Fings ain’t wot they used t’be ...
A recent walk off the beaten track revealed a bit more than ‘leaves on the line’ for one of our old railway lines
WHO remembers Max Bygraves? Well Max isn’t relevant to this story but there is no doubt that nostalgia isn’t what it was.
In a spare hour on a hot summer morning last year I decided to venture into my past, parking the car on Chelmar Crescent where the Corbyn Hall estate in Pensnett is separated from the Crestwood Park estate only by what at first appears to be a ditch filled with nettles and brambles.
What is in the ditch is what remains of the Kingswinford branch of the Great Western Railway, built in the 1850s and later extended through Wombourne to Wolverhampton.
Although even I am too young to have known it, there was a Stourbridge to Wolverhampton passenger service on the line from 1925 to 1932. There was once a station near Bromley Bridge known as Bromley Halt, and its brickwork is still visible to the hardy rambler.
Further on and south of Lenches Bridge was Pensnett Halt, an island platform. I am indebted to Professor Chris Baker for background history on the line and would commend his website https://profchrisbaker.com/ to readers.
Bromley Halt was opened by the GWR on the Wombourne branch line in 1925 during a move by the GWR to extend a single-track colliery railway line and upgrade it to passenger use. Unfortunately, their optimism regarding passenger demand was ill-placed and the line closed to passenger services just seven years later. However, researchers maintain that the line continued to be used for goods services only, up until 1965.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, unless I am completely mistaken, I certainly witnessed locomotives plying the line on industrial business heading from Brockmoor up to the Gibbons estate on Lenches Bridge and beyond. That is where my trip into the past started because my walk home from Brierley Hill Grammar School often took me and my mates through the Crestwood Estate and up a gully near the pub that lead to the railway line.
Just one aside before I proceed – I wrote recently about no ball games being allowed on public green space – this is not the case on Fitton Avenue near the Crestwood pub and school!
The gully off Blenheim Crescent is still there and I was able to walk both left and right towards Lenches and Bromley bridges respectively. I began by heading in the direction of Lenches Bridge and I must warn you that the track is heavily overgrown, and I soon regretted wearing shorts. Although it was hardly the Amazon jungle I eventually passed the trading estate on the left and fought my way through to Lenches Bridge, a sad and uninviting site that sees the path now barred by fencing. I did manage to crawl in to admire the faded glory of the bridge’s structure. The track can be picked up on the other side of the Kingswinford-dudley road and leads through the back of Tansey Green in the direction of Himley and Wombourne.
However, on that morning I chose to retrace my steps, passing Corbyns Hall on my left and the gully to Crestwood on the right. Promisingly, the path opened out and for a short while appeared slightly rural, especially when a squirrel bounced across an overhanging branch.
But those early steps in the direction of Bromley Bridge were deceptive, as soon enough there was little to see, save a glance at the remains of Bromley Halt, but piles of rubbish. This area must surely be soiled by the most disgusting fly tippers in the country, and some of the residents of Bryce Road must bear some responsibility for this appalling mess.
It was a short walk to Bromley Bridge and at least there one is able to climb up, once again through nettles and brambles to the side of Bromley Lane, that is signposted as the Buckpool Nature Reserve.
Heading back towards Corbyns Hall and the car, I took the path that runs behind what was once the playing fields of Tiled House School and one of the ‘away’ venues for our Pensnett football team that was the Redconbroadlonians.
My walk was almost complete when I discovered a discarded blue and maroon tie, now of the Crestwood School but back in the day of BHGS. The ghostly memories flooded back once again and justified my reason for that morning’s ramble.
In my younger days I witnessed locomotives plying the line on industrial business