Nuneaton Abbey Street Station

Nuneaton, two miles south of the Watling Street and the Warwickshire border with Leicestershire, is an interesting example of LNWR/Midland rivalry and co-operation. The first line through the town was the LNWR's 1847 Trent Valley route. This was followed by the LNWR's Coventry to Nuneaton line in 1850, whilst an LNWR associate, the South Leicestershire Railway, opened east from Nuneaton to Hinckley in 1862, and to a connection with the MR south of Leicester in 1864. By this time, the Warwickshire and Leicester Coalfields were of increasing importance and, in 1860, the MR and LNWR agreed a package of measures, which permitted the LNWR to run over the MR's Rugby to Leicester branch, and gave the MR running powers over the South Leicester line, and for freight traffic only over the Coventry & Nuneaton line. As a sequel, the MR took powers, on 7th June 1861, for a branch from the Birmingham & Derby Junction line at Whitacre, to Nuneaton, with a station of their own in Nuneaton, and connections to the LNWR's Trent Valley line and, via a flyover, to the South Leicester branch. This opened to passengers on 1st November 1864, and to goods traffic a month later.

Parts of the Leicestershire Coalfield had been worked for generations, but the coming of the canals, and then the railways, permitted a massive expansion, with many new pits. One of the most historic sections of the MR, the Leicester & Swannington line, struck north-west from Leicester, through Desford and Coalville, and with other lines round Moira and Burton, this was Midland territory, so much so that the MR had not felt it necessary to exercise powers of 1846 for a line protecting them from assault from the Nuneaton direction. In the 1860s an LNWR-orientated scheme projected a line from Nuneaton to Market Bosworth and Ashby. Predictably, the Midland retaliated with a rehash of their 1846 ideas. A head-on clash was avoided by eventual agreement to construct a joint line, the Ashby & Nuneaton, with Acts of 1866, 1867 and 1868. The A&N ran north-east from Nuneaton, where it made connection with the MR at Abbey Junction, on the site of the 1864 passenger station, and from the LNWR at Ashby Junction, north of the Trent Valley line station. The original Ashby Junction was just north of the Midland Flyover, the joint metals paralleling the then double track Trent Valley line. The junction was later moved south of the flyover, and when the Trent Valley line was quadrupled, north of Nuneaton, the junction became the point of physical divergence of the two routes. A connection from Hinckley, on the South Leicester branch, joined the Nuneaton line near Stoke Golding, but was lifted within a few years. The A&N ran north, past the site of Bosworth Field, to Shacklestone, where one limb continued north west to Moira and the MR and the other to Coalville. The A&N Joint opened to coal on 1st August 1873, to freight on 18th August, and to passengers on 1st September An LNWR backed line, the Charnwood Forest Railway, ran east from Coalville to Loughborough. This was authorised in 1874 and opened in 1881.

The original Midland Railway station in Nuneaton was opened for passenger services via Whitacre on 1st November 1864 and goods services on 1st December 1864. This station was located on the Leicester side of the bridge which carried the Midland Road over the railway. Access to both the passenger station and goods yard was provided by a driveway which led off the Midland Road on the town centre side of the bridge over the railway. Unlike the three intermediate stations built at Shustoke, Arley & Fillongley and Stockingford, its platforms were staggered because of the junction with the connecting line to the LNWR which ran to the 'north' of the line to Leicester. This junction to the LNWR started opposite the down platform resulting in the up platform, built on the Leicester line, being off-set as can be seen in the pre-1873 plan of the 'station'. Examination of this plan shows that the station building were different to the plans showing the three intermediate stations of Shustoke, Arley & Fillongley and Stockingford. The goods facilities provided a goods shed with a siding passing through the building, a feature allowing wagons to be pushed forward when unloaded, a three-sided landing dock which allowed livestock to be penned on one side whilst the end and other side allowed road vehicles to be loaded or unloaded. In addition to a short head shunt alongside the landing dock was a siding used by coal merchants which ran parallel with the line to Leicester. Half way along the station driveway was a weighbridge and office.

With the opening of the Ashby & Nuneaton Joint Committee line to Moira and Coalville a second station at Abbey Street was required and this was opened on 1st September 1873. As seen in the diagram 'mrna1941' the new station was situated on the Whitacre side of the Midland Road bridge, some 150 yards further to the east of the original station. The passenger facilities at Abbey Street were modest, with two short platforms. Even so, the station managed to develop a useful amount of excursion traffic in summer, and won both passenger and freight competition awards. The new station's main passenger building was, as was the original station, located on the down (Birmingham) line and accommodated the station master's office, booking office and booking hall, parcels office, a general and a ladies waiting room with the latter having toilets en-suite whereas the gentlemen urinals were accessed off the platform. The up platform's passenger facilities were limited to a general waiting room within a brick built building with a single large opening on the rail side instead of a door.

