warwick (Milverton): Station
The single line branch from Coventry to Leamington was
opened on 6th December 1844 with the line terminating at Warwick Milverton
station but which was named Leamington. It is thought that the location
of the station which was halfway between Leamington, the fashionable Spa town,
and Warwick, the county town and therefore political centre of the county, was
an attempt to balance costs whilst attempting to provide a service for both
towns.
The nine name changes that occurred over the life of the
station is a good indicator that the compromise was never successful. The
opening of the Rugby to Warwick Milverton single line branch in 1851 should, it
would be thought, have offered the citizens of Leamington the opportunity of a
station located more appropriately for their needs. In fact it wasn't until
1854 that the a small station was provided requiring the first name change at
Milverton from Leamington to Warwick (Milverton). As Preston
Hendry and Powell Hendry state in their book 'LMS Stations' "the attractions of
this name paled and the station successively became Warwick, Warwick
(Milverton), Leamington (Milverton), Leamington Milverton (Warwick) and
Milverton for (Warwick).'
In 1883 a number of developments on the route caused further
physical changes as well as a name change. The doubling of the Rugby to
Milverton route together with the opening of the Berkswell to Kenilworth branch
was complemented with the doubling of the Milverton to Kenilworth route
resulting in Milverton station being rebuilt. Its new name of Warwick
(Milverton) was introduced in 1884 which presumably was more acceptable as it
retained the name until 1952 when British Rail decided to change it to
Leamington Spa (Milverton) for Warwick.
Milverton is thought to have had three stations during its
years of operational service. The original station in image 'lnwrwar_stn1374'
clearly shows a single line station with a roof over both the platform and
line. The diagram in 'LMS Stations' shows that a second station was evident on
the Kenilworth side of the up platform and accessed from Rugby Road. It
appeared to be a substantial structure as the plan shows there were 12 rooms
including a Station Masters Office. This building is recorded to have continued
in use after the opening of the third and final station for Departmental use.
Of note is the juxtaposition of the buildings, being sited on (and opposite)
the paved and hard standing portion of the platforms we see in the photographs.
This seems to indicate that the timber framed and planked portion was built as
an extension to the second station's platform in 1883.
The third station was built with its booking office at road
level with the access to both platforms being via a covered staircase from
Warwick New Road. The platform structures were built on the timber portion of
the lengthened platforms and were standard LNWR late 19th century timber framed
and clad buildings. The use of timber was both economical, being cheaper and
quicker to erect as they utilised standardised LNWR prefabricated units, as
well as being lighter and requiring less substantial earth works and
engineering works than would otherwise be the case.
Preston Hendry and Powell Hendry make the point that because
the routes from Coventry and Rugby and Daventry overlapped (Coventry to
Leamington (Avenue) and Rugby/Daventry to Milverton) the short stretch of track
between Leamington and Milverton saw an exceptional level of passenger workings
for a secondary route. They estimate that 38 passenger trains travelled on this
short section in 1927 without taking into account the goods traffic that passed
on its way to the GWR at Leamington or further south on LNWR metals avoiding
Rugby.
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accompanying text:
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