LMS Route: Stratford Midland Junction - The Shakespeare Route

Bidford on Avon: smjboa1

Looking along the platform towards Stratford upon Avon with the station's booking office built into the second arch of the road overbridge circa 1920s. The office had a cast iron circular fire with a smoke stack that passed upwards and stood proud of the bridge by the side of the road. Arthur Jordan recounts a tale when schoolboys thought it would be 'great fun to block the smoke stack much to the discomfort and annoyance of the occupants'. Wally Weatherhead worked in that office and recalls 'that local boys would stuff rags in the pipe causing the near asphyxiation of the office occupants'. Beyond the bridge was a pair of sidings diverging to the right serving a coal yard and brickworks which can be seen in the various Ordnance Survey maps starting with the 1885 OS map and with others up to the 1960. On the right is what appears to be a set of rails and a buffer stop. Further information on this oddity is available at 'smjboa1b'.

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