Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway
Encyclopedia
The Stratford Upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway (SMJR) was a small independent railway company which ran a line across the empty, untouched centre of England. It visited the counties of Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and a little of Buckinghamshire, only existing as the SMJR from 1909 to 1923 . In 1923 the SMJR became a minor arm of the London Midland and Scottish (LMS), then in 1948 'British Railways'.
The SMJR came into being from the amalgamation of 'The East & West Junction Railway' (E+WJR), 'The Evesham, Redditch and Stratford Railway' (ER+SR), and changing its name to ‘The Stratford-upon-Avon, Towcester and Midland Junction Railway’ (ST+MJR), ‘The Easton Neston Mineral and Towcester, Roade and Olney Junction Railway’ (ENM+TROJR). In 1910 ‘The Northampton & Banbury Junction Railway’ (N+BJR) was amalgamated into the SMJR and as the SMJR the company ran services between Broom Junction and Stratford and Banbury to the west through Towcester to Blisworth and Olney in the east, fashioning itself as ‘The Shakespeare route’.
On 1 January 1923 the SMJR was taken over by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
(LMSR) and became an important asset to them, since it provided a direct route (avoiding Birmingham
), between the western line hitherto owned by the Midland Railway and the main line south of Bedford
. It was extensively used by excursion traffic between the two world wars. There was also a "race special" once a year to Towcester from London.
In 1948 the SMJR became part of British Rail
ways.
The line was single track throughout apart from passing loops: the countryside was undulating, and there were frequent changes of gradient and sharp curves, making it difficult to work for train crews.
The track itself, until taken over by the LMSR, was mostly secondhand; because of this, the line was dubbed the Slow Mouldy and Jolty Railway by travellers.
The railway owned 13 locomotives which themselves were old, and since they proved incompatible with the new company’s modernisation scheme they had all been scrapped by 1931.
The Edge Hill Light Railway
, which began working in 1922, and closed in 1946, ran from Burton Dassett sidings, west of Fenny Compton.
ore displaced that from the Northamptonshire quarries. This brought about financial problems, and for a time in the 1870s the E&WJR was in the hands of the receiver. By 1911, however, the line was showing a reasonable profit.
Lias limestone
was conveyed from the Ettington
Lime Works; but from the early 20th century it became important as a through route for freight of all kinds between the West of England and London. One such freight working was the express banana train between Avonmouth
Dock and St Pancras.
Passenger services generally on the SMJR were sparse, with often just three or four trains a day. For some months in 1932 experiments were carried out on the SMJR with a Ro-Railer
- buses converted to run on rails — although these were not successful and the service was withdrawn in June 1932.
The SMJR came into being from the amalgamation of 'The East & West Junction Railway' (E+WJR), 'The Evesham, Redditch and Stratford Railway' (ER+SR), and changing its name to ‘The Stratford-upon-Avon, Towcester and Midland Junction Railway’ (ST+MJR), ‘The Easton Neston Mineral and Towcester, Roade and Olney Junction Railway’ (ENM+TROJR). In 1910 ‘The Northampton & Banbury Junction Railway’ (N+BJR) was amalgamated into the SMJR and as the SMJR the company ran services between Broom Junction and Stratford and Banbury to the west through Towcester to Blisworth and Olney in the east, fashioning itself as ‘The Shakespeare route’.
History
The SMJR was formed by the amalgamation of four railways in 1909/10:- Northampton & Banbury Junction Railway (NBJR), incorporated 28 July 1863, opened 1 June 1872, length 15.25 miles. Intended to tap the ironstoneIronstoneIronstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...
deposits near BlisworthBlisworthBlisworth is a village and civil parish in the South Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England. The West Coast Main Line, from London Euston to Manchester and Scotland, runs alongside the village partly hidden and partly on an embankment...
, it ran from there to Cockley Brake Junction where connection was made for BanburyBanburyBanbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
. - East & West Junction Railway (E&WJR), incorporated 1864, opened Fenny ComptonFenny ComptonFenny Compton is a village and parish in Warwickshire, England, about eight miles north of Banbury. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 797. Its church of St. Peter and St. Clare was built in the 14th century...
to KinetonKinetonKineton is a village and civil parish on the River Dene in south-eastern Warwickshire, England. The village is part of Stratford-on-Avon district, and in the 2001 census it had a population of 2,278....
1 June 1871; Kineton to Stratford-upon-AvonStratford-upon-AvonStratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
1 July 1873. On the latter day, extended eastward to join NBJR near TowcesterTowcesterTowcester , the Roman town of Lactodorum, is a small town in south Northamptonshire, England.-Etymology:Towcester comes from the Old English Tófe-ceaster. Tófe refers to the River Tove; Bosworth and Toller compare it to the "Scandinavian proper names" Tófi and Tófa...
