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) |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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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