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by Stuart Williams

The transport arteries of Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution were first the canals, and then the great British steam railway system, an incredible feat of engineering, management, blood, sweat and not a few tears which helped the nation become foremost in the world during the Victorian and Imperial era.  

The railway came early to Walsall, but didn’t enter the town itself at first.  On May 4, 1837, just a few weeks before Queen Victoria ascended the throne, the first line in the area opened – the Grand Junction Railway between Birmingham and Warrington. 

Railway workers laying track at Ryecroft, late 19th century (WLHC)

A station at Walsall had been planned but not built, so the local station was at Bescot Bridge, on the Wednesbury Road near the borough boundary.  From here, horse-drawn ‘light vans’ ran into Walsall, connecting the railway to the original George Hotel (built 1781), a coaching inn on The Bridge.  

In 1847 the railway finally reached Walsall itself when the South Staffordshire Railway opened a temporary station in Bridgeman Place, linking with the Grand Junction line at Bescot Junction.  In 1849 the South Staffordshire line was extended northeast to connect with the Midland Railway at Wychnor Junction and a magnificent new Walsall Station building in the Elizabethan style was opened in Station Street.  Rushall Station (closed 1909) was also opened on the Walsall boundary in Station Road.   

By 1850, it was calculated that in Great Britain railway locomotives were travelling nearly four and a half times the circumference of the Earth every day, and no fewer than 6,464 miles of rail were under traffic. 

The number of engines working was 2,436, which consumed 627,528 tons (not tonnes!) of coke, and 896,466 tons of coal in a year.  The railway was king.

Walsall Station gradually expanded from one set of up ‘up and down’ lines. 

 Walsall Station, flooded, in 1888 (WLHC)

The South Staffordshire Railway opened a branch from Ryecroft to Cannock in 1858, in 1859 extending to Rugeley.  Stations were opened in 1858 at Bloxwich (closed 1965) and Birchills (closed 1916).  The London and North Western Railway took over the Cannock line in 1861, widening Walsall Station to accommodate passing lines through the centre for mineral and freight trains, leaving two loops for passenger trains.

The Wolverhampton Line via North Walsall was opened in 1872 by the Wolverhampton & Walsall Railway, who built North Walsall Station (closed 1925) in Bloxwich Road, and in 1879 extended the line east as the Wolverhampton, Walsall & Midland Junction Railway.   As a result of the extension, Cooks opened an office in Walsall to provide excursions.

By 1872  the Midland Railway was negotiating for running rights to Walsall.  The station was becoming seriously congested by the time they were established in Walsall, and it was rebuilt in 1883, with a new main entrance and booking hall opening in Park Street in 1884, with separate booking offices for the LNWR and Midland Railways.  The LNWR owned the station itself, and their stationmaster was in control.  The old station, extended in the LNWR style, became used for parcels and administration.  

In 1881 a loop was opened from the South Staffordshire line at Pleck Junction to the Grand Junction line at James Bridge, with Pleck Station (closed 1958) being built in Bescot Road.      

Around 1900, Walsall Station was operating a thousand train movements a day, providing jobs for more than 200 staff. On 22 January, 1901, with the passing away of the Queen, the Victorian era finally ended, but the railways moved on, and having survived two World Wars with distinction, continued to be one of the most important elements of Walsall transport until many lines were devastated in 1963 by the infamous ‘Beeching Axe’. 

LNWR ‘Jumbo’ locomotive No. 2158 Sister Dora at Ryecroft Shed, Walsall, 1890s (WLHC)

Walsall itself suffered badly, and at one time it was thought the town might lose its last passenger railway link via Birmingham altogether. Sadly, in the late 1970s the once-great Walsall Station buildings were destroyed in the name of ‘progress’.  

Today, railways are once more important to Walsall, brought slowly and painfully back from the brink almost entirely for passenger traffic, which has grown by leaps and bounds since the 1980s as the roads have become more and more impassable due to congestion. 

Hopefully, in the 21st century, what remains of our Victorian railway inheritance will continue to expand and have a secure future as the slimmed-down but still-beating heart of Walsall’s transport system.


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