- Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
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The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton railway was a company authorised on 4 August 1845 to construct a railway line from the Oxford and Rugby Railway at Wolvercot Junction to Worcester, Stourbridge, Dudley, and Wolverhampton, with a branch to the Grand Junction Railway at Bushbury. This would be known as the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line.
The line was opened in stages between 1852 and 1853, and had connections to the Great Western Railway (GWR) at both ends. In 1860 the OWW amalgamated with the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway and the Worcester and Hereford Railway to become the West Midland Railway, which in turn was amalgamated into the GWR in 1863.[1]
The track exists today as far as Dudley, with used track existing as far as the location of the old Harts Hill railway station near Dudley. North of Dudley, the trackbed has long since been replaced, and the Wolverhampton terminus at the Low Level station - has, of January 2007, being almost totally demolished (bar its Grade II listed building) to make way for redevelopment.
Contents
Development
Other branches included lines to Kingswinford, and Tipton Basin. The Bill stated that the track was to be mixed gauge from Abbotswood near Worcester northwards. It also stated that if the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton failed to complete the line, the Great Western Railway should either lease the line, or purchase the company and complete the line itself. The Bill also stated that the Wolverhampton Low Level station was to be constructed and run jointly with two other companies: the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and the Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Dudley Railway.
The Great Western Railway oversaw the company's project, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel was chief engineer. His underestimation of the cost resulted in the Great Western increasing their shareholding to four percent. Progress was slow and by 1 June 1849 all of the available money was spent, and only the middle section of the line was anywhere near complete, so the Railway Commissioners ordered the Great Western to complete the line. They refused and a legal battle started, but meanwhile the loyalty of the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton towards the Great Western was in decline and it signed an agreement with the London & North Western Railway and the Midland Railway on 21 February 1851 which allowed those companies to finish the line themselves, and then run on it. The Great Western had the agreement made void and then offered the company a similar deal on their own terms.
A notable event during the construction of the line occured during the construction of Campden Tunnel near the village of Mickleton, known as the Battle of Mickleton Tunnel is was called by Berrow's Worcester Journal at the time the Mickleton Tunnel Riot.[2] The construction of the tunnel was contracted by the Great Western Railway to a builder named Robert Marchant, who claimed to be owed £34,000 by the Great Western Railway and failed to pay the construction crews. Marchant’s men downed tools and refused to work, in order to force work to resume Brunel gathered a private army of supporters to try and oust Marchant and take control of the tunnel. After three days two magistrates who had been brought in to read the Riot Act ordered Marchant’s men to resume work.[3]
The Great Western leased the line, but the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton made approaches to the London & North Western with a view to connecting to Wolverhampton High-Level on the Stour Valley line instead, with a junction at Tipton. The GWR protested to Parliament who refused to sanction such a thing and threatened the company with heavy penalties unless the line reached the Low Level station and Cannock Rd Junction by September 1853. The line was eventually finished in July 1853, and opened on 1 December.
On the death of the contractor, Francis Tredwell, work stopped for several years while the Company entered into long litigation with his family firm over financial claims[4]. It took the intervention of Brunel before monies were released to allow his brothers to continue work in 1851.
Closures and changes
The final section of the railway between Dudley and Priestfield Junction (near Bilston) was closed to passenger trains in 1962, shortly before the publication of the Beeching Report. It remained open to goods trains until December 1967. The track was lifted shortly afterwards and parts of the line have since been built on. The grounds of the Angle Ring factory in Bloomfield Road, Tipton, were the first to swallow up part of the trackbed during the 1980s.
The section of line between the Birmingham New Road and Sedgley Road West overbridges on the Coseley-Tipton border was developed as a residential street called Oxford Way in 2002, after more than 20 years of plans for housing development on the site. The overbridges were demolished a year earlier.
The section of the railway between Stourbridge and Dudley was later absorbed into the South Staffordshire Line, which continued to Walsall after forking off eastwards from Dudley. Passenger services had all been withdrawn by 1965, but goods trains continued to serve the route until 1993, when the line north of Round Oak closed. The line is still in use up to this point to serve the local steel terminal, and the closed section is due to re-open in 2011 as part of the Midland Metro's second phase. A single-track line for goods trains will run alongside the Metro between Brierley Hill and Wednesbury and continue on the old trackbed to Walsall.
Accident
Main article: Round Oak rail accidentAccording to L. T. C. Rolt[5] the railway was nicknamed the "Old Worse and Worse", and was a "shocking railway". On 23 August 1858 there was a serious accident between Round Oak and Brettell Lane which resulted in the death of 14 people and serious injury of 50 more. A Sunday excursion train to Worcester of 45 carriages hauled by two engines suffered catastrophic failures of the couplings on two occasions, ultimately resulting in a third of the carriages running loose and becoming derailed[6][7][8]. It was described by Captain Tyler, the Board of Trade inspector, as "Decidedly the worst railway accident that has ever occurred in this country".
References
- ^ Jenkins, Stanley C.; Quayle, H.L. (1977). The Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway. The Oakwood Library of Railway History. Blandford: Oakwood Press. pp. 32,34,63,66. OL40.
- ^ The Battle Of Mickleton Tunnel
- ^ Hidden Brunel
- ^ National Archives RAIL RAIL 558/861-558/1318 – dispute between Tredwells & OWW railway
- ^ Rolt, L.T.C. (1960). Red for Danger. London: Pan Books. pp. 148–151.
- ^ "The Fatal Accident On The Oxford And Worcester Line", The Times, 26 Aug 1858
- ^ The Railway Catastrophe Near Dudley, The Adjourned Inquest Yesterday. Conclusion of the Evidence. Birmingham Daily Post, 15 Sep 1858
- ^ The Railway Catastrophe Near Dudley, Birmingham Daily Post, 01 Oct 1858
See also
- West Midland Railway
Railway lines in the West Midlands Primary 
Secondary Local Birmingham to Peterborough Line · Birmingham to Stratford Line · Birmingham to Worcester via Bromsgrove Line · Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line · South Staffordshire Line · Chase Line · Cotswold Line · Coventry to Leamington Line · Coventry to Nuneaton Line · Crewe-Derby Line · Cross-City Line · Leamington to Stratford Line · Northampton Loop Line · Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford Line · Shrewsbury to Chester Line · Stafford to Manchester Line · Stourbridge Town Branch Line · Walsall to Wolverhampton Line · Welsh Marches Line · Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury LineTransport in Worcestershire Road Motorways A-Roads Service Stations Other Rail Main lines Closed lines Stations Closed stations Astwood Bank • Aston-under-Hill • Beckford • Bengeworth • Foley Park Halt • Hinton • Littleton and Badsey • Malvern Wells • Ripple • Upton-on-SevernHeritage stations Other Buses Routes List of bus routes in Worcestershire • Worcestershire bus route 144 • West Midlands Bristol Road bus corridorCompanies Other Bus transport in BromsgroveWaterways Rivers Canals Other Footpaths Long-distance footpaths Cycle Paths Categories:- Early British railway companies
- Great Western Railway constituents
- Rail transport in Wolverhampton
- Rail transport in Dudley
- Rail transport in Worcestershire
- Rail transport in Oxfordshire
- Railway companies established in 1845
- Railway lines opened in 1853
- Railway lines in the West Midlands (region)
- Railway lines closed in 1967
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