Wenlock – much inspiration
It’s a real pleasure, even an honour, when the things that you do to please yourself influence others. It was a series of articles on the Wye Valley Railway by E.T. Rawlings, in early 1960s issues of Model Railway Constructor that sparked my interest in modelling GWR stations. Rawlings’ models of Ross-on-wye station were superb and inspirational. A picture of Much Wenlock station in Trains Illustrated, to mark the closure of the branch from Wellington and a visit to the by-now derelict station was the catalyst for a shelf layout – ‘The Wenlock Edge Railway’ – around my bedroom. When an author takes the best part of 50 years to research his subject and write it up, it’s a safe bet that the wait will be worthwhile. I first met Adrian Knowles in the late 1970s when he recognized that we shared a mutual interest in Much Wenlock. By that time my ‘OO’ layout was no more, but Adrian had seen it featured in Model Railway Constructor and I’m delighted to find that it inspired research that led to his splendid new history of the line. This was a remarkable stretch of single-track railway that served the cradle of the industrial revolution, crossing the Severn Valley line at Buildwas, to Much Wenlock and on through some of the most thinly populated farmland of Shropshire. The railway was interesting, scenic, and featured buildings designed by Joseph Fogerty, whose stations were both functional and elegant. The book includes reproductions of a number of original drawings held by the BR Archive at Paddington. Their reproduction in colour sets the book apart, as does the way that the story is brought right up to date with a picture of the demolition of the rail-served Ironbridge B power station as recently as September 2021. So many branch line histories cut the story short at the end of steam because the author or publisher is not interested in the period that many of us can actually remember. It is refreshing to find a volume that tells and illustrates the whole story. Routine branch line histories tend to be out of favour with publishers these days as the generation that remembers the branch lines passes on. However, done well and thoroughly, as this one has been, they should have much wider appeal.
● The Wellington, Much Wenlock & Craven Arms Railway by Adrian Knowles, ISBN: 9781911038993 (hardback, 283mm by 283mm, 308pp) Black Dwarf Lightmoor Publications Ltd, Unit 144B, Lydney Trading Estate, Harbour Road, Lydney, Gloucestershire GL15 5EJ
Web: https/lightmoor.co.uk Price: £50