Barton and Walton station

[Comstock]

Barton was where I grew up, but the station closed nearly 20 years before I was born (it closed in 1958 so we can't blame Beeching for this one).

The buildings were still standing when I was a wee lad. In fact I'm not sure they were properly demolished until the early 90s

When the Bombardier depot was built, there was a rumour in Barton village we were getting a station again as part of the deal. Sadly a rumour is all it was.

What is known about it, other that this? Does anyone have any photos other than the one on Wiki? Did it have full time staff and a ticket office etc? Even a waiting room or buffet? Were there connections to Barton village by motorbus, or did you have to walk (it's nearly a mile to Barton and not much less to Walton- that may have been what finally did for the station, the next station, Alrewas was much nearer the village and limped on into the 60s)

What was the service like? Was it diesel by the end?

Could it ever return? So many questions, sorry I don't expect answers to all of them, but perhaps people have the answers to some.

 

[adrock1976]

Just to ask a question: could you be specific as to which region you are referring to?

I'm aware of Walton in Lancashire/Merseyside, and Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex.

I'm also aware of Barton upon Humber in Lincolnshire, and Barton under Needwood around the Staffordshire/Derbyshire area.

 

[Comstock]

Sorry, yes it's the last one of those.

Barton under Needwood (just into Staffordshire) and Walton on Trent (just into Derbyshire)

The station was roughly equidistant between the two.....

 

[AndyW33]

It's possible to generalise a bit. Would it have been staffed? Yes, pretty much every station was staffed up to the beginning of the 1960s unless the name included "Halt" or "Platform" (and sometimes even then). Would there have been a ticket office? Yes, same answer, but since stations handled a lot of goods and parcels traffic, you might not have found the office open during the gaps between trains, as there might be only one railwayman on duty at quiet times at a place this size by the 1950s, and he could be away from the office dealing with parcels traffic or in the goods shed/sidings. Unless the pay records for this station have survived, it will be difficult to find out how many people were employed at this station.
Would there have been a buffet? Very unlikely, these were found at town/city stations and at junctions where reasonable numbers of people had to wait for trains, rather than small village stations. There might well have been a pub just outside the station (there very often was), you might find the building survives even if it is now used as something else. The station building doesn't look big enough to house a buffet, anyway.
How did people get to the station? Walked or cycled mostly. Would there have been a bus? Not specifically to serve the station. Buses going somewhere else may have gone past, but probably the main reason the station closed to passengers well before the local services that passed through it were withdrawn was that the bus routes ran through the village centres, and people found them much more convenient and frequent.
Would there have been a diesel service? Possibly. A 1958 closure date is a little early, but the Walsall-Burton trains ran through the station and the first DMU depot in the West Midlands was at Walsall.

 

[Comstock]

Thanks for that, it gives me some idea what it might have been like. A long shot and a cheeky ask, but I don't suppose anyone has a copy of the national timetable going back to before 1958, so they could see how frequent the service was?



I think modern Barton could support a station, ironically the population has grown considerably since the station closed and it has a population of around 7,000 now. Walton hasn't grown as fast, with maybe a thousand people tops. If you factor in the populations of Yoxall and Tatenhill you'd probably get a 'catchment' of 10,000 people or so, plus commuters to Bombardier, Argos etc.

The problem, then as now, would be getting to the station- realistically people would want to drive, so you'd need a large car park...and I don't think the land is available for that now that the train depot and business park is there..... so I'm not holding me breath.

 

[AndyW33]

Thanks for that, it gives me some idea what it might have been like. A long shot and a cheeky ask, but I don't suppose anyone has a copy of the national timetable going back to before 1958, so they could see how frequent the service was?

There wasn't a national timetable as such, each BR Region issued a separate timetable book. You simply couldn't fit all the information into one book. You need someone with the London Midland book - maroon cover.
That was what Bradshaw and the ABC Guide did - provide summary timetables, but to fit things into one book Bradshaw had to use very small print, very thin paper, and squeeze things up confusingly.

