Place Wacton, Herefordshire Grid reference SO627566 Post-grouping Great Western Railway Platforms in use 1 | Area Herefordshire Pre-grouping Great Western Railway 1 September 1897 (1897-09-01) Station opened | |
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Address Rowden Mill, Bromyard HR7 4LS, UK Original company Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway Similar Fencote railway station, Berrington and Eye railway st, Almeley railway station, Holme Lacy railway st, Ballingham railway station | ||
Rowden Mill railway station was a railway station located on the Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway in England.
Contents
Opening
Opened as part of the final section of the Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway, the railway was bought out of bankcruptcy by the Great Western Railway in 1888, who completed the line in 1897.
Closure
Post the Second World War, and with the greater use of the motorbus and private cars, traffic on the line fell considerably. Unstaffed as a station from September 1949, the line closed to regular passenger services on 15 September 1952.
On 26 April 1958 a special train organised by the Stephenson Locomotive Society ran from Worcester via Bromyard to Leominster, calling in at Rowden Mill, Fencote and Steens Bridge. The 50 society members/passengers rode on the last train that would run on the complete track before it was removed. The Worcester to Bromyard section, kept open for the storage of disused and soon to be scrapped railway wagons, was closed under the Beeching Axe in 1964.
Present
Rowden Mill was bought and restored from 1984, as a private residence. Later sections of the track either side of station were reinstalled, on which are presently housed various Wickham self-propelled trolleys, some carriages and goods wagons. At private gatherings, the stock is propelled along the line, while the site is opened occasionally for public access and viewing, but without operational trains. In March 1989, Rowden Mill received the British Rail Award in the Ian Allan Publishing Railway Heritage Awards for the Best Renovated Non-Working station.