The Tenbury and Bewdley Railway (T&B) was an English railway company that built its single-track standard-gauge line from Bewdley to Tenbury Wells between 1860 and 1864. The line connected the Severn Valley Railway at Bewdley with the Tenbury Railway at Tenbury, which continued to Woofferton. The Tenbury and Bewdley railway and the Tenbury railway were sometimes collectively referred to as the Wyre Forest line or simply the Tenbury Line. The railway was operated from opening by the West Midland Railway, then by the Great Western Railway, then by British Railways until closure.
The line closed to passenger trains in 1962 and to goods traffic in 1965; the tracks, sleepers and some infrastructure were subsequently dismantled and removed in 1966 after 101 years of operation. There is now no railway activity on most of the former line, but its trackbed is still extant in sections, particularly where it forms part of National Cycle Route 45 through the Wyre Forest.
Conception The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway opened its line on 6 December 1852. Tenbury was a little over five miles from Woofferton station, which opened on that line at the same time, and a branch line was planned between the two: it opened on 1 August 1861 as the Tenbury Railway.Richard K Morriss, Railways of Shropshire: A brief history, Shropshire Libraries, Shrewsbury, 1981, , pages 39 and 40E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1921, volume 1, page 869Ernest F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959, page 317 While the branch line between Woofferton and Tenbury was under construction, there was enthusiasm to extend the line from Tenbury to Bewdley, where it would connect with the then-under-construction Severn Valley Railway. There were two immediate problems, gathering enough money to pay the parliamentary deposit, and heading off the suspected hostility of the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway. The former was resolved by getting a £9,600 bank loan.
The bill for the proposed Tenbury and Bewdley Railway went to Parliament in the 1860 session; the S&HR did indeed oppose it, but their opposition was overcome, and the (23 & 24 Vict. c. cxxviii) was given royal assent on 3 July 1860; capital was to be £120,000. The line would run from a junction with the Tenbury Railway, at Tenbury, to a junction with the Severn Valley Railway at Bewdley, as planned.Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador Publishers, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, , page 558 Around this time, the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway amalgamated with others to form the West Midland Railway, which would later operate the Tenbury and Bewdley.
Construction and railway politics
David Wylie was appointed engineer in July 1860 and Brassey and Field were appointed contractors in August 1960, the same parties already being engaged in construction of the Tenbury Railway at the time. A working arrangement with the West Midland Railway was concluded, by which the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway Company would receive 40% of gross receipts, after payment of interest on the borrowings. However the company was unable to raise the money to pay its contractor for the construction, and there was a protracted delay. Eventually in October 1861 instructions were given to commence work. In September 1862 the Shareholders were informed that arrangements had been made to lease the line to the West Midland Railway, giving a dividend of 4% after the first three years.
The main line at Woofferton (the former Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway) had by then been leased jointly to the London and North Western Railway (50%) and the Great Western Railway and the West Midland Railway (together 50%). The Tenbury branch was carried into the joint line status; the lease took effect on 1 July 1862, while construction was progressing on the Tenbury and Bewdley. David Wylie died unexpectedly in early 1863, with his role being assumed by his former assistant William Clarke.
Opening After the completion of construction, just as the line was being readied to open in June 1864, a serious landslip in Prizeley cutting took place, and the planned opening had to be postponed. The earthwork was stabilised, and a ceremonial opening took place a month later on 4 August 1864, although the line had not yet been approved for passenger operation. This would occur on 9 August 1864, when Captain Tyler of the Board of Trade visited the line and gave his consent to the opening of the line for passenger trains. The line opened fully on 13 August 1864.Probably another ceremonial opening, followed by a public opening on 14 August 1864.Rex Christiansen, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 13: Thames and Severn, David and Charles (Publishers) Limited, Newton Abbot, 1981, , page 113
Bewdley to Kidderminster loop line
After the Tenbury and Bewdley railway was completed, there were lots of passengers travelling between stations on the line and Birmingham. The route to Birmingham, which included a portion of the Severn Valley Railway, connected to the line to Birmingham (The Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton railway (OWW)) at a point near Hartlebury station. This was a roundabout way, as the distance between the SVR and the OWW to Birmingham was shorter between Bewdley and Kidderminster, and if a line was built, these trains would no longer be required to reverse at Hartlebury, simplifying operations. The travel time between the Tenbury and Bewdley line and Birmingham could therefore be reduced if a relatively small railway of three miles was constructed between Bewdley and Kidderminster. This was referred to as the Bewdley Curve, Bewdley Loop, Kidderminster loop or Kidderminster loop line. After much hesitation by the GWR due to high costs and their ongoing amalgamation with the West Midland Railway, the line was eventually opened on 1 June 1878 and enabled trains from the Tenbury direction to run direct towards Kidderminster, for Birmingham. This line is now preserved as part of the modern day Severn Valley Railway, despite being constructed 16 years after the rest of the preserved line.
