Shrewsbury Matters: Restoration of Abbey Foregate station back on track
Stick around long enough and little miracles happen – like new life slowly being breathed into the long-derelict Abbey Foregate railway station writes Phil Gillam.
For decades, this was one of those “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” buildings, a structure so apparently insignificant that few local people even knew it was there.
I well remember meeting up with school pals in this neck of the woods – long before the regeneration that came with the new link road in the early 1980s, long before the new Greenhous Vauxhall showrooms, long before the Beaten Track pub and the Safeway supermarket which eventually became Asda, long before Cineworld.
When I was 11 or 12, I probably knew nothing of the history of this area. I certainly don’t recall being aware of the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway. All that would come much later.
No, we schoolboys would just congregate there sometimes – because it was a kind of cool and mysterious place.
There were broken down buildings just crying out to be explored. Now, this might well have involved trespassing, but there were no signs around to suggest this, and back then there was a sense in which the whole world was free and open.
We were never out to make mischief, never out to be a nuisance to anyone, and we most certainly did not go in for smashing old windows or any kind of vandalism. It was just fun to hang around with mates in this semi-wasteland full of ghosts.
Back then there were still railway lines in this area.
In amongst the ballast supporting the lines you would occasionally stumble upon an ancient cigarette packet covered in oil or a torn page from some old railway document – an artefact from another era.
Why were there still railway lines there in the 1970s when the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway had vanished many years before?
Well, because there was an oil depot there in Abbey Foregate and the sidings were still being used by British Railways for transporting oil tankers (and continued to be used right up until 1988, finally being taken up in 1990).
All this came back to me on Sunday when the old Abbey Foregate station (undergoing renovation) was opened to the public, and I popped along to see how things were developing. There is still a lot to be done here as the idea is that it should become a permanent little museum and visitor centre, but much has already been achieved – thanks to the Shrewsbury Railway Heritage Trust.
The trust was formed in 2003 with the intention of recording, documenting, preserving and telling the story of the railways in Shrewsbury and its region for the benefit of future generations.
A noble ambition indeed.
The trust is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, managed by a board of eight directors. It has a membership of more than 100.
Its declared aim is to record the social and economic impact of the railways upon Shrewsbury and the wider region. Shrewsbury was of course one of the most important connectional hubs on the early UK rail network with its extensive marshalling yards in Coton Hill, Coleham and Abbey Foregate, the latter known locally as ‘the back of the sheds’.
As a boy I was always very aware of ‘the back of the sheds’ with my grand-dad having been a Great Western Railway man.
It was a fascinating area.
And the handful of streets which still bear the name – ‘the back of the sheds’ – remains a fascinating area.
On Sunday, there was not a tremendous amount to see at the old station – a few pictures of how things used to be, a couple of information displays, a book stall. But it was enough to give you a little taste of the place – and also a little insight into what it can become.
Stop-start, stop-start funding has meant that the project is behind schedule, but hopes are high that the place will be fully open to the public in the not-too-distant future.
For those unfamiliar with the history, the old station here was once part of the Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway, known more commonly as “The Potts” – established by Richard Samuel France, a wealthy Shropshire entrepreneur. The 18-mile main line from Shrewsbury to Llanymynech opened on August 13, 1866 with a further extension serving the Nantmawr quarries. Owing to financial difficulties the company was wound up in 1881.
The Potts somehow carried on in a state of suspension until Colonel Holman Fred Stephens took charge in 1908 and renamed the enterprise the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway.
This ran from 1911 to 1933. In 1941 the War Department requisitioned the line, running trains to and from its ammunition storage depot at Nesscliffe.
Some modest service then ran after the war but the railway was handed over to BR in 1960 for dismantling.
For more information on the Shrewsbury Railway Heritage Trust contact Mansel Williams on 01743 235103 or Phil Hughes on 01743 359853.
Comments for: "Shrewsbury Matters: Restoration of Abbey Foregate station back on track"
eva land
Far better £70,000 of tax payers money is spent on this white elephant than the homeless charity that requested and were denied funding.
What other organisation could obtain this amount of taxpayer's public funding ( a lot more was originally allocated) without any indication of a business plan? Also, using council employees to draw up the revised plans as the the original scheme drawn up by an architect was unsurprisingly regarded as too costly ( over £300,000) ?
Would any other charity/club be allowed to do that?
What exactly is being celebrated here?
A railway that went bust within 20 years?
A historical disregard for a highly important building such as the Abbey so allowing a train track to be laid practically right up to it's front door?
A left wing socialist councillor happens to be chairman of this society and has used his considerable influence to obtain this funding. He obviously has no problem with a centre for disabled people being closed so long as his little 'anorak' club gets funded by Shrewsbury taxpayers.
