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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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Kenilworth Station
Kenilworth Station saw its first fare paying passenger on
9th December 1844 when the Coventry to Leamington (Milverton) single branch
line was opened. The only intermediate station on the route, Kenilworth
station, was 'Italianate' in style and had a pitched roof that also covered the
platform supported by ornate cantilevered brackets. The structure was designed
by the L & B resident engineer, Robert Dockray. The traffic levels were
originally thought to be easily handled by one locomotive, an estimate soon
apparently wrong. The traffic levels forced the London & Birmingham Railway
Company (L&B), later the London North Western Railway Company (LNWR), to
provide within a year of opening both a passing loop, sidings and a second
platform at Kenilworth. In the summer of 1872 a siding was laid into Whitemoor
Brickworks. By 1881 the coal shed is known to have been erected in what was
then the coal yard, this being positioned at the Coventry end of the station,
whereas the good yard, a much smaller affair was at the Leamington end of the
station.
Traffic grew to such an extent, both directly for the area
as well as being an alternative through route avoiding the L & B and Trent
Valley lines, that the lines were doubled from what became Kenilworth Junction
to Rugby via Leamington. In addition, because Leamington had become a
fashioable outer suburb to Birmingham a cut off was initiated to avoid Coventry
by the development of a double track from just North of Kenilworth to Berkswell
station. This increase in traffic warranted the building of a new station which
was duly completed in 1883. The rebuilding also embraced remodelling of the
station's layout which saw the location of the goods yard and coal yard
reversed. The goods yard becoming the coal yard and vice-a-versa. The original
1844 station structure wasn't however completely lost because as recorded by
Robin Leach the Kings Arms' Assembly Rooms required a much more suitable
entrance and the sandstone facade of the original station was incorporated into
the new frontage on Station Road. The station was close to goods traffic on 4
January 1965 and passenger traffic on 18th January 1965.
People interested in learning more about Kenilworth
Station could do no better than read Robin Leach's book 'Rails to Kenilworth
and Milverton' (1999) and his earlier piece 'Kenilworth's Railway Age' (1985)
both published by Odibourne Press.
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