Part Two – Leamington to London and Birmingham on the GWR
This GWR line through Leamington began as the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway and was authorised in August 1946. This company soon became part of the Great Western Railway in August 1847. The line was mixed gauge from Banbury and opened in 1850. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and completed the route to London (Paddington). Leamington Station was built of rendered brick and opened on 1st October 1852. The station was built on the site of Eastnor Terrace which had to be totally demolished despite having been completed only in 1844. The terrace was four storeys high and stretched for 140 yards and included a college. The bricks were reused to build Eastnor Terrace in Tachbrook Road.
Design, construction and completion of this line were not easy. The LNWR was uncooperative and obstructive to this intruder into its territory and there were many uncomfortable clashes at meetings before completion. Furthermore the grand opening ceremony was delayed because, incredibly, the train bringing guests from London collided with a goods train.For many years there were frequent trains from Leamington to Paddington and Snow Hill in Birmingham. A branch from Hatton, on the line to Birmingham, to Stratford-upon-Avon was opened in 1860.
There was a GWR locoshed at the end of ClaphamTerrace opposite the Eagle recreation ground with a coaling stage and water crane. It was on a site between the London and North Western Railway line to Rugby and the Great Western main railway line to Banbury. The original locoshed was built of timber and burnt down in 1902 but a brick replacement was completed in September 1906. It finally closed in 1965. The site is now part of the Sydenham Estate. The line itself survived the Beeching Report unscathed.
photo by EW Bryan
Around 1907 the original Great Western railway bridge across Clemens Street and High Street was replaced because trains were heavier.
On 1st January 1923 all the existing 123 railway companies in Great Britain were amalgamated into four Groups, the Great Western Railway, the Southern Railway, the London North Eastern Railway and the London Midland and Scottish Railway (which included the London North Western Railway) .
photo 1959
Leamington Spa station was replaced in Art Deco style and opened in 1939. Much of this building survives and is now Listed Grade 2; the station and the gardens are cared for by the group of Friends of the Station which was formed in 2005.
Click here for Part One or Part Three
Mick Jeffs and Barry Franklin, January 2014