. - Evesham, Redditch & Stratford-upon-Avon Junction Railway, incorporated 1873, opened 2 June 1879, length 7.5 miles. Westward extension of E&WJR to join the Midland RailwayMidland RailwayThe Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....
at Broom Junction. - Stratford-upon-Avon, Towcester & Midland Junction Railway, opened 1891 from Towcester to a junction near Olney, also Midland Railway. Unlike the other lines, this was intended mainly for passenger traffic, but this was short-lived in a sparsely-populated area. The line did however complete a cross-country link for Midland Railway lines.
On 1 January 1923 the SMJR was taken over by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...
(LMSR) and became an important asset to them, since it provided a direct route (avoiding Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
), between the western line hitherto owned by the Midland Railway and the main line south of Bedford
Bedford
Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...
. It was extensively used by excursion traffic between the two world wars. There was also a "race special" once a year to Towcester from London.
In 1948 the SMJR became part of British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
ways.
The route
Once all the portions of the line came together on January the first 1909 (minus the Northampton & Banbury junction Railway which was taken over the following year, the SMJR consisted of a main line from Blisworth to Broom, with two branches: one from Towcester to Ravenstone Wood Junction, Olney and the other from Cockley Brake Junction. There were connections along the route with:- Midland Railway — as already described
- London and North Western RailwayLondon and North Western RailwayThe London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
at Blisworth - Great Central RailwayGreat Central RailwayThe Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...
(GCR) at Woodford HalseWoodford HalseWoodford Halse is a village about south of Daventry in Northamptonshire. It is in the civil parish of Woodford cum Membris, which includes also village of Hinton and hamlet of West Farndon...
. Soon after the GCR’s London Extension was built in 1899, through passenger coaches were instituted between London Marylebone and Stratford; later a slip coach was used on the service. - Great Western RailwayGreat Western RailwayThe Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
at Fenny Compton and again at Stratford
The line was single track throughout apart from passing loops: the countryside was undulating, and there were frequent changes of gradient and sharp curves, making it difficult to work for train crews.
The track itself, until taken over by the LMSR, was mostly secondhand; because of this, the line was dubbed the Slow Mouldy and Jolty Railway by travellers.
The railway owned 13 locomotives which themselves were old, and since they proved incompatible with the new company’s modernisation scheme they had all been scrapped by 1931.
The Edge Hill Light Railway
Edge Hill Light Railway
The Edge Hill Light Railway, one of Colonel Stephens' railways, was in Warwickshire, England. It was designed to carry iron ore from Edge Hill Quarries to Burton Dassett where a junction was made with the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway. It was never officially opened, but began...
, which began working in 1922, and closed in 1946, ran from Burton Dassett sidings, west of Fenny Compton.
Operating
The line’s original raison d’etre (that of conveying ironstone to the ironworks of South Wales) was ended when cheap SpanishSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
ore displaced that from the Northamptonshire quarries. This brought about financial problems, and for a time in the 1870s the E&WJR was in the hands of the receiver. By 1911, however, the line was showing a reasonable profit.
Lias limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
was conveyed from the Ettington
Ettington
Ettington is a village in Warwickshire, England. It is located eight kilometres south-east of Stratford upon Avon and is less than a mile west of the Fosse Way...
Lime Works; but from the early 20th century it became important as a through route for freight of all kinds between the West of England and London. One such freight working was the express banana train between Avonmouth
Avonmouth
Avonmouth is a port and suburb of Bristol, England, located on the Severn Estuary, at the mouth of the River Avon.The council ward of Avonmouth also includes Shirehampton and the western end of Lawrence Weston.- Geography :...
Dock and St Pancras.
Passenger services generally on the SMJR were sparse, with often just three or four trains a day. For some months in 1932 experiments were carried out on the SMJR with a Ro-Railer
Karrier
Karrier is a marque of car and commercial vehicle, the origins of which can be traced back to Clayton and Company, a 1904 company from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK. In 1908, they started making Karrier cars and in 1920 changed the company name to Karrier Motors Ltd.In 1929, Karrier started...
- buses converted to run on rails — although these were not successful and the service was withdrawn in June 1932.
Closures
- 16 June 1947 Broom — Stratford-upon-Avon closed to passenger traffic
- 2 July 1951 Blisworth — Towcester passenger traffic
- October 1951 Blisworth — Cockley Brake Junction all traffic
- 7 April 1952 Stratford — Ravenstone Wood Junction passenger traffic
SMJR today
Today the only part of the SMJR still operating is the five miles from Fenny Compton serving the Ministry of Defence depot at Kineton.External links
- The SMJ Society
- http://www.stratfordstation.com
- http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/stratfordmidland.htm
- http://www.lostlines.fotopic.net/c856458.html