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GWR Routes

The Great Western Railway in Warwickshire

To navigate within the history of the Great Western Railway in Warwickshire click the following links.

Broad Gauge Plans and Politics Railway Construction and Gauge Conversion Into the Golden Age
Cut Offs and Direct Lines Improved Stations, Services and Motive Power The First World War and After
1920’s - The Grouping 1930’s - Depression and Resurgence Communities We Serve – Birmingham

Cut Offs and Direct Lines

The branch status of Stratford-upon-Avon was a cause of much dissatisfaction amongst the town’s residents and businesses. To rectify this, an independent the Birmingham, North Warwickshire & Stratford-upon-Avon Railway (BNW&SR) was promoted and this line was authorised on 25th August 1894. This route had been supported, and was to be financed, by the Great Central Railway (GCR), who saw it as providing access to Birmingham via its running rights on the East & West Junction Railway, which joined the proposed line at Stratford and crossed the GCR London extension near Woodford. However by 1898, the GCR were having difficulties with their London extension, in particular relationships with the Metropolitan Railway, with whom their line connected, were strained and instead they forged an alliance with the Great Western Railway.

Since the BNW&SR would be in completion with existing Great Western Railway routes, the GCR withdrew their support and their money from this scheme. The BNW&SR scheme was almost rescued as an independent concern by a proposed extension, which would link it to the Midland & South Western Junction Railway (MSWJR) at Andoversford. This would provide a new through route from Birmingham to Southampton, however the required parliamentary Act was rejected, mainly over doubts as the financial ability of the MSWJR to fund this scheme, but coupled with a promise from the Great Western Railway to link Honeybourne with Cheltenham if the scheme was rejected. The Great Western Railway obtained the Royal Assent for its Honeybourne line on 1st August 1899, but despite the promise, other major construction projects had priority and construction of the Honeybourne Line was only started in 1902 following a threat by a Mr Andrews of Toddington to present a Private Bill to parliament to enable him to construct the railway himself.

To pacify the residents of Stratford-upon-Avon, the Great Western Railway had opened the North Loop at Hatton on 1st July 1897 to facilitate a direct Birmingham service, but the BNW&SR still continued to campaign for a more direct line between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon. Eventually they decided to compromise with the Great Western Railway and on 9th August 1899 obtained the necessary parliamentary powers to abandon their independent route into Birmingham and instead planned to join the Great Western Railway at a junction at Tyseley. Despite this modification, finance for the line remained unavailable and the delay resulted in the powers being transferred to the Great Western Railway in July 1900.

After opposing this route for years the Great Western Railway, who had never really forgiven the Midland Railway for stealing the Birmingham & Gloucester Railway and Bristol & Gloucester Railway from under their nose, finally realised that this was the opportunity to create a direct route; not just between Birmingham and Cheltenham via the Honeybourne line, but via their old running powers over the Bristol & Gloucester Railway, on to Bristol. This route would be 40 miles shorter than their existing route via Didcot and only 10 miles longer than the Midland Railway’s route. Accordingly the BNW&SR scheme was amended again, now it would join the Alcester branch just to the west of Bearley (reducing the new construction length to approximately 18 miles) and this change together with the North to West Curve at Bearley and a connection to the old station at Henley was approved by Parliament on 26th July 1901. Purchase of the necessary land took two years to complete and construction of the North Warwickshire Line commenced on 5th September 1903 and opened for goods traffic on 9th December 1907 and for passengers on 1st July 1908 (details of the line are described in the contemporary accounts see The North Warwickshire Line).

The Great Western Railway of 1900 deserved the reputation that its initials stood for Great Way Round. With the exception of the London to Bristol route, its other main lines had grown as amalgams of many shorter lines. This was particularly true of the London to Birmingham route which ran via Didcot and Oxford. Although the accelerated expresses were an improvement it was difficult to compete with the LNWR main line to Birmingham when the LNWR route was significantly shorter. Help however came from an unlikely source in the shape of the Great Central Railway (GCR), who were supporting the new London & South Wales Railway in 1895, which if built would compete for the valuable coal traffic from South Wales. The situation changed when the Great Western Railway obtained parliamentary powers to build a railway from Acton to High Wycombe in 1897.

Since this was the last route available through the Chiltern Hills that would not need expensive earthworks and tunnelling through the chalk, the GCR decided instead to forge an alliance with the Great Western Railway for an alternative route to the capital and agreed to withdraw their support for the new London & South Wales Railway. In return 20th March 1899 the GCR commenced working goods and coal trains to London over Great Western Railway metals by way of Aylesbury, Princes Risborough, High Wycombe and Maidenhead and on 1st August 1899 the Great Western & Great Central Railways Joint Committee was established by an Act of Parliament to construct a new 76 mile main line between Northolt and the GCR north of its junction with the Metropolitan Railway at Quainton Road.

The Great Western Railway had originally intended to construct the southern section of new joint main line by itself and then upgrade the Princes Risborough to Oxford line to provide a more direct route to Birmingham, but the need to extend the joint line further north opened up the possibility of an additional 18 mile cut off from Ashendon, through Bicester to Aynho, avoiding Oxford completely. This would shorten the London to Birmingham route from 129.3 miles to 111 miles (two miles shorter than the LNWR route) and allowed the introduction of 2 hour expresses. This Bicester cut off was completed and opened for goods traffic on 4th April 1910 and for passengers on 1st July 1910. The new joint line and cut off had been designed for speed, with gentle gradients and curves, but the northern section, in Warwickshire, was the old Birmingham & Oxford Junction Railway with the stiff ascent up Hatton Bank. Hauled by Saint Class 4-6-0 No.2902 Lady of the Lake, the first of the regular 2 hour expresses to Birmingham left Paddington in July 1910. At Paddington Station a passenger threw a horse shoe onto the locomotive’s footplate for luck and it was later mounted permanently in the cab.

Robert Ferris

Broad Gauge Plans and Politics Railway Construction and Gauge Conversion Into the Golden Age
Cut Offs and Direct Lines Improved Stations, Services and Motive Power The First World War and After
1920’s - The Grouping 1930’s - Depression and Resurgence Communities We Serve – Birmingham