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Rail Around Birmingham
& the West Midlands

Rail Around Birmingham & the West Midlands

 

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Sutton Coldfield station booking office 1980 (Steve Jones)
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Sutton Park Station

1879 - 1965

Opening in 1879, the station stood on the then-Midland Railway's Walsall & Water Orton Branch which joined their Birmingham to Derby line between Castle Bromwich and Water Orton with Walsall station and on, via the ex-Wolverhampton & Walsall Railway line which had been sold to the Midland Railway by the LNWR in 1876, to Wolverhampton High Level. The station and line were highly contentious as they bisected Sutton Park itself and, in what was a considerably high-class area, met with significant resistance from local landowners and also local residents. The Midland Railway, however, promised cheap local coal for the area which somewhat quelled local objections and moved ahead with buying a 2 mile strip through Sutton Park for £6,500. The station itself is roughly five minutes walk from the LNWR's Sutton Coldfield station and 10 minutes from Sutton Town station (which is the next station on the line heading from Walsall) and this saturation of rail cover in what was not a densely populated area contributed to the closure of Sutton Town in 1924 and finally the whole line in 1965 with the line remaining open for goods traffic as it does today. The above shot shows the railside fo the station building taken in 1980 on the Walsall platform looking (photo: Steve Jones)

 
Sutton Park station from Anchorage Rd bridge towards Aldridge
Sutton Park station from Anchorage Rd with goods shed
 

Above-left we are on the Anchorage Road bridge looking towards the site of the station: the Walsall platform can clearly be seen in this shot. Above-right we have zoomed-in from the Anchorage Road bridge, again in the direction of Walsall, and can see the platform is still in situ and can make-out the goods shed beyond the station site itself.

 
Sutton Park station entrance pathway from Anchorage Rd
Sutton Park station entrance pathway from Anchorage Rd
 

Above-left is the mouth of the entrance pathway that leads from Anchorage Road down to the Walsall platform and station building site. Above-right is the view down this long pathway with the trackbed in a deep cutting to our right.

 
Site of station building, Sutton Park
Sutton Park station site towards Anchorage Rd bridge
 

Disappointingly, on arrival at the bottom of the entrance pathway the site that now greets visitors is seen above-left. This was the site of the station building which had remained in situ until a year ago (there abouts) but has now been demolished having been subjected to frequent vandal attacks and burning cars dumped in its forecourt. As a point of reference, where you can see the white van ahead is the spot where the footbridge seen in the photograph at the top of this page was sited - not trace of which remains today. Above-right we are on the Walsall platform with the station buidling site to our rear looking along the platform towards the Anchorage Road bridge.

 
Sutton Park station Water Orton platform
Sutton Park station entrance from Station Approach
 

Above-left we are in the same spot as for the previous shot but this time looking over the tracks to the Water Orton/Castle Bromwich platform which has lost all of its platform buildings/structures and could be entered via Midland Road which ran behind it but has now been blocked-off. Above-right we are standing on the driveway to the site, Station Approach, looking at the spot where once the booking hall stood.

 
Sutton Park station goods shed from Midland Rd
Sutton Park station sidings from Midland Rd
 

Above-left we have swapped sides of the track and are on what remains of the aforementioned Midland Road to get a shot of the goods shed which is still standing and in seemingly good repair. It is not possible to get a great shot of the shed as the site is now a Royal Mail sorting centre (the sidings here were used for mail trains but, of course, these have now ceased) and so you can't get very close: it is just about viewable through the undergrowth though! Above-right we have walked along Midland Road away from the station in the direction of Walsall to a spot where the track is easily viewable: we can now see the sidings that remain at the station and the goods shed. I have to admit to being disappointed on this visit as I wasn't aware the booking hall had been demolished and the goods shed and sidings are fairly inaccessible. The site has been heavily remodelled and cleared with the Castle Bromwich side of the site being cleared completely other than its platform and is only worth a visit for the ardent enthusiast.

 

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