Hockley was an intermediate station on the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services pro ...

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

via Birmingham Snow Hill line, England, serving the

Hockley Hockley is a large village and civil parish in Essex in the East of England located between Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea, or, more specifically, between Rayleigh and Rochford. It came to prominence during the coming of the railway in the 189 ...

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 West ...

. It was around one mile from Snow Hill station. Opened in 1854, it lasted for the duration of the line's original life, eventually closing with the line in 1972. The station had two bay and one island platform, with the only pedestrian access for passengers to the latter being from below.

Replacement

When the line was reopened in 1995, Hockley station was not reopened. However a new station;

Jewellery Quarter station Jewellery Quarter station is a combined railway station and tram stop, situated in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, England. The station is served by West Midlands Trains (who operate the station), Chiltern Railways, and Midland Metro. Th ...

was opened around to the east, at the mouth of Hockley No 2 Tunnel. On the other side of Icknield Street. Little trace now remains of the original station, as the site was cleared in the 1990s when the line was reopened.

Image gallery

File:Hockleyr 3 67.jpg, File:Snow Hill approach - Hockley - geograph.org.uk - 1716767.jpg,

Hockley goods depot

Between 1854 and 1967, a large

goods depot In economics, goods are items that satisfy human wants and provide utility, for example, to a consumer making a purchase of a satisfying product. A common distinction is made between goods which are transferable, and services, which are not tra ...

was situated alongside the station. It was the Great Western Railway's principal goods depot for the Birmingham area. The depot measured three-quarters of a mile long by two to three hundred yards wide. At the western end it had a transshipment interchange with barges on the

Soho Loop The Soho Loop is a section of the eighteenth-century Old BCN Main Line canal in Birmingham, England, about west of the city centre, which opened to traffic on 6 November 1769, and was bypassed in September 1827 by a straight section of the ...

of the

Birmingham Canal The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line is the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England. The name ''Main Line'' was used to distinguish the main Birmingham to Wolverhampton rout ...

. In the 1920s the depot employed over one thousand permanent staff.

Replacement

Image gallery

Hockley goods depot

References

Further reading