Wilmcote Railway Footbridge
This historic footbridge is dated 1883 but the station it serves was not built until 1908.
The Great Western Railway was one of the most important British railway companies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The GWR was formed to construct the line between London and Bristol (opened 1841) but it had expanded northwards into Warwickshire, to Birmingham, by collaboration and acquisition of smaller companies from around the 1860’s and by the start of the 20th century the routes available to the GWR were more or less at is peak. The company’s employees believed their company was a cut above the rest and used to refer to the GWR as “God’s Wonderful Railway”. They were rightly proud of the innovative motive power, rolling stock and civil engineering developed by the company as well as the distinctive architectural style applied to GWR railway buildings. After all, the company’s original chief engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The distinctive GWR architectural style is applied magnificently to this very attractive and historic railway footbridge which serves the small rural railway station that was opened, on its current site, in 1908.
The historic footbridge has cast iron columns and ornate moulded capitals which provide support to both a distinctive latticed iron frame and corrugated iron roof. The roof has, very typical of both the period and the railway company, decorative wooden finials and pierced fretwork on the canopy. The projecting staircases (originally wooden but now with more modern flooring), create a U shaped plan and they too have a matching roof and canopy. Apart from its flooring, the bridge is in, more or less, original, 1883, condition. It is a Grade 2 listed structure. Many stations in the area have similar footbridges but most have been extensively “modernised”, often losing the 19th century, GWR, style in the process.
Amongst fans of railway architecture this bridge is a bit of an enigma. Cast into the structure is the date, 1883, but the station it serves was not built until 1908. It cannot have been moved from the earlier (even smaller) station nearby because archive photos show no footbridge on that single-platform station.
Know Before You Go
The train from Stratford upon Avon takes only about 6 minutes and the single ticket was £2.50 in 2024. The station is very convenient for a visit to the birthplace of William Shakespeare's mother (Mary Arden), about a mile away, and the station is, itself, a little gem of early 20th century GWR architectural features.
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