The Anglesey Sidings is a former sidings terminal located on the South Staffordshire Line and served for a time as an

oil terminal An oil terminal (also called a tank farm, tankfarm, oil installation or oil depot) is an industrial facility for the storage of oil, petroleum and petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obt ...

. The sidings are located on the other end of the A5 Watling Street in Brownhills near the border of

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

History

The sidings were built to connect the South Staffordshire Line to the coal fields at Chasewater and Cannock Chase. This branch ran down Wharf Lane and connected near the present-day

Chasewater Railway The Chasewater Railway is a former colliery railway running round the shores of Chasewater in Staffordshire, England. It is now operated as a heritage railway. The line is approximately in length, contained entirely within Chasewater Countr ...

. They are named after the Welsh island of the same name, as the landowner

Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey (17 May 1768 – 29 April 1854), styled Lord Paget between 1784 and 1812 and known as the Earl of Uxbridge between 1812 and 1815, was a British Army officer and politician. After serving as a member ...

who lived at Beaudesert Hall, gave permission for the site to be developed.Moors, Terry: ''Lost Railways of Birmingham & The West Midlands'', page 43. Countryside Books, 2008

Decline

The sidings were closed to Chasewater and Cannock Chase in the late 1960s. The sidings at Brownhills remained in use until 1984 when the section from Angelsea Sidings to Ryecroft Junction closed to all through traffic. The section through Hammerwich continued to serve the sidings for an oil terminal until 2001/02 when the entire line was closed. It was then left mothballed.

Present day

Today, the branch at Wharf Lane has since become a

public footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

. The section from Brownhills to Lichfield is now mothballed and out of use. It remains under the ownership of

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

. The section towards Walsall is now a leisure greenway.

References

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External links

*https://southstaffsrail.webs.com/angleseasidings.htm *https://chasewaterrailwaymuseum.blog/tag/anglesey-sidings/ *https://brownhillsbob.com/tag/anglesey-sidings/ *https://chasewaterstuff.wordpress.com/tag/anglesey-sidings/ *https://www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/staffs5708.htm *https://oakparkrunner.wordpress.com/walsall-to-lichfield-railway-line/ Railway sidings in England Rail transport in Staffordshire