LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Daimler Halt

Daimler Halt was opened soley for the benefit of the Daimler Motor Company. In March 1917 its opening was announced by a local newspaper as follows:

"Realising the inconvenience occasioned to their employees in the absence of any railway station in close proximity to their works, the Daimler Company have arranged with the London North western Railway Company for the construction of a "Daimler Halt" at Sandy Lane on the Coventry - Nuneaton line. This halt is now approaching completion and will be open for traffic on Monday March 19th 1917. The platforms are 300 feet long. It will be reserved exclusively for the use of employees of the Daimler Company, and will not be open to the general public."

Records show that the station actually opened on 12th March and it served the Daimler Company for 48 years closing on 18th January 1964. Parts of the platform could still be seen into the 1980s. Apart from a rain shelter on either platform, there were no station buildings other than a ticket collector's hut at the steps leading down from Sandy Lane Road Bridge. It is not generally known that a short branch line ran from a point near the Coventry end of the station to the Coventry Cotton Mill which was situated next to the Coventry Canal and which opened in 1861. The Cotton Mill employed 400 people but was destroyed by fire in 1890, never to re-open. By 1896 the building was occupied by the Great Horseless Carriage Co and it was, in fact, the birthplace of the motor industry in Coventry. The branch was therefore known at various times as the Coventry Cotton Mill branch, the Widdrington Branch (the Rev. S H Widdrington, vicar of St. Michael's Church, was mainly responsible for financing the mill to provide work for people redundant from the declining ribbon trade), the Motor Mills branch and the Daimler Works branch, was in use and worked by the LNWR locomotives until the First World War. In fact the track was probably lifted shortly before Daimler Halt was built. The line crossed Sandy Lane by a level crossing. The crossing keeper's cottage still stands in Sandy Lane.

RW Kimber

Ref: lnwrdh118 Anon View of Daimler Halt looking along the up platform towards Sandy Lane road bridge and Nuneaton in the early 1960s

Ref: lnwrdh118a Anon Close up showing the steps from Sandy Lane down to the Halt's up platform and the two ticket collector's boxes

Ref: lnwrdh1925 Anon View looking towards Coventry showing Daimler Halt during its very last days before it was closed to passenger services

Ref: lnwrdh3389 DT Thompson Looking along the Halt to Coventry from Sandy Lane bridge on a wet summer's day on 1st June 1964

Ref: lnwrdh119 Anon Daimler Halt with a Coventry to Nuneaton local train standing at the up platform as passengers board

Ref: lnwrdh4255 Coventry Libray Local Studies A 1920 aerial view of the Halt with Radford Road bridge at the bottom and Sandy Lane bridge at the top

Ref: lnwrdh322 Coventry Libray Local Studies Looking towards Coventry as a LNWR 2-4-2T heads a Nuneaton to Coventry local passenger service

Ref: lnwrdh3388 G Biddle BR built 3MT 2-6-2T No 41226 departs from Daimler Halt with the 5:14pm from Nuneaton service on 24th July 1957

Ref: lnwrdh3387 M Mensing A two car Metro Cammell DMU on 1:10pm Nuneaton to Leamington Spa on 16th January 1965

Ref: lnwrdh1924 M Mensing English Electric Type 4 D298 passing through the closed Halt on a diverted Euston to New Street express service

Ref: lnwrdh3988 D Sharp A Ticket Return slip from LMR Pasenger Department ascertaining if tickets are sold for Daimler Halt

Ordnance Survey Maps, Trackplans and Schematic Drawings

Ref: lnwrdh3393 National Library of Scotland An 1887 OS Map showing the junction between the Nuneaton branch and Coventry Cotton Mill siding

Ref: lnwr_track3369 B Hickman LNWR trackplan of Coventry Cotton Mill Siding at Coundon Road on the Nuneaton to Leamington line

Ref: lnwrdh3392 National Library of Scotland A 1912 Ordnance Survey map showing the location of Daimler Halt prior to it being opened in March 1917

Ref: lnwrdh3390 National Library of Scotland A 1937 Ordnance Survey map showing the location of Daimler Halt after it opened in March 1917

Ref: lnwrmap108 M Hollick A 1930s LMS Control strip map showing the route from Nuneaton Trent Valley to Coventry plus the Loop Line

Ref: lnwrmap112 M Hollick A 1930s LMS Control strip map of the route between Nuneaton No 1 Signal Box and Coventry No 3 signal box