Eardington Halt, originally named Eardington, is a closed railway 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 ...

near Eardington, south 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. Histor ...

, in

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 ...

History

Eardington opened on 1 June 1868, six years after the opening of the Severn Valley line, mainly to serve the nearby Upper Forge and Lower Forge iron works. It was not readily accessible from the nearby villages of

Chelmarsh Chelmarsh is a village and civil parish in the English county of Shropshire. It lies 4 miles south of Bridgnorth on the B4555 road to Highley. Notable buildings The main feature of the village St. Peter's church. This is an example of the De ...

and Eardington, and on 1 April 1949 was reduced to unstaffed status, although never deemed a halt.SVR Souvenir Guide Ninth Edition, David C. Williams, p27 The station had a brick waiting room and single platform. In the later years under British Railways control, Eardington had much of its custom from fishermen at weekends and during the summer months. Although mistakenly thought by some people to have been closed as part of the Beeching axe in 1963 Eardington's planned closure pre-dated his report.

Preservation

When the Severn Valley Railway re-opened in preservation on 23 May 1970, Eardington was the only intermediate stop between Bridgnorth and Hampton Loade, resulting in its being renamed Eardington Halt. It was initially used for watering locomotives, having a ready supply of better quality water than Bridgnorth. The Halt closed temporarily for repair work in October 1979, and briefly reopened in 1981 before being finally deleted from the timetable in 1982. It has not been used in regular service since because of poor custom, land slippage and the fact that the station is situated on a 1 in 100 gradient. Another problem is the combination of the shortness of the platform face, normal SVR practice of marshalling the guard's compartment in the centre of the train and the arched overbridge immediately to the north of the platform, which would prevent the traincrew from being able to see the guard if the train was stopped with the guard's van on the platform, as is correct practice. The siding is now used for the storage of permanent way vehicles. A small band of volunteers have occasional "work-ins" to keep the station environs tidy. There have recently been calls to restore the station for use on gala weekends and such. This has happened previously, during the Autumn 1998 steam gala, when the Hampton - Bridgnorth local called in each direction, despite not being booked to stop. There are plans to reinstate the original platform which had been removed in 1980s. The current platform face dates from the 1893 extension.

History

Preservation

References

Further reading