Northwood Halt
Up (towards Kidderminster) | Down (towards Bridgnorth) |
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Bewdley | Arley |
Northwood Halt is a request stop located between Bewdley and Arley, immediately adjacent to the level crossing at Hill Farm, Northwood Lane. The platform is on the East side of the railway with a small pagoda shelter and a view across the River Severn to the Wyre Forest. Access to the platform is via a short footpath from the adjacent level crossing. The level crossing is protected by warning lights triggered by approaching trains. There is no car parking nearby.
Passengers wishing to alight at Northwood Halt should inform the train guard before departure. Those wishing to join a train at Northwood Halt should signal the driver of the approaching train by holding out an extended arm, allowing sufficient time for the train to stop. As there is no lighting on the platform, trains will only stop during daylight hours.
Northwood Halt before preservation[edit | edit source]
The halt was opened by the GWR on 17 June 1935[1], one of a number of mid-War halts added by the Company in an attempt to increase local traffic. It provided access to the many riverside wooden shacks and caravan sites, and was popular with day trippers from Birmingham and the Black Country visiting the picnic and fishing spots along the nearby River Severn. The halt comprised a short sleeper-faced platform, surfaced partly with tarmac and partly with ash. It included a small corrugated iron booking office and a simple wooden hut as a shelter.[2] There was no passing loop or signalling.
A DMU calls at Northwood Halt in July 1961 (Sellick Collection)
The Halt remained in use until closure of that section of the line to passengers in September 1963. After closure the shelter and booking office were sold and moved to a nearby house, leaving just the name board and two metal lamp posts.[2]
Northwood Halt in preservation[edit | edit source]
Northwood Halt formed part of the southern section of the line between Alveley Sidings and Foley Park, for which the SVR had agreed a provisional purchase price in February 1971. By May 1972 the share offer organised by Sir Gerald Nabarro had successfully raised the necessary funds, with the purchase completed by 31 December 1972.
In summer 1972 a group from the Harry Cheshire High School Railway Society visited the area to watch 8F 8233 moving the newly repainted Ex-Longmoor Military Railway saloons from Bewdley up to Hampton Loade for filming The Incredible Robert Baldick. They decided to look at the halt and found it very overgrown and run down. They took on the renovation of the halt as a project and over the next two years helped with reinstating it, making fortnightly and later weekly visits on weekdays and occasional weekends. A new name board was built in the school workshop and erected at the halt in July 1973. In early 1974, sleepers were obtained from Eardington Bank following relaying there, and used to replace those missing from the platform face; much other renovation work was also carried out.[2][3]
A derelict large slatted timber hut, previously used by BR for Permanent Way purposes, was formerly situated next to the line about 200 yards south of the halt and crossing.[note 1] After Easter 1974, the school volunteers helped manhandle the hut onto the line and from there up to and past the level crossing. The SVR's P-Way department later lifted it onto the Platform to serve as a replacement for the original GWR hut. The SVR's extension of passenger services from Bridgnorth as far as Bewdley began on 18 May 1974,[note 2] with the halt coming into use at the same time. Prior to opening, the halt and crossing had been inspected by Major Olver; although the platform surface was still rough and the hut "rather rickety" he was satisfied with the progress that had been made.[4]
Northwood Halt in May 1975 (David C. Williams/SVR News)
By summer 2001 it was becoming apparent that the halt was suffering from recurring vandalism, and a refurbishment by a team from Bewdley began.[5] Over the next couple of years substantial repairs to the wooden shelter were carried out and the path up to the platform improved. Plans were also developed to replace the wooden shelter with a GWR-style corrugated iron 'pagoda' shelter (Northwood Halt did not have a 'pagoda' in GWR days, although Foley Park Halt did).[6] This was constructed by the Friends of Kidderminster Town Station using corrugated sheets supplied by Joseph Ash Ltd, a company that had supplied corrugated iron buildings to the GWR a hundred years previously[7], and transported to Northwood by rail in spring 2006 The halt with its new pagoda won the G.N.E.R. Volunteers Award in the 2007 National Railway Heritage Awards.
The present-day "Northwood Halt" name board was erected in August 2008, replacing the 1970s board which had become life-expired.[8]
In August 2019 the Halt received repairs to the platform edge, sections of fencing along with a full repaint and grass trimming[9].
Northwood Halt in film and television[edit | edit source]
The Halt was one of the filming locations in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1966), with the train headed by one of the 'Austrian' locomotives (46521) seen passing it. It is also glimpsed in other scenes filmed at the adjacent level crossing, particularly Sorry! (1986).
Harry Cheshire High School Railway Society[edit | edit source]
The Harry Cheshire County Secondary School opened in September 1940, later becoming Harry Cheshire High School.[10] In September 2002 it became Baxter College.
See also[edit | edit source]
Notes[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Marshall (1979) p. 95.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 SVR News 28, pp 21-23, Northwood Halt, David Marchant
- ↑ SVR News 31, pp 18-19, Northwood Halt, David Marchant
- ↑ SVR News 33, pp 25-27, Northwood Notes 3, David Marchant
- ↑ SVR News 139, p. 46., Notes from Northwood Halt, James Pearson
- ↑ SVR News 143, pp. 54-56., Northwood Halt News, James Pearson
- ↑ Friends of Kidderminster Station magazine, August 2005, via web archive (Retrieved 21 November 2021)
- ↑ Bewdley Station Website
- ↑ Bewdley Station Facebook 13 August 2019
- ↑ Robinson, K., 'First Pupils at Harry Cheshire School', BBC WW2 People's War website, 15 October 2004 (Retrieved 4 August 2018)
Links[edit | edit source]
- Northwood Halt on the Bewdley Station web site
- Northwood Halt Pagoda on the Friends of Kidderminster Town web site, via web archive
- Northwood Halt, as seen from a passing train which stops briefly, hauled by 92214 - a SharposWorld video
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