The Woofferton and Tenbury railway

(Historic Environment Record number 30842)

In the north of the county was a line that ran off eastwards from Woofferton Junction on the Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway. This line included stations at Woofferton Junction, Easton Court and Tenbury Wells (in Worcestershire). For most of its route it ran along the disused canal bed of the Kington, Leominster and Stourport Canal, which had been intended to link up a route to the River Severn as well as the industrial Midlands.

The Tenbury Railway Company was granted permission for the line by an Act of Parliament on 21st July 1859, the same year that the canal had closed. The first section of the line from Woofferton to Tenbury Wells was opened on 1st August 1861 and was operated by the Great Western Railway Company. In 1864 the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway Company opened up the remainder of the line to Bewdley and this was also worked by GWR. The two lines were later incorporated into one company, although a few trains continued to run only between Woofferton and Tenbury. Later a three-mile section from Bewdley to Kidderminster was opened, which meant that it was possible to get through trains from Woofferton to Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

After World War II the line suffered from competition from road transport and the line from Woofferton to Tenbury was closed on 31st July 1961. Woofferton station was subsequently demolished.

[Original author: Miranda Greene, 2003]