Town’s second station in the 1950s
YOU will have to look carefully at this photograph to work out where it was taken. The station sign reads Tipton – but that’s not all. A panel has been added underneath the sign that reads Five Ways.
For a little over 100 years Tipton had two railway stations and for most of that time they were both known simply as Tipton Station, which much have caused no end of confusion for those not versed in the intricacies of the Black Country’s railway infrastructure.
Britain’s railways were developed in the 19th century through the intense rivalry between competing companies. Opposing railways fought each other over routes and access to important towns and, because they were often unwilling to co-operate, many towns ended up with rival stations.
What became Tipton Five Ways Station was opened on December 1, 1853, by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway and was later absorbed into the Great Western Railway. It was the first stop after Dudley Station and preceded Princes End and Coseley Station on the line to Wolverhampton Low Level Station.
The station was to the west of the town, roughly where Oxford Way is today, which more or less follows the line of the old track. This photograph of the station was taken in 1950 by Violet Billingham from the window of her bedroom at 10 Poplar Avenue, on Tipton’s Shrubbery Estate.
The other Tipton Station, in Owen Street, was opened on July 1, 1852, on the London and North Western Railway’s Stour Valley Line.
Rival
So there were two Tipton Stations only a short distance apart but owned by rival railways – one was GWR and the other was LNWR, later LMS. All was fine until nationalisation in 1948. Now there were two Tipton Stations but both were British Railways. Obviously, one of them had to have its name changed and it was the former GWR station that was altered, becoming Tipton Five Ways in 1950.
That should have been enough to rule out any mix-ups but British Railways still thought it was necessary to change the name of the old LMS station as well, which became Tipton Owen Street in 1953.
The new names would be in use for only a short time. Tipton Five Ways was closed in 1962 – a year before Dr Beeching published his first report on the railways.
Although the station closed, the line remained in use until September 1968. Once the line closed the station buildings at Five Ways were demolished shortly afterwards and Tipton Owen Street Station reverted to its original name.
In the early 2000s the site of Tipton Five Ways was redeveloped for housing – the new Oxford Way. The bridges that took the OWWR line over the Birmingham New Road and Sedgley Road West were removed along with virtually every trace of the old railway line. Now the only reminder of Tipton Five Ways is the northern abutment of the Sedgley Road West overbridge opposite the entrance to Oxford Way.
Have you any Black Country railway photos to share with Bugle readers? Please contact us at the Black Country Bugle, Dudley Archives Centre, Tipton Road, Dudley, DY1 4SQ, or email dshaw@ blackcountrybugle.co.uk