A horse, a horse, my kingdom for an iron horse!
The old saying ‘Richard of York gave battle in vain’ recalls Richard II, the last English king to perish in battle, at Bosworth Field in 1485. Five centuries later, rail revivalists won a battle of their own nearby, establishing The Battlefield Line as one of the top visitor attractions in the Midlands, and in the festive season just gone, running sell-out trains thanks to measures introduced in the fight against Covid-19. Shakespeare immortalised the king’s last stand with the line: ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!’ Nicola Fox tells the story of the modern battle that has been well and truly won in the shadow of Bosworth Field.
The old saying ‘Richard of York gave battle in vain’ recalls Richard II, the last English king to perish in battle, at Bosworth Field in 1485. Five centuries later, rail revivalists won a battle of their own nearby, establishing The Battlefield Line as one of the top visitor attractions in the Midlands and, in the festive season just gone, running sell-out trains thanks to measures introduced in the fight against Covid-19. Shakespeare immortalised the king’s last stand with the line: ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!’ – and here Nicola Fox tells the story of the modern battle that has been well and truly won in the shadow of Bosworth Field.
The Battlefield Line is the last remaining part of the former Ashby & Nuneaton Joint Railway that opened in August 1873. Prior to its arrival, transport in the area was largely by the Ashby Canal, the construction of which finished in 1804.
Like the canal of the same name, the A&NJR never ran to Ashby itself; it was served by the entirely separate Leicester to Burtonupon-Trent line, owned and run by the Midland Railway.
The A&NJR was the culmination of years of attempts by rivals the Midland Railway and the LNWR to establish a route to take advantage of the potential traffic through this mineral-rich district. After several years of each vying for the right to construct a railway along this route, the two companies collaborated to form the A&NJR.
Construction began in 1869 and, according to the Nuneaton Advertiser, was beset with “great and numerous difficulties from land slips, as well as from the scarcity of labour.” However, building was completed and the line opened first to goods traffic in August 1873 and then to passenger traffic the following month. The new line connected the colliery and mining areas in the north of the Midlands with the rest of the country in the south.
The Daily Telegraph and Courier carried a short paragraph reporting on the opening of the railway, with local newspapers running a significantly longer account. Despite wet weather, the line was opened with all due pomp and ceremony; the local brass brand was installed in the rearmost vehicle, playing the train out of the station.
The inaugural journey complete, passengers alighted at Bosworth to a field full of marquees where the contractor responsible for the construction, one John Barnes Esq, gave an enormous celebration dinner to mark the completion of the line. Workmen, friends, and family were all invited, reportedly totalling 300 in number and – after the usual speeches – the evening’s entertainment began, which included drinking, dancing, and wheelbarrow races!
Using a junction at Shackerstone, the new route linked the stations of Moira and Coalville Town with Nuneaton.
Nuneaton Abbey Street, then known as Nuneaton Midland, was originally built in 1864 by the Midland Railway for its Nuneaton to Birmingham line. When the A&NJR was opened, the station was rebuilt 150 yards west.
Travelling from Nuneaton, passengers would pass through Higham on the Hill, Stoke Golding, Shenton, Market Bosworth, and Shackerstone Junction. Here, the line divided, allowing travel through Snarestone, Measham, and Donisthorpe on route to Overseal and Moira, or passengers could follow the line north east to Coalville Town via Heather and Ibstock, and Hugglescote.
Prior to calling at Nuneaton Abbey Street, a loop line also gave access to Nuneaton Trent Valley, a junction station that opened up access to Hinckley, a station on the London and North Western Railway’s Birmingham to Peterborough line, and to the Nuneaton to Coventry line. Thus, huge amounts of coal could be brought south from the Leicestershire coalfield into Nuneaton’s marshalling yards, and from there on to London and the Home Counties. In 1880, a freight loop was also added, connecting Nuneaton Abbey Street with Nuneaton Trent Valley.
One of the follies of the construction of the A&NJR was the Hinckley curve; one of three miles 18 chains from Stoke Golding to Hinckley Junction that was never used. It was an unusual choice to lay this particular piece of track, as there was little or no demand for traffic between those two points.
Royal connections
In the late 19th and early 20th century, the line was notable for frequently receiving the Royal Train. Both before and after his accession, King Edward VII was sometimes a visitor of Earl and Countess Howe, custodians of the now demolished Gopsall Hall, a short drive away from Shackerstone station.
