From the outset it is important to appreciate that I have endeavored to
avoid any pro-GWR bias on this site but I have to admit that Hockley was (and to an extent still is)
an impressive set of facilities. The passenger station was opened in 1854 on the Snow Hill to
Wolverhampton Low Level line and is seen above (photo: Michael Mensing) in 1959 with the photographer
looking in the direction of Snow Hill. The passenger station was a fairly modest affair (at least by GWR
standards) comprising two bay and one island platform with the usual GWR hallmark platform buildings with
their distinctive canopies. The station was accessed via an entrance below track level off Icknield
Street. Unfortunately, Icknield Street has undergone major redevelopment over the past few years and the
station site had been completely cleared in the late 1990s in anticipation of the Midland Metro opening thus
little remains, if anything, of the passenger station. The goods facilities at Hockley closed in 1971 but,
as will be seen, a lot more of these remain to this day.
The photograph above-left was taken from All Saints Street looking back towards
Snow Hill: the platforms started just as the lines curve around to the left in the distance. The area to the right,
to the left and behind the photographer were all occupied by the extensive goods facilities and sidings at the site.
Above-right we are looking across the tracks at a point roughly level with the end of the last carriage on
the train featured in the photograph at the top of this page. As can be seen, nothing remains today.
Above-left we can see a more interesting remnant of the old station site. This is
the remains of a warehouse on the corner of Icknield Street and Pitsford Street - the corner of which opened onto
the entrance to the passenger station. Above this warehouse were the goods sidings and further warehousing facilities, now
above this spot is an industrial estate called Hockley Goods Depot which consists of non-rail
connected units and a BT depot, amongst others. Above-right we are at the back of the aforementioned industrial
units looking at the point where the lines crossed Icknield Street and where the platforms once began with a
water tower to the left and the Snow Hill-bound platform in the recess opposite - again, not
a trace remains.
Above-left we are looking again from All Saints Street bridge but this time away from
the station as the lines head-off towards Wolverhampton. The width of the cutting and redundant arches in
the Lodge Road bridge give some indication of the amount of lines once converging on Hockley. One such
removed line was goods-only and led to the goods sidings that once stood at Soho & Winson Green. Above-right
is one of the many remains of the warehousing facilities still in existence at the Hockley goods site but now
used for other purposes. This is on the corner of Pitsford Street and All Saints Street and is an
impressive structure which backed onto railway sidings running to its rear (now removed).
