Worcester Shrub Hill railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Worcester Shrub Hill


catpion = View from Platform 2b on 5 September 2006
code = WOS
manager = London Midland
locale = Worcester
borough = Worcester
usage0405 = 1.356
usage0506 = 0.203
usage0607 = 0.592
platforms = 3
start = 1850

Worcester Shrub Hill railway station is one of two railway stations serving the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England. It is managed by London Midland, and it is also served by First Great Western.

The city's other station, Worcester Foregate Street, is situated in the city centre; Shrub Hill is situated to the east.

History

The first station at Shrub Hill was opened in 1850 being jointly owned by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton and Midland Railways; until 1852 it was used only as a terminus for the latter's services from Birmingham. The present station building was designed by Edward Wilson and built in 1865. It is a Georgian-style building mainly of engineering brick with stone facings. Originally there was also a train shed which was removed in the 1930s.

A survival at the station are the Western Region semaphore signals.

Possible Closure Plans

If either of the proposed Worcester Parkway railway stations are built, Shrub Hill station will close [ http://archive.thisisworcestershire.co.uk/2005/8/12/370646.html The Worcester News ] . However, it is expected that planned housing growth as a result of the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy and Regional Spatial Strategy may result in this decision being changed, as a result of changes in land use around the Shrub Hill area.

Services

Worcester Shrub Hill is served by London Midland's services from Worcester to Birmingham, either directly to Birmingham New Street via Bromsgrove, or via Kidderminster to Birmingham Snow Hill. First Great Western operate several services a day to London Paddington via the Cotswold Line and Oxford. They also run services every 2 hours to Bristol Temple Meads via Cheltenham and Gloucester. Both companies also run services via Worcester Foregate Street to Great Malvern and Hereford. London Midland will be operating a new service from December 2008 (6 trains per day) between Worcester and Gloucester via Ashchurch and Cheltenham to compliment the 2-hourly First Great Western service. The National Rail online ticket booking facility says that southbound trains are spaced to roughly fill the gaps of the FGW services. However northbound services have around a 40-minute turnaround at Gloucester, with LM and FGW northbound services to Worcester only being about half an hour apart.cite web| title=New LM Worcester - Gloucester service confirmed from December 2008| url=http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/info/3251_Hourly_Worcester_Gloucester_from_December.html| date=2008-09-13| publisher=First Great Western Coffee Shop Forum]

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Waiting room

On platform 2b is the old ladies’ waiting room which extends onto the platform. It is a cast-iron structure cast at the Vulcan Iron Works at Worcester. This was a subsidiary of the MacKenzie and Holland signal manufacturing company about 200 yards from Worcester Shrub Hill station . The exterior is decorated with classical pilasters and covered with “majolica” ceramic tiles made by Maw and Company of Broseley.

Maw was originally a Worcester company founded in 1850 when they bought the old Chamberlain tile factory. However in 1852 they moved to Broseley to be nearer their source of clay. In the main they made encaustic tiles rather than the “majolica” ceramic tiles used to decorate the Shrub Hill waiting room.

Wojtczak writes that in 1873 there was Ladies’ Waiting Room Attendant called Mrs Dale who earned 10s and that this was the same rate of pay as a Mrs Spencer who was the Office Cleaner.Fact|date=September 2007

It is Grade II* listed and English Heritage placed it on the “Buildings At Risk Register” in 2003. The official records record that the waiting room was added c1880. In 2005 the register records “The cast iron frame is in need of structural repair. The front wall is leaning out and currently shored up. Preliminary investigative work has been carried out, but repair works have been delayed due partly to problem of locating specialist contractors." In April 2005 Network Rail applied for listed building planning consent to restore the waiting room to bring it back into use before the end of 2006. The application gave detail of the work to be carried out including restoration of the cast iron work and the sourcing and replacement of the missing ceramic tiles but as at May 2006 no work had commenced and English Heritage reported that the building will be on the 2006 “Buildings At Risk Register” to be published in June 2006.

References

External links

* [http://www.railaroundbirmingham.co.uk/Stations/worcs_shrub_hill.php Rail Around Birmingham and the West Midlands: Worcester Shrub Hill station]

Bibliography

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