One such visit for a house party in 1902 is notable because it bore witness to the arrival of a full royal party in the first outing of the king’s brand new Royal Train. Much fuss and pageantry was made for the event and Shackerstone station, that the Tamworth Herald described as previously being a “rough-and-ready station” was duly transformed to receive its visitors.
The platform was re-laid to a more convenient height and a canopy was erected to shield the royals on arrival, as well as a new porch set up at the exit of the station. Electric lights were installed for the first time and the station was adorned with greenery.
The visit did not go without a hitch, although it was not the station or the railway’s staff who were at fault – one of the new saloons experienced teething troubles on arrival. Despite the best efforts of various officials and the king himself, the door opposite the specially prepared sloped gangway refused to open.
Following the lead of Queen Alexandra, the party disembarked through another door, stepping straight from the train and onto the platform without the benefit of a ramp. The horror!
No doubt embarrassing for some, this minor inconvenience appeared not to bother the royals themselves. Although the arrival into Shackerstone was a fairly private affair, their departure the following week was advertised to the public and provided quite the spectacle. Thousands of people lined the route to the station. The Hugglescote and Ellis Brass Band struck up the national anthem as the royal couple walked onto the platform, and the local newspapers reported on the tremendous crowds gathered at and around the station to catch a glimpse of the royals before their punctual departure from Shackerstone.
In the decade following this excitement, little was written about the line in the local press, apart from the gruesome deaths of railway workers and the demise of some unfortunate pedestrians. Although this may shock and appal our modern safety-conscious sensibilities, this was not out of the ordinary for the period.
Thus, the railway largely continued quietly about its business, neither failing nor setting the world on fire. The only notable change was that by 1914, the A&JNR was granted permission to abandon the embarrassing Hinckley curve, which had lain unused since its construction.
In the grouping of 1923, the A&NJR fell under the auspices of the LMS and 50 years of the Ashby & Nuneaton Joint Railway Company came to an end. The railway itself was not to last too much longer.
Less than a decade later, in 1931, the line was closed to passenger traffic after 58 years of service. As road traffic increased, the railway – whose stations were, in some cases, miles from the villages they served – could not compete with the competition from local buses and privately owned cars. All of the intermediate stations on both parts of the railway were closed to the public by April 13, 1931.
What had once been the busy station of Shackerstone, accustomed to both steam and diesel railcar workings, now stood silent but for the occasional freight and passing excursion train.
Although the Midland Red Bus Company did well out of the closure, increasing services in the area to compensate, according to local press at the time, many felt the loss keenly, largely due to the inconvenience of longer travel times by road.
D-Day
However, the former A&NJR still had an important role to play in history. The town of Market Bosworth, famed for its proximity to the field where Richard III met his end and Henry VII claimed his crown, also played a pivotal part in the lead-up to the Second World War D-Day landings. Thanks to research carried out by the Shackerstone Railway Society, with the assistance of the Military Railway Study Group, a clear picture can be painted of the nature of the role.
During the conflict, refineries on the coast were closed down due to the risk of bombing. As a result, Market Bosworth became one of a series of depots receiving petrol in bulk from long petrol trains arriving from across the country.
The depot was staffed by injured military personnel who were responsible for transferring the fuel into millions of jerry cans that were loaded into wagons and shipped to Europe. To facilitate this, an extra military siding was installed at Market Bosworth that connected to a narrow gauge railway.
These cans of fuel found their way to the beaches of Normandy in June 1944 and onwards to the battlefields of Europe. Where possible, empty cans were returned for refilling.
A pipeline was planned to service this purpose but its construction was not finished until after the D-Day landings, meaning the only way to move large quantities of fuel was by rail. Therefore, the role that depots like Market Bosworth played in getting fuel to where it was needed the most cannot be understated.
And it wasn’t just fuel that was transported along the former A&NJR rails during this time. Gopsall Hall was repurposed as an Army radar and radio training facility, further increasing the transport of military personnel and goods over the line.
The people of Market Bosworth kept the secret of the depot’s existence, and it was not discovered by the Axis powers and never bombed. Shortly after the war, the petrol depot was decommissioned, while Gopsall Hall fell into disrepair and was demolished in the 1950s.
Closure before centenary
In the twilight years of this rural railway, freight traffic continued – though the end was in sight. The Coalville Junction to Shackerstone section was closed in 1964, leaving only the route from Nuneaton to Overseal and Moira open to freight and the occasional charter.
In 1969, the line was closed to all through traffic and the majority of the track was lifted by 1972, one year shy of the line’s centenary. A short section remained open to serve the Donisthorpe Colliery until 1981, but with the closure of that, the story of the A&NJR finally came to an end.