There was literally one wall and a window remaining of this station so it was hardly a renovation and it is extremely hard to believe that without an actual real steam train adjacent to the museum, it is likely to generate the justifiable amount of interest he predicts.
We have a history of railways and associated Victorian architecture in every part of the UK so unless you are offering more than pictures and a bit of history that can easily be accessed on a website how could such a large amount of our money be squandered in such a cavalier fashion when public services and jobs are being cut?
mansel williams
The figure of £70K is about right. This was monies which was originally allocated by Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council and then taken forward by Shropshire Council. Yes, the Council's have supported this initiative by local people and I commend them for it.
There has always been a Business Plan. The BP involves the development of a volunteer-run Railway Visitor Centre at the Abbey Station. It will celebrate the work of people who worked on the railways in and around Shrewsbury and its region and it will celebrate the families who supported them.
The restored building is to serve as a centre to tell Shrewsbury's Railway story; the story of the people who worked on the railways and to relate it to the canals, to the roads/coach roads, airfields etc. It will also celebrate the lives of the great engineers who planned these great enterprises, Thomas Brassey, the Stephenson's, William Hazledine, Thomas Telford, Henry Robinson etc
The plans for the station have been drawn up by one of its own Directors, after the original architect plans were considered to be too expensive.
Local people, many of whom worked on the railways have attended the Shrewsbury Railway Heritage Trust's exhibitions, presentations, Illustrated Talks, Heritage Walks. The monies allocated are an investment in Abbey Foregate, in Shrewsbury and in Shropshire; the Abbey Station restored will be an enduring asset to inform and educate our people and to interest, fascinate and delay the visitor. The visitor is vitally important to the tourism economy of the town and the county, and is a significant element in Shropshire's economic well being.
The restored Station is the means by which some good people can give a little back to the town and the county and at the same time celebrate our forebears who created our industrial infrastructure.
eva land
There was no business plan on the application as would normally be requested and little publicity regarding that amended application.
Yes, over £100,000 funding was agreed by SABC though many other councillors disagreed with it at the time.
Shrewsbury Ark for the homeless in this town was denied the funding it needed, as I remember.
The losses regarding the Cadfael venture were somewhat of a lesson.
Most people work in some sort of capacity, but £70,000 seems a lot of money for an acknowledgement/ celebration of that fact!
This OTT sentimentalist piece of PR still does not give us tax payers a likely indication of how that large sum of our money will generate sufficient interest to merit spending such a sum, particularly in something that could have remained an informative web site.
Chris Chambers
The Abbey Foregate station 'restoration' is not a new idea and has been on going for nearly twenty years. The station and yard, now a car park, were originally part of a much greater blueprint involving the development all the land formally occupied by the Joint engine sheds, the Rea Valley, the Abbeyand Foregate, Gay Meadow and the Wakeman School. The concept was to create a heritage corridor, encouraging and facilitating both economic and social regeneration.
At the time there was no political will or vision on the part of SABC and the plan was never supported; instead we have seen the piecemeal dismantling of the area. Yes, there were a few of us on the Council that had major concerns about the Cadfael experience, borne out by research and examination of business plans, but, again, it was being driven by those with different aspirations.
The point I want to make is that along with the Flax Mill redevelopment, the Abbey Foregate scheme will enhance the area and encourage sustainable regeneration in the area, not just for the tourism and visitor sector but in terms of pride and a real tangible uplift in the community.
Hand in hand with these schemes will come the aspiration and resources to address the social issues already being discussed, simply because folk will want to be associated with the area.
It is important that both these schemes are able to demonstrate very clearly the link between the public resources being absorbed and the ultimate positive outcomes for the area, whether they be the built environment or simply providing a nice affordable place to live. The schemes need to be fully inclusive and appreciative of the social environment that gave birth to them in the first place!
Without this uplift and the recognition of the fact that we are facing a massive imbalance in terms of housing provision, then schemes such as these will, quite rightly, continue to attract an adverse reaction from those that are already marginalised
eva land
Not only is it laughable that you are claiming this part of the town is a poor area in need of uplifting but if that were even remotely true then that site could have accommodated at least two if not more, housing units.
In other words you are not just talking about a site which has been a total eyesore, followed by the addition of scaffolding and metal fences up for the last twenty years but has also been the loss of a valuable building plot to the taxpayers putting the cost of this unproven and vastly expensive project even higher.
Unlike the Flax Mill, hardly comparable being a listed building and actually in an area of deprivation, this project was rejected when a application for funding was sought from the Lottery which is a strong indication that it was not considered sufficiently worthwhile.
Instead us poor taxpayers have been misled into paying for it when far more important and truly justified services and jobs have been lost and a lack of housing provision is, as you said yourself, an acute situation.