I have a reprint of a 1910 Bradshaw. As this is before bus competition, it probably shows services about as good as they ever got at Barton and Walton. There were 9 trains a day calling at Barton on their way between Derby and Walsall via Burton and Lichfield, and 8 between Derby-Burton-Tamworth- Birmingham. But after about 8pm stopping trains had virtually ceased. Sounds like a modern bus service, doesn't it?

 

[Dr Hoo]

In the March 1954 Bradshaw there were a handful of Burton-Lichfield -Walsall services and a couple of Derby-Birmingham locals that called on weekdays. No Sunday calls.

It is not immediately obvious that the pattern at Barton & Walton was designed to cater for commuting, shift work, day trips to larger cities or anything else. Sadly typical of many irregular, infrequent, un-integrated services that lost passengers to other modes that the first few years of nationalisation had been unable to address.

 

[Comstock]

OK, thanks for those. Gives me quite a good idea what it offered, service wise.

 

[Bevan Price]

Thanks for that, it gives me some idea what it might have been like. A long shot and a cheeky ask, but I don't suppose anyone has a copy of the national timetable going back to before 1958, so they could see how frequent the service was?

.

London Midland Region, Summer 1956 timetable. Trains calling at Brandon & Walton:

North/east bound:
08:04 (07:10 Walsall - Burton) (Connection arrived Derby at 08:41)
08:52 (07:20 Kings Norton - Birmingham - Tamworth - Derby)
09:10 (08:27 Walsall - Burton
10:24 (09:17 Walsall - Derby)
11:12 (09:45 Birmingham New St. - Walsall - Burton)
13:33 (SO, 12:43 Walsall - Burton
13:58 (SO, 12:55 Birmingham - Tamworth - Derby)
14:22 (13:25 Birmingham - Tamworth - Derby)
15:47(SX) or 15:51(SO) (15;00 Walsall - Burton)
17:44 (16:17 Birmingham New St. - Walsall - Burton)
19:01 (18:47 Lichfield City - Burton)

South/west bound:
06:57 (06:50 Burton - Walsall - Birmingham New St.)
08:25 (08;18 Burton - Walsall)
10:39(SX) or 10:41(SO) (10:32 SX / 10:34(SO) Burton - Walsall
13:18 (12:45 Derby - Walsall)
13:44 (SX) / 13:45 (SO) (13:15 Derby - Birmingham via Tamworth
14:02 (SO, 13:55 Burton - Walsall
16:06 (15:38 Derby - Birmingham via Tamworth)
17:51 (17:45 Burton - Walsall - Birmingham New St.)
19:19 (18:45 Derby - Birmingham via Tamworth)
20:36 FX / 20:41 FO (20:30 / 20:37 Burton - Walsall - Birmingham New St)

No Sunday service.

So - not much use if anyone wanted to commute from Barton to Tamworth, or a long roundabout route if you worked in Birmingham....
And equally bad if you worked in Derby with a starting time much before 09:00

 

[Comstock]

So - not much use if anyone wanted to commute from Barton to Tamworth, or a long roundabout route if you worked in Birmingham....
And equally bad if you worked in Derby with a starting time much before 09:00

Again, ironically, Barton is now very much a commuter settlement for Birmingham and Derby, even though the public transport links to Birmingham particularly are really rubbish.

But I think Barton was considered a bit far out for commuting to Brum in the 1950s.

 

[30907]

Again, ironically, Barton is now very much a commuter settlement for Birmingham and Derby, even though the public transport links to Birmingham particularly are really rubbish.

But I think Barton was considered a bit far out for commuting to Brum in the 1950s.

And, to be frank, unlikely to be any significant commuter flows - schoolchildren to Burton, perhaps, if that was the local grammar school? Outside big cities, people simply didn't commute any distance, which is why so many now busy routes barely survived the 1960s cull.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The village of Walton-upon-Trent is actually in Derbyshire but the site that was chosen for the railway station in 1839 by the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway was over the border in Staffordshire.