Bromsgrove Rail History

[Cross City]

Looking around my local area on Google Maps and I’ve come across something which I believe to be slightly curious.

I noticed an “Old Station Nursery” located on a Station Street near an Old Station Road, close to the town centre and not anywhere near where the current Bromsgrove station is.

Indeed the building which now houses a nursery does look like it could’ve been a station at some point, but the road it’s on is quite a steep hill and seemingly would be unsuitable for a railway.

Google Maps link
Here

Was there ever a station here? Because as far as I’m aware (and from what I can find on Google) Bromsgrove station has always been at, or very close to, its current location.

 

[EveningStar]

If I recall correctly, refers to the old police station.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Intriguing, but it looks as if it was named after the former County Police Station built in the mid 19th C rather than having any railway connection.

Station Street

Moving up Station Street, the first building you come across is 1 Guild Court (WSM 49008). This building formed part of the former Police Station, now a house, and is mid 19th century in date. The feature of the building is its stonework around the door and windows. Over the road from this building is the Bromsgrove Guild building (WSM 49009). This structure was built in the 1890s and early 20th century and was the base of the Bromsgrove Guild craftsmen. It has the large multi-light windows typical of a building used for industrial processes. (Page 33)

 

[Cross City]

Aaah thanks both! I've been duped there

 

[EveningStar]

Aaah thanks both! I've been duped there

Would not say duped. Will admit that when my late mother moved to Ednall Lane I had a brief head scratch about which station until having a 'duh' moment about location of what was then the police station.

 

[LickeyIncliner]

Station Road was surely the name given to the sequence of lanes that went most of the way from the town to the station; it became "Old" when New Road was built in 1865 as a shorter and easier link to the station. (And was severed by the bypass in the 1970s.)

Station Street apparently got that name around the time the station opened, as the street leading to Station Road; although a police station was built in Station Street in the same year that the railway station opened, just to allow some ambiguity. The later police station in The Crescent opened in 1899. The nursery appears to be adjacent to this, and could have taken its name from any of these. But there was definitely no railway station on or near that site!

Info from personal recollection and from Jennie McGregor-Smith's book "From Bromsgrove to Aston Fields", which is goes into a lot of detail about the development of the area between Bromsgrove and its station.