Bridgnorth railway station is a station on the

Severn Valley Railway The Severn Valley Railway is a heritage railway in Shropshire and Worcestershire, England. The heritage line runs along the Severn Valley from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster, following the course of the River Severn for much of its route, and c ...

heritage line, serving the

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

town of

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. History B ...

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 b ...

. It is currently the northern terminus of the SVR, home to the main engine shed and has a gift shop, station buffet and licensed refreshment room amongst other facilities.

History

Bridgnorth station was not the northern terminus when built, but the main intermediate station of the Severn Valley line being miles from

Hartlebury Hartlebury is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire, England which is in Wychavon district centred south of Kidderminster. The civil parish registered a population of 2,549 in the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census. The Hartlebury ra ...

and miles from

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

. Bridgnorth station was opened to the public on 1 February 1862, prompting great celebrations in the town. Originally under SVR Company ownership, it was passed to

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 ...

(GWR), and eventually

British Railways 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 rai ...

in 1948. It closed to passengers after 101 years on 9 September 1963, and to freight traffic on 30 November 1963. The neo-Jacobean station is the only listed station on the

and is in process of restoration work by a team of dedicated volunteers. The licensed refreshment room, these days known as The Railwaymans Arms, is situated on platform 1. It opened in 1861 and never closed, being extended twice by the SVR, and now needing further extension due to its unique character and popularity.

Stationmasters

The first station master, William Doughty was convicted by Bridgnorth County Magistrates of an assault on Mr. C.H. Witherington, schoolmaster, cutting his lip and knocking out a tooth. He was fined £5 () and costs. *William Doughty 1863–1866 *Samuel Martin 1866 – 1872 (formerly station master at Weymouth, afterwards station master at Westbury) *Frederick Corran Barrett from 1874 (formerly station master at

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

) *William G. Bowerman 1879–1897 *John Samuel Collett 1897–1905 *William James Cowan 1905 – ca. 1911 *George Smith 1914–1928 (formerly station master at

Chipping Norton Chipping Norton is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Banbury and north-west of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the civil parish population as ...

) *D.B. Davis 1930–1940 (formerly station master at Chipping Norton) *George Noble from 1940 *W.L. Mann 1952–1960 (afterwards station master at

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 ...

) *H.E. Ray from 1960 (formerly station master at

Bewdley Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the River Sev ...

)

Preservation

After only two years of closure preservationists had plans for Bridgnorth, resulting in the formation of the Severn Valley Railway Society. Vegetation was cleared, railway bric-a-brac was collected and the station buildings were refurbished. Although the original signal box was substantially demolished (only three sides of the bottom brick part and interlocking are original, the brick base was originally somewhat longer), Bridgnorth station was never damaged through this demolition activity. From then on preservation gained momentum until the present day. Bridgnorth became the engineering centre of the new SVR because of the need to repair the growing numbers of rolling stock items and locomotives after opening to the public when the first train steamed from Bridgnorth to

Hampton Loade Hampton Loade is a hamlet in Shropshire, England along the Severn Valley. It is situated on the east bank of the River Severn at , some five miles south of Bridgnorth, and is notable for the unusual current-operated Hampton Loade Ferry, a reacti ...

in May 1970. Sir

Gerald Nabarro Sir Gerald David Nunes Nabarro (29 June 1913 – 18 November 1973) was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician who was an MP from 1950 until his death. Nabarro positioned himself on the right of the Conservative Party. Though h ...

, chairman of the revived SVR, planned to sell the Bridgnorth station site for hotel and housing development; when SVR volunteers discovered his plans, it led to a threatened strike by the railway's volunteer staff and his proposals were thrown out at a heated AGM in 1973, following which he resigned his chairmanship.Severn Valley Railway Golden Jubilee Souvenir Supplement. "Abominable Showman" being Nabarro's nickname by opponents. The station is reached from High Town via a modern footbridge over a main road and a valley, the present bridge having opened in 1994. This replacement tubular steel bridge occupies the site of a lattice bridge closed and demolished several years previously. A section of the original footbridge adorns the centre island of one of the road traffic

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

s. Plans for a significant redevelopment of Bridgnorth station were approved by Shropshire Council in August 2016. The first phase of the project involving the construction of a new single-storey building in GWR circa 1900-style to provide a tea/refreshment room and new toilet facilities was completed at the end of 2018, as was the creation of an additional car park. Further phases will include the installation of a turntable in the locomotive yard and the renovation of the existing station building housing the booking hall, station shop and Railwayman's Arms public house. Additional funding will be required in due course for the construction of a new volunteer accommodation building.SVR Website news item
Retrieved 22 August 2016

Locomotive works

The main locomotive works for the SVR are located at Bridgnorth. They are not normally open to the public because of health and safety regulations but conducted tours and open days are arranged from time to time. Major features of the locomotive works include the Boiler Shop, the machine shop equipped with a Noble and Lund wheel lathe and ex-LT lifting jacks along with other equipment in the general fitting area. Installation of a locomotive

wheel drop A drop table or wheel drop is a device used in railway engineering during maintenance jobs that require the removal of locomotive or rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including ...

that was recovered from Leicestershire was completed during 2010.

References

External links

Bridgnorth station
{{Shropshire Heritage railway stations in Shropshire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1862 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1963 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1970 Railway workshops in Great Britain Severn Valley Railway Bridgnorth 1862 establishments in England