Secret Ironbridge: Great Western Railway

I have already mentioned Coalport (East) in my post Secret Ironbridge: London & North Western Railway – but directly on the opposite side of the river (in the Coalport hamlet of Preens Eddy) was another station – Coalport (West) – which served the Great Western Railway (GWR) that ran from Kidderminster & Bridgnorth, and onwards to Ironbridge & Shrewsbury.

“Confused? – you will be“. If you look at the map (above) from 1925 you will see that Coalport (East) is only slightly in a more easterly direction than its counterpart. If I had been in charge of station names I would have been tempted to call them Coalport (North) and Coalport (South) – not least to eliminate the confusion that the line from Coalport (East) only takes you West! Maybe there is a station-naming protocol that I am unaware of. If so, please let me know.

The old GWR railway track has long been removed, although the original course of the line can be clearly seen, and most of it is now a footpath called the Severn Valley Way. The station, however, still stands and has been tastefully converted into a house. In addition, two Mark1 railway carriages stand on tracks near the platform and are let out as self-catering holiday accommodation.

Just west of the station is Sweyney bridge, which carries the road from the Coalport to Broseley, and is still an important route to the river crossing mentioned in Secret Ironbridge: Another bridge of iron.

Back in 2003, I conducted a small project called “Bridges of the Ironbridge Gorge”, when I photographed all 25 of them, ranging from the iconic Iron Bridge over the river Severn to a much smaller footbridge that crosses the Shropshire canal. The (then) owners of Coalport (West) Station kindly allowed me onto their land to capture the shot below to help complete the project:

We’ll be seeing more of the GWR line as we follow it up the Ironbridge Gorge to uncover some more Secret Ironbridge, including a lost village and the site of a nasty accident.