Transfer to the GWR From 1 January 1869, the lease of the Tenbury branch was converted to outright ownership by the LNWR and GWR, under an agreement of 1 December 1868. A year after this, The Tenbury and Bewdley Railway company was transferred to the ownership of the Great Western Railway from 1 February 1870.
Operation The passenger train service on the line varied little over the 101 years in which the line was operational. In 1895, there were four trains daily (apart from Sundays) between Bewdley and Woofferton, with an additional two on the Tenbury to Woofferton section. By 1910 this had changed to five and four respectively, remaining similar from 1922 to 1962, when the line was closed to passengers.Bradshaw's Rail Times for Great Britain and Ireland: December 1895, reprint, Middleton Press, Midhurst, 2018, Bradshaw's April 1910 Railway Guide, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1968, Bradshaw's 1922 Railway Guide, Guild Publishing London, 1985Bradshaw's July 1938 Railway Guide, David & Charles Reprints, Newton Abbot, 1969, Western Region of British Railways, Passenger Timetable, Summer 1960
Route
From Bewdley, the line ran north on a single-track line alongside the Severn Valley Railway for a distance of about a mile, before diverging to the west to cross the River Severn using Dowles Bridge (). It then followed the valley of Dowles Brook through the Wyre Forest until Wyre Forest station. The site of the first passing loop after Bewdley was at Cleobury Mortimer, where connection to the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway could be made. The next station was Neen Sollars, a mirror of Cleobury Mortimer station when built. After this, Newnham Bridge. Between Newnham Bridge and Woofferton, the railway was partially built along the bed of the disused Leominster Canal, and crossed the River Teme by way of a bridge north of the earlier canal aqueduct. The T&B then joined the Welsh Marches line at Woofferton railway station, where its trains usually terminated in the bay platform then present.
Freight
For most of its operating life, freight was the primary source of revenue on the Tenbury and Bewdley.
Freight on the line was primarily agricultural, and therefore could be highly seasonal. Large amounts of traffic were generated by hop and cherry farming out of Newnham Bridge and Tenbury Wells, as the harvest was transported by rail across the country. Both stations maintained large goods yards and covered storage sheds for that purpose. The cattle market at Tenbury also created traffic for the railway, as such, cattle were a large source of freight on the line, especially in the late 1800s. After 1941, military traffic was also present on the railway following the opening of RNAD Ditton Priors, usually traveling across the T&B from Bewdley to Cleobury Mortimer crossing onto the branch to Ditton Priors where the depot was located.
Operating companies From opening in 1864, the Tenbury and Bewdley was operated by the West Midland Railway, which amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1869. Hence, the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway was operated by the GWR from 1869 until nationalisation in 1948, after which it was operated by British Railways until closure in 1965.
Stations +Station NameOpenedClosedNotesTenbury1 August 18611 August 1962Renamed Tenbury Wells 1912Newnham13 August 18641 August 1962Renamed Newnham Bridge 1873Neen Sollars13 August 18641 August 1962Cleobury Mortimer13 August 18641 August 1962Wyre Forest1 June 18691 August 1962Bewdley1 February 18625 January 1970Later reopened as part of the Severn Valley Railway heritage line. Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway
The Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway (CM&DPLR) was authorised under a light railway order, the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway Order 1901, on 23 March 1901. It was to build a line from a junction with the Tenbury and Bewdley Railway at Cleobury Mortimer. After considerable delay, the line was opened to goods traffic on 19 July 1908, passenger trains following on 21 November 1908.
For some years the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Railway was simply a rural branch line; its passenger service ceased in 1938 after being unremunerative for most of its existence. The increasing international tension following the Munich crisis of 1938 resulted, among other things, in a search for sites for the storage of naval ordnance. A site at Ditton Priors was considered to be suitable, and preparations were made to construct what became the Royal Naval Armaments Depot, Ditton Priors. It opened in 1940, and the majority of the traffic proceeded to move by rail.
The site eventually extended over a very considerable area. The development brought much goods traffic to the CM&DPLR and therefore the Tenbury and Bewdley railway. At the end of World War II the depot was used for decommissioned armaments. In 1955 the branch line was transferred to the ownership of the Ministry of Defence (Admiralty) for £40,000. In 1960 the CM&DPLR was closed, but the Royal Navy continued to use the depot as a non-rail-connected base until 1965. Decline and closure