The revival
However, the slumber of this rural line was soon to be interrupted. In fact, the beginnings of what was to become The Battlefield Line hatched in 1969 – before the old rails had even been lifted.
Starting out as a means to preserve locomotives that would otherwise be scrapped, the society operated under various names until – in need of a proper home for its first steam locomotive, Borrows 0-4-0WT No. 48 of 1906 The King – it moved to Shackerstone in 1970, ultimately settling on Shackerstone Railway Society for a name.
Ensconced in its new home, the growing organisation set about building some sidings, reinstating the down platform, and working to purchase the section between Shackerstone and Market Bosworth.
To raise money, occasional open days were held and rides offered along the society’s 400 yards of reinstated track. It even went as far on one occasion as advertising a crane with a ‘cage attachment’ that would haul visitors into the air to provide a bird’s eye view of the site for unique photographic opportunities.
In 1973, to celebrate the centenary of the line, a small train of open wagons was hauled to Market Bosworth. The following year, the society held numerous open days on high days and holidays, working with other local heritage
groups to provide a range of steam-based and heritage attractions and funfair rides.
Over the following years, with the assistance of the Market Bosworth Light Railway Ltd, rolling stock was purchased, as was the twoand-a-half miles of track between Shackerstone and Market Bosworth.
By now known as the Shackerstone Railway, services officially began on May 28, 1978, with a Sunday service running for the rest of the summer.
Over the next decade or so, the society fully restored Shackerstone station, resurrected a Midland Railway signalbox, purchased the trackbed to Shenton, and re-laid the line. Upon completion of this further extension, the appropriately named Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns 0-6-0T No. 7537 of 1949, Richard III, hauled the inaugural train to Shenton in 1992.
With the line now taking passengers to within a short walking distance of Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre, although still operated by the Shackerstone Railway Society, it was given the marketing name of The Battlefield Line.
Today, The Battlefield Line measures just under five miles and comprises three stations –
Shackerstone, Market Bosworth and Shenton. The line climbs gently out of Shackerstone, the gradient falling away on approach to Market Bosworth. From Market Bosworth station, the gradient once again rises to crest the hill and run downhill into Shenton. The route is green, rural, and peaceful, passing through picturesque farm country.
The main station building at Shackerstone is original and Grade II-listed. The waiting room on Platform 2 is a recreation of the original waiting room and modelled on the sole remaining building from Nuneaton Abbey Street station, a now derelict waiting room.
While at Shackerstone, visitors should watch out for the railway’s chief mouser, a black cat with green eyes who drives fear into the hearts of any rodents who would consider the station their home.
Sadly, the main station building at Market Bosworth was long ago turned into an industrial unit and is currently home to a privately-owned garage. This fact accounts for several cars that otherwise incongruously seem to occupy the former main platform, which is inaccessible to visitors.
The second platform, which is owned by the railway, houses two small and in-keeping wooden buildings: an ex-Chester Road building acts as a waiting room and a former Welsh signalbox houses the café.
Further down the line at Shenton, the railway leases the site from Leicestershire County Council and visitors could be forgiven for thinking the station building is original; however, the A&NJR building was demolished in the 1960s.
A replacement building was found at Humberstone Road, a station on the former Midland Counties line. It was Grade II-listed but its then owner, BR, did not have the funds to preserve it and so sold it to the county council for the bargain price of £1 plus VAT. This now acts as home to the Shenton café, and a glass-blowing workshop and showroom, providing something a little different for railway passengers alighting at the terminus to explore.
The only remaining original building is on the opposite side of the railway and currently houses a pottery.
It used to provide accommodation for the porter and was reportedly saved from demolition when the claim was made that it did not belong to BR. Whether there is any truth in this is unknown, but the fact is that
the building was saved and now helps add character to Shenton station.
Motive power
The railway’s sole steam locomotive is the currently out-of-ticket Peckett 0-6-0ST No. 1859 of 1932 Sir Gomer, although a wide range of diesel locomotives and DMUs fill the sidings. Many of these diesel vehicles are railway-owned, although perhaps the most distinctive and unusual locomotive in the railway’s collection is Spondon Power Station No. 1, a tiny four-wheeled battery and electric overhead-powered vehicle. It was built at the Dick Kerr works in Preston by English Electic in 1935 for the Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Electric Power Company for use at its power station in Spondon in Derbyshire. It arrived at Shackerstone in 2018 when the Coventry Electric Railway Museum closed and its exhibits dispersed.
