The Butts Spur was a freight railway line constructed around 1860 with the aim of linking Worcester Foregate Street railway station to

Diglis Diglis is a suburb of Worcester, England. It is located around half a mile south of the city centre on the banks of the River Severn. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal starts in Diglis where it is connected to the Severn. Diglis Lock is a wide-b ...

where the Worcester and Birmingham canal joined the

river Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

. From around 1892 the line was worked by a small wheeled 0-6-0 saddle tank locomotive No. 2007 constructed in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

. It was hoped that goods arriving at Diglis from the river Severn would be transhipped to the railway. The line was used by Dent's factory and Stallards's distillery and brought cattle to the cattle market

It descended from Foregate street station on a viaduct to the north side of the Worcester to Hereford rail line into a

headshunt A headshunt (or escape track in the United States) is a short length of track provided to release locomotives at terminal platforms, or to allow shunting to take place clear of main lines. Terminal headshunt A 'terminal headshunt' is a short le ...

where the locomotive would reverse direction. The train continued its journey under the Worcester to Hereford railway viaduct via the east bank of the river Severn under Worcester bridge, at the time referred to as Gwynne's bridge, towards

Worcester cathedral Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, in Worcestershire, England, situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Bles ...

. The line's construction did not achieve its aim of reaching Diglis, instead finishing adjacent to Dent's factory and Stallard's Distillery which at the time were located on South Quay. This was due Worcester cathedral authorities objecting to a railway running between the cathedral and River Severn. With the rebuilding of the Worcester road bridge in 1931, the track was truncated to the north side of the bridge. The line was closed and the track removed in 1957. Traces of the line remain visible in the descending gradient of the viaduct arches which are currently used as commercial and storage units.

External links

Former Route of the Butts Spur Railway in 1930

Historic photographs of the Butts Spur Railway

Historic photographs of the Butts Spur Railway in an article on Worcester Skywalk bridge

References

{{reflist * * * * Worcester, England Rail transport in Worcestershire Closed railway lines