Bournville railway station serves the

Bournville Bournville () is a model village on the southwest side of Birmingham, England, founded by the Quaker Cadbury family for employees at its Cadbury's factory, and designed to be a "garden" (or "model") village where the sale of alcohol was forb ...

area of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is on the

Cross-City Line The Cross-City Line is a commuter rail line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs for from Redditch and Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, its two southern termini, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via Birmingham New ...

which runs from

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

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 o ...

via

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , and vi ...

History

The station opened on 3 April 1876 as the temporary southern terminus of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway, while the difficult construction of the junction with the

Birmingham and Gloucester Railway The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) was the first name of the railway linking the cities in its name and of the company which pioneered and developed it; the line opened in stages in 1840, using a terminus at Camp Hill in Birmingham. It ...

was completed at Kings Norton. Stirchley Street opened as a single platform with later added run around loop. In an initial land rental agreement with the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, the station sits above Bournville Lane, as the tracks are on an

embankment Embankment may refer to: Geology and geography * A levee, an artificial bank raised above the immediately surrounding land to redirect or prevent flooding by a river, lake or sea * Embankment (earthworks), a raised bank to carry a road, railway ...

, shared with the canal. Bournville_railway_station

With the opening of the Cadbury Bournville Factory in 1879, in 1880 the station was renamed Stirchley Street and Bournville. After an improved through connection was developed to the Birmingham and Gloucester at Kings Norton in 1885, the railway track to Birmingham was doubled along its lines entire length as the line was extended into

. This necessitated the construction of a southbound platform between the line and the canal, resulting even today in a narrow platform. In 1904, the station was finally renamed Bournville. The station has never had any goods facilities, but north of its location were the exchange sidings with the of the Bournville Works Railway, while south of it there was a

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

developed roundhouse engine shed, which opened in 1895 and closed in 1961. The station area has changed considerably since the Midland Railway days and lost virtually all its original features as the station was completely rebuilt by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

in 1978 to the designs of the architect John Broome along with the others on this line when the Cross-City route was commissioned. Prior to the rebuild, the station had only received a limited service (mainly at peak hours) for much of the 1960s and 1970s. The line was electrified in 1993.

Station masters

*H.G. Clayfield 1876 - 1880 *H. Shaw 1880 - 1881 *Frederick Watkin 1881 - 1883 (formerly station master at Somerset Road, afterwards station master at Whatstandwell) *W.H. Turner 1883 - 1888 (formerly station master at Cray, afterwards station master at Edwalton) *J. Jones 1888 (formerly station master at Cray) *Albert Christopher East 1889 - 1891 (afterwards station master at Freeton) *Arthur James Dewey 1891 - 1929 *H.J. Parker 1930 - 1937 *S. Davies ca. 1940 *William Blackmore 1946 - 1956

Today

The

Cadbury Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mar ...

chocolate factory is still adjacent to the station, reflected in the fact that Bournville station is partly painted in Cadbury purple, and station signs include the famous Cadbury logo, a reflection of the station providing ideal access for

Cadbury World Cadbury World is a visitor attraction in Bournville, Birmingham, England, featuring a self-guided exhibition tour, created and run by the Cadbury Company. The tour tells the history of chocolate, and of the Cadbury business. A second location ...

. The station currently only serves trains of the Cross City Line, all services currently being operated by Class 323 electrical multiple units. Services are all operated by West Midlands Trains on behalf of Transport for West Midlands. Bournville Station is equipped with real-time information departure boards which were installed in 2006 by Central Trains. In 2010, the station featured in episode 18 of Michael Portillo's television series '' Great British Railway Journeys''. In 2011, the station featured in episode 2 of Julia Bradbury's television series ''Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury''.

Disabled access

Both platforms have step-free access (by means of a ramp) from the Mary Vale Road entrance. The main station entrance, via the ticket office on Bournville Lane, only provides access to the platforms via steep steps. There is a ticket machine on platform 1 (for trains towards ) for the benefit of passengers who enter the station via the step-free entrance.

Services

Trains call here every 10 minutes in each direction Monday to Saturday daytimes and every 30 minutes on Sundays.

References

External links

Rail Around Birmingham and the West Midlands: Bournville railway station
{{West Midlands railway stations, open Railway stations in Birmingham, West Midlands DfT Category D stations Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1876 Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains John Broome railway stations