Until 2nd June 1924 the station was known as Nuneaton Midland when, following the creation of the London Midland Scottish Railway (LMS) on 1st January 1923 as part of the 'grouping' of 123 railways into four companies, it was renamed Nuneaton Abbey Street in order to distinguish it from the London & North Western Railway's (LNWR) station situated on the Trent Valley line. When first built in 1864, the Midland Railway's line between Whitacre Junction and Leicester did not connect with the LNWR line and it crossed by bridge above the West Coast Main Line. The spur connecting the LNWR's West Coast Main Line to Abbey Junction, was opened on 19th July 1880. Adjacent to the MR's line to Leicester were a number of sidings. On the up side there were six looped sidings used to exchange and marshal traffic. Much of this traffic was generated by the quarries and to a lesser extent the mines within the area. On the down side were two long sidings both of which finished with buffer blocks at one end. The passenger facilities were withdrawn on 4th March 1968 when the LNWR station assumed responsibilities for traffic to Birmingham and Leicester.

The 1886 Ordnance Survey map shows two short sidings running behind the down platform with landing docks to both with the 1913 Ordnance Survey map showing one of the landing docks having cattle pens on one side. In addition, a 42 foot turntable is shown near to the two sidings which was used for terminating passenger locomotives, freights and assisting engines. The station's major goods facilities not only remained on the other side of the Midland Road but were expanded. The 1913 plan shows there were two goods shed both located on the down side, each accessed by a single siding. According to Messrs Powell-Hendry and Preston-Hendry, one of the sheds, built in brick, was used by Alfred Connor for his cardboard, jigsaw and packing business whilst the other was a general goods shed operated by the Midland Railway. The Railway Clearing House's 1929 Handbook of Railway Stations states Abbey Street station provided the following services: Goods traffic; Passenger and Parcels traffic; Furniture Vans; Livestock; Horse Boxes and Prize Cattle Vans; and Carriages (Horse-drawn - Ed) by Passenger Trains (GPFLHC). Cranage facilities were provided within the goods shed via a fixed manually operated 5 ton crane. The 1894 edition of The Railway Clearing House Handbook of Railway Stations did not provide information to the same detail e.g. the number of categories listed, and only recorded (GPFL), however its reasonable to assume that the same facilities recorded in 1929 were offered from the outset. In neither instance does the Railway Clearing House's Handbooks of Railway Stations state that there was a LNWR presence at Abbey Street. This is presumably because they had their own facilities nearer to the centre of town.

Up to the 1930s the station had three signal boxes: one at the Whitacre end of the up platform as can just be seen in the distance in image 'mrna1909'; two more one of which was sited on the east side of Midland Road as is evident in photographs and OS maps up to the 1880s. It was a tall square structure and was sufficiently high enough to allow the signalman to see over Midland Road, as can be seen in images 'mrna47' and 'mrna1911' as well as the diagram showing the first station. The first station diagram also shows the third signal box opposite the original station's down platform which had to be replaced because of the construction of the junction to form the line to Ashby. The 1913 Ordnance Survey map shows that these latter two signal boxes had been replaced by one signal box located within the 'V' formed by the two lines of the Midland Railway's line to Ashby plus the connecting line to the Trent Valley line and the Midland Railway's own line to Leicester. In the 1930s, as part of of the nationwide economy measures carried out by the LMS, Abbey Street Junction Signal Box came into operation remaining active until the end of mechanical signalling in the area.

By the turn of the century, ten trains, including some semi-fasts and short workings served Abbey Street in each direction on the Birmingham - Nuneaton - Leicester route. Although the LNWR offered five or six trains daily from the Trent Valley nation over the A&N, the MR was less lavish, with but two trains departing Abbey Street, for the line had been built for coal, and passengers were few. Until the Grouping, the station was known as Nuneaton (Midland) or, sometimes, Nuneaton Abbey. The Abbey Street suffix was formally adopted on 2nd June 1924. Under the LMS. Abbey Street came under control area No 48, 'Saltley’, the A&N, from the junction of the Abbey Street and Trent Valley spurs, becoming area No 47, 'Coalville'. With mounting deficits, all passenger services over the A&N and Charnwood Forest lines were withdrawn on 13th April 1931. Leicester services continued to call at Abbey Street until 4th March 1968, when the station was closed, passenger workings henceforth only calling at the Trent Valley station. This marked the conclusion of a trend which had begun in Midland days, with a number of passenger services running via the goods lines, which were upgraded, to the LNWR station, providing convenient connections between LNWR and MR routes.

General freight ceased over the A&N by 1968, with colliery traffic surviving a little longer. Today, the A&N is lifted, except for the Shackerstone to Market Bosworth section, which is a heritage line. At Abbey Junction, the stump of the A&N survived to provide access to Judkin’s Sidings. One curious result of the switch of passenger services to the ex-LNWR station was that whilst the original freight connection became the passenger line, the old passenger line, from Abbey Street to the South Leicester branch, became freight only! Although not directly linked to Abbey Street, reference should be made to the chord from the Coventry branch at Chilvers Coton to the SLR at Midland Junction. This was installed as a part of the 1860s deal to permit through running by MR trains between Coventry and Leicester, but saw little, if any, use. Parts were lifted, and its main function from World War II was to provide an additional access to the LNWR shed, which it adjoined.

LMS Route: Nuneaton to Birmingham New Street

Nuneaton Abbey Street Station

Miscellaneous

Trains seen at or near Abbey Street Station

Diesel Dawn

Diagrams, Schematics, Timetable and Ordnance Survey Maps