Worcester Shrub Hill railway station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Worcester Shrub Hill | |||
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|---|---|---|---|
| Location | |||
| Place | Worcester | ||
| Local authority | Worcester | ||
| Operations | |||
| Station code | WOS | ||
| Managed by | London Midland | ||
| Platforms in use | 3 | ||
| Live departures and station information from National Rail | |||
| Annual Rail Passenger Usage | |||
| 2004/05 * | 1.356 million | ||
| 2005/06 * | 0.203 million | ||
| History | |||
| Key dates | Opened 1850 | ||
| National Rail - UK railway stations | |||
| * Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Worcester Shrub Hill from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. | |||
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Worcester Shrub Hill railway station is one of two railway stations serving the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England. It is managed by London Midland, and it is also served by First Great Western.
The city's other station, Worcester Foregate Street, is situated in the city centre; Shrub Hill is situated to the east.
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[edit] History
The first station at Shrub Hill was opened in 1850 being jointly owned by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton and Midland Railways; until 1852 it was used only as a terminus for the latter's services from Birmingham. The present station building was designed by Edward Wilson and built in 1865. It is a Georgian-style building mainly of engineering brick with stone facings. Originally there was also a train shed which was removed in the 1930s.
A survival at the station are the Western Region semaphore signals.
[edit] Possible Closure Plans
If either of the proposed Worcester Parkway railway stations are built, Shrub Hill station will close [1], as Worcester cannot justify having three stations. City Centre passengers will have to use Foregate Street station.
[edit] Services
Worcester Shrub Hill is served by London Midland's services from Worcester to Birmingham, either directly to Birmingham New Street via Bromsgrove, or via Kidderminster to Birmingham Snow Hill. First Great Western operate several services a day to London Paddington via the Cotswold Line and Oxford. They also run services to Bristol Temple Meads via Cheltenham and Gloucester. Both companies also run services via Worcester Foregate Street to Great Malvern and Hereford.
[edit] Waiting room
On platform 2b is the old ladies’ waiting room which extends onto the platform. It is a cast-iron structure cast at the Vulcan Iron Works at Worcester. This was a subsidiary of the MacKenzie and Holland signal manufacturing company about 200 yards from Worcester Shrub Hill station . The exterior is decorated with classical pilasters and covered with “majolica” ceramic tiles made by Maw and Company of Broseley.
Maw was originally a Worcester company founded in 1850 when they bought the old Chamberlain tile factory. However in 1852 they moved to Broseley to be nearer their source of clay. In the main they made encaustic tiles rather than the “majolica” ceramic tiles used to decorate the Shrub Hill waiting room.
Wojtczak writes that in 1873 there was Ladies’ Waiting Room Attendant called Mrs Dale who earned 10s and that this was the same rate of pay as a Mrs Spencer who was the Office Cleaner.[citation needed]
It is Grade II* listed and English Heritage placed it on the “Buildings At Risk Register” in 2003. The official records record that the waiting room was added c1880. In 2005 the register records “The cast iron frame is in need of structural repair. The front wall is leaning out and currently shored up. Preliminary investigative work has been carried out, but repair works have been delayed due partly to problem of locating specialist contractors." In April 2005 Network Rail applied for listed building planning consent to restore the waiting room to bring it back into use before the end of 2006. The application gave detail of the work to be carried out including restoration of the cast iron work and the sourcing and replacement of the missing ceramic tiles but as at May 2006 no work had commenced and English Heritage reported that the building will be on the 2006 “Buildings At Risk Register” to be published in June 2006.
[edit] References
- ^ http://archive.thisisworcestershire.co.uk/2005/8/12/370646.html The Worcester News
[edit] External links
- Train times and station information for Worcester Shrub Hill railway station from National Rail
- Rail Around Birmingham and the West Midlands: Worcester Shrub Hill station
[edit] Bibliography
- Biddle, Gordon (2003). Britain's Historic Railway Buildings. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866247-5.
- Boynton, John & Widdowson, Stephen (2000). Worcester Shrub Hill 150, 1850-2000. Worcester 150. ISBN 0-9522248-8-7.