The railway often hires in steam power from its regular partner, the South Devon Railway, to haul the fleet of carriages, which comprises a mix of corridor and open stock. The line alternates steam traction with diesel traction, finding both popular – although steam often proves the stronger draw for tourists.
Despite the turbulence of the last 18 months and more, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, entering into 2022, The Battlefield Line is going strong.
According to company director Adrian Lock, “ticket sales have been phenomenal; August 2021 was the best August we’ve ever had.” The usual set of five coaches had to be strengthened to six to meet passenger demand.
In addition to the increase in people taking holidays within the UK instead of venturing abroad, Adrian attributes part of this success to the change in the way passengers book their tickets.
To control numbers during pandemic restrictions, the railway introduced prebooking for tickets, which proved so popular that the system has been kept – and a new website to facilitate online purchasing has been created, too. For those wishing to keep it old school, however, the booking office remains open to sell tickets on the day.
This isn’t the only Covid-19 change that the railway will be carrying forward. The new format introduced to make the Santa trains Covid-safe proved so popular that the railway will be repeating the event format for the foreseeable future. This certainly worked for the most recent Christmas season, where the railway ended 2021 on a high thanks to the Santa trains selling out.
That is not to say working a way through changes brought about by the pandemic has been easy. But looking for the silver linings, Adrian remarked: “We are moving forward; Covid has changed our organisation for the best. It allowed us to press the pause button and start again. It did us a favour in some ways, though it nearly bit us. We’ve even picked up quite a few volunteers; people who took retirement due to Covid and found themselves looking for something to do.”
Adrian is brimming with positivity for the future of the line. “We are ambitious,” he added. “We want to bring our attraction into the 21st century.” So, what does that entail?
Irons in the fire
The railway recently invested in new facilities for the crew, in the form of two portable buildings that provide volunteers with a space to clean up before they head home, as well as a warm and dry space to hold meetings.
A reverse osmosis water treatment facility is also in the process of being installed, and the railway has taken the opportunity presented by some contract work to lay cable from one end of the line to the other, to allow the use of token instruments.
The focus is clearly on improving the facilities, as next on the agenda is a new engine shed and carriage works at Shackerstone to replace the existing, somewhat shabby facilities presently in use. Currently in the planning stage, this purpose-built accommodation
“We are a small, friendly organisation and very passionate about what we do.”
would contain two buildings, the engine shed standing back-to-back with the carriage works. As part of this development, the yard pointwork will need to be re-laid to accommodate locomotives with a larger wheelbase; the railway has long since moved on from the early days when the majority of locomotives available to run were ex-NCB engines with short wheelbases!
For example, for the 2021 season, the line was host first to WR 4-6-0 No. 6989 Wightwick Hall, on loan from the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, and then WR 4-6-0 No. 7822 Foxcote Manor, which arrived at the railway from the West Somerset on November 15 after Wightwick Hall failed towards the end of October.
The permanent way gang members have their work cut out, as elsewhere on the line further pointwork awaits. Work has begun at Market Bosworth on installing a passing loop. Currently attached to the running line at one end and functioning as a siding, the railway only requires funds for the pointwork to complete the loop – a move that will help increase capacity for gala days.
Potential and possibilities
The former goods shed at Market Bosworth, currently leased to the railway, also provides a valuable events space, hosting the ever-popular beer festival among others, and Adrian hinted that there might be plans to make more of that space: “The goods shed serves well as an events hub and we also have ideas to create a visitor attraction on that site; perhaps a museum and space that would benefit the local community.”
While none of these ideas are set in stone, the railway certainly has enough exhibits to fill a large museum. Tucked inside the main building at Shackerstone, just off the booking hall, is the John Jaques Museum. John Jaques MBE was a former signalman who amassed an astonishing collection of railway artefacts that currently crowd every space, surface, and wall in this small museum; to take it all in would take a person hours. Like the whole of The Battlefield Line itself, this small space is brimming with possibility waiting to be unlocked.
The Battlefield, then, is a place of potential. Should it ever choose to, there is even the possibility of extending the line south towards Stoke Golding. However, Adrian is clear that the organisation has its feet on the ground, aiming to consolidate and improve facilities first, both for operational crews and to enhance the visitor experience. Only when all those projects are completed would the railway consider turning its thoughts to a possible extension.
“We have a bright future, with tourism in the area taking off,” he said. “We are a small, friendly organisation and very passionate about what we do. We want to succeed and take the railway forward, and I think we are.” He pauses and smiles, adding emphatically: “At our own pace.”