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In 1852, the broad gauge (7 feet, 2.16m between rails) double lines of the
Oxford to Birmingham railway were laid across Yardley and Bordesley. A
station was opened at Acocks Green, encouraging its development as a
residential district. The spanning of the Cole/Spark confluence by a second
embankment higher than the canal blocked free air movement down the valley:
the damp meadows became subject to fogs, which were slow to disperse. The
railway cut into the Golden Hillock before running at level beside the canal
on its way to a massive blue-brick viaduct over the Rea valley, a tunnel
under the town centre, and a terminus on Snow Hill. In 1863, the Oxford
Company was taken over by the Great Western, and Small Heath and Sparkbrook
Station was opened on Danford Lane (Golden Hillock Road) for the growing
suburbs and for the use of workers at the B.S.A.
Because most railways were built to Stephenson's gauge (4 feet 8˝ inches;
1.43m) the G.W.R. Company was obliged to add a third rail to accommodate
narrow-gauge rolling-stock. Broad gauge was finally abandoned in 1892, and
the inner rails were then taken up. This left a wide gap between the up and
down lines, in which signals could be erected.
In the 1880s Bordesley Junction marshalling yards were laid out between the
main lines and the canal, with coal and timber wharves: a peak 27 lines were
in use. A decade later the planned railway through Sparkbrook and Sparkhill
to Stratford was abandoned due to the cost of demolition across those
built-up suburbs. The G. W. R. took over the scheme, proposing to start the
new line from the Oxford line east of the Cole, whence it would run through
open country. 11 'steam navvies' and 23 locomotives were employed on the
cuttings and banks. The line opened in 1907. Works included a junction
station on Tyseley Hill, a later terminus at Moor Street, and quadrupling of
the lines as far as Olton. Sidings and engine sheds were built across the
meadows between Tyseley Junction, Warwick Road and the Cole valley edge.
During World War One, branches were laid to munitions factories on the Hay
Hall estate from the junction; to serve the B.S.A. Waverley Works and Singer
a spur was run from west of the widened viaduct almost to the Coventry Road,
with three branches. The spur has long since been taken up: its line is
followed by the Expressway.
[The
multi-stationed North Warwickshire Line was under sentence of closure for
many years, but is now better used]. Bordesley Junction sidings are largely
removed and replaced by the Expressway. Part of the Tyseley site is occupied
by the Railway Museum, the rest by the Area Maintenance Depot of British
Rail's Western Region. Beyond the junction, the main lines have been reduced
to two.
Introduction
What can be seen from Ackers Hill
The natural landscape
Watercourses
Early settlement and boundaries
The Manors
The Warwick canal
Railways
Industry
Urbanisation
Parks and open spaces
Churches and schools
The Ackers leisure park
Itinerary
Maps |
