Had you been standing on the platform of this train station, waiting for a train to Shrewsbury at 1:55pm on the 7th June, 1865, you would have witnessed the horrific death of thirteen people, as the train from Birkenhead to London came crashing off the tracks.
Fortunately its unlikely anyone was waiting for the train to Shrewsbury. It had left half an hour earlier, and the next one wasn't until 7:28pm. The one that crashed wasn't scheduled to stop, even though God had other ideas. Well, God or Physics, depending on what you believe.
It's a nice little station building, constructed in 1848, nearly two decades before the upcoming bloodbath. The train was going a little faster than usual, being an hour and 25 minutes late, and was in a bit of a rush, ignoring one station completely as it plummeted through Shropshire. It consisted of two locomotives, pulling 28 coaches and two break vans, and four more coaches were added shortly before it entered Shropshire.
The tracks at this station were undergoing maintenance, and the workmen had erected a green flag on a pole at the side of the tracks, where it had a green hedge backdrop. It was hardly eye catching. In fact, shortly after they'd put the flag up but before they'd started working on the tracks, an earlier train did ignore the flag completely. That should have been an early indication that perhaps the workers needed a better means of warning upcoming rail traffic, but it wasn't taken on board.
Maintenance work began, and the train from Birkenhead, already late, came speeding along. The chap driving the first locomotive missed the flag completely, although the chap in the second locomotive did happen to glance its way and attempt to give the chap in front some warning. It ultimately failed. He slammed on the brakes when he saw the workmen, but by that point it was too late. The train went over some piece of track that they hadn't finished working on, and toppled onto its side. The carriages slammed into it, completely obliterating the first four. Thirty passengers were injured. Eleven passengers died instantly, as well as the fireman of the second locomotive. The driver later died of the injuries he'd sustained, but lived long enough to give a testimony during the investigation.
Ultimately it was decided that it was the work mens fault for using such a shoddy means of warning.
Here's what the station used to look like, back in its glory days, back when it had a platform. The signal box is still looking pretty nice too.
(Photo not mine, obviously)
It's not obvious from my opening shot, but the signal box does still stand, albeit, in a much worse condition. Naturally I took a look at that too.
There's not much left here, although it is clear that some later use was given to it at some point after its closure as a signal box.
As for the station itself, only local trains actually stopped here, although express lines did pass through. Trains weren't as frequent as they are today though. If you happened to live in this village and fancied a trip into Shrewsbury, you'd have five opportunities to do so each day, and only two on Sunday!
Records show that in 1903 the station sold 9,990 tickets. Nowadays it's not that impressive. Shrewsbury station probably beats that in a day! But for a small Shropshire village in 1903, that's a reasonable amount. Things did decline though. In 1923 only 7,049 tickets sold, and in 1933 that number had dropped to just 2,855 tickets. Clearly the stations glory days were behind it. However, there was a war coming.
A military base was established nearby in 1942, and this generated a lot of income for the station. In fact it was busier than it had ever been, as military personnel, supplies and equipment passed through.
Sales were back up, but if that wasn't enough, two members of the Womens Auxiliary Airforce were struck down and killed by a train as they crossed the tracks, so the stations classic body count was back up too!
But by 1958 things had declined again, and the timetable was limited to two trains to Shrewsbury each day. It finally closed in 1960, and eventually became a residential premises.
But as of 2016, that too seems to have become abandoned, and it's slowly slipping into ruin.
Let's slip inside and see what's left!
Okay, so here we are in the lounge of the former residence, and straight away we run into an issue. The floor appears to have collapsed. The door to the rest of the station is over in the opposite corner, and there's a few bits of floor which can be used as a path. Will it support my weight?
It seems that some effort has gone into barricading this place before, although anyone who enters through that door will have a bit of a fall ahead of them.
Here's a pretty old TV peeking up from the floorboards.
There's a little trophy on the shelf.
Well, I've made it to the other side of that floor chasm. Now, onto the rest of the house!
There are two toilets on the ground floor. There's this one sitting here, in better condition than the toilets in some pubs and clubs, but there's also the bathroom just down the hallway.
There's a copy of Shropshire Magazine dated "August 2016."
And here's a Golf rule book, Effective January 2016.
Did the rules of Golf really have such an overhaul that a whole new book needed to be published to explain it? Do some traditional Golfers still have secret meet ups where they play pre-2016 retro Golf?
I trusted the floor of the bathroom to hold my weight about as much as I'd trust the McCanns to babysit. It didn't feel good at all.
Check it out! Mouldy soap!
Onto what I assume was the dining room...
Whoever painted the walls red missed a bit.
Quite frankly though, I like whats left of the decor. All the light fixtures are those fake electric candles, clearly designed to give it a vibe of refinery. The paint job seems to be unfinished, and the penis on the wall would indicate that other people have been here.
Nice little ornament.
Onto the kitchen...
I'm not sure why, but at the back of the kitchen is a shower. Of course.
Upstairs continued the weird combo of bright walls and fake candles.
Here's a third toilet, and someone has tied the window shut via a tether to the sink, which is interesting.
It certainly indicates an attempt at securing the premises, long ago. The giant penis downstairs would indicate that nobody cares anymore though.
Check out the bedroom! This was easily my favourite part of the building.
The second bedroom was a little more ominous.
Check it out. It was once padlocked shut, but it's since been ripped open. But why would a bedroom have a padlock on it?
It's a fairly non-descript little room, with a sofa and a few bits... and a wardrobe with clothes still hanging up in it. Nothing at all that really makes me think "Ah, so thats why they padlocked it."
There is this cool little relic though!
But in general, this room had a very creepy vibe to it, which I'm sure paranormal enthusiasts might find intriguing. Personally I didn't see or hear anything. I just felt very uncomfortable.
The third room was situated right above the lounge, and the floor here was similarly rotted, although it hadn't reached the point yet where it would all come crashing down into the lounge below. I didnt want to be here when it happened. The train station has claimed many lives but it won't have mine.
Theres an outdoor toilet too! So in total this house has four toilets and two showers, one of which is located at the back of the kitchen...
I guess its quirky. The padlocked door upstairs is somewhat odd. But I think most tragic of all is the fact that this is part of the UKs railway history, and that it's just rotting away. Its probably too remote and obscure a station, but imagine if it was restored to its former Victorian form?
Thats all I've got. As always, share the blog! Next I'm doing another German location on my international blog. And then after that I'll be back here, looking at some of the old military base that I mentioned near this station!
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