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London North Western Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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Hampton in Arden Junction
Hampton was at the southern end of the Birmingham and Derby
Junction Railway, later part of the Midland Railway. Opened as a double-track
main line on August 12, 1839, the section from Whitacre to Hampton, known as
the Stonebridge Railway, was downgraded to a branch line in 1842 after the
opening of the line from Whitacre into Birmingham; it was singled in 1843 and
lost its final passenger service in 1917 as a wartime economy measure. After
lingering on as a goods line, it was closed entirely in 1935 following a bridge
failure at Packwood.
The line had originally enabled passengers from the
Tamworth, Kingsbury, Whitacre, Shustoke and Coleshill areas to make connections
at Hampton for other parts of the country, because at one time the B&DJR
and the L&BR had stations side by side at Hampton, at the point where the
two lines met. The station originally was named 'Hampton', as the village was
then known, but was renamed 'Hampton Junction' on 1st November 1849 and
reverted to 'Hampton on 1st December 1872. The reference to 'Derby Junction'
seen in the images below refers not to its place name but its purpose, being
the junction for Derby.
The B&DJR station building can still be seen, but the
LNWR station disappeared long ago, being replaced by the present
Hampton-in-Arden railway station some 500 yards nearer London in 1884. At
Hampton there was a two-road locomotive shed which quickly became redundant
with the opening of the Whitacre to Birmingham line and consequently closed. It
later became a saw mill for Messrs. Blackwell. A length of the former branch
remained at the Hampton end until the early 1960s to give rail access to the
mill. The six and half mile journey from Whitacre to Hampton took thirty
minutes each way in 1887 but by 1910 the journey took just fifteen minutes.
Select an image below to view the larger version with
accompanying text:
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