Visiting The Area:
Wellington Station
Wellington has been a stopping-off point for visitors to The Wrekin since it opened in 1849. However, this historic former Great Western Railway station, which lies right in the centre of Wellington’s medieval town centre, has its own stories to tell, too.
Salopian and Wrekin Arrivals
A line connecting Shrewsbury to the West Midlands conurbation, via Wellington, was first proposed in 1839 but it would be another ten years before services reached the town. They arrived on the 1st June 1849, when two locomotives (appropriately named Salopian and Wrekin) hauled a train comprising an astonishing fifty carriages from the county town especially for the occasion — although it would operate no further than Oakengates, owing to delays in completing the tunnel there. A line to Stafford opened on the same day, branching off to the east of the station and establishing Wellington as an important junction that, within just a few decades, would become the focal point for a local network providing direct connections to various destinations, including Crewe, Craven Arms and Coalport. In 1854, the line through the town was partly acquired by the Great Western Railway, and became the first standard gauge track in its growing network. Evidence of Wellington’s GWR heritage can still be found today in some of the station furniture but there other intriguing reminders of the past elsewhere on its platforms.
A Mark of Respect
When it reached Wellington the railway’s effect was profound, severing the connection between the historic Domesday village centred on the parish church and the medieval market square from which the modern town developed. In fact, part of All Saints churchyard was removed to accommodate the cutting for the station, and a number of crosses were incorporated into the building’s wrought ironwork — supposedly, as a mark of respect to the area’s former inhabitants! Look up into the canopy above platform one, or to the weather vane atop the booking office roof, to see examples of this work.
Outside the confines of the station precincts there were many other changes, too. One of the most notable was the destruction of the Talbot Inn, which lay on the site of what is now Station Road. Perhaps the town’s premier hostelry, it was eventually replaced by the Station Hotel, which stands on the forecourt outside the modern day booking office. When the railway arrived in Wellington, it served as a refreshment room for hungry passengers but quickly became a focal point for the local coaching trade, ferrying in their droves tourists alighting at the station to the foot of The Wrekin.
Salopian and Wrekin Arrivals
A line connecting Shrewsbury to the West Midlands conurbation, via Wellington, was first proposed in 1839 but it would be another ten years before services reached the town. They arrived on the 1st June 1849, when two locomotives (appropriately named Salopian and Wrekin) hauled a train comprising an astonishing fifty carriages from the county town especially for the occasion — although it would operate no further than Oakengates, owing to delays in completing the tunnel there. A line to Stafford opened on the same day, branching off to the east of the station and establishing Wellington as an important junction that, within just a few decades, would become the focal point for a local network providing direct connections to various destinations, including Crewe, Craven Arms and Coalport. In 1854, the line through the town was partly acquired by the Great Western Railway, and became the first standard gauge track in its growing network. Evidence of Wellington’s GWR heritage can still be found today in some of the station furniture but there other intriguing reminders of the past elsewhere on its platforms.
A Mark of Respect
When it reached Wellington the railway’s effect was profound, severing the connection between the historic Domesday village centred on the parish church and the medieval market square from which the modern town developed. In fact, part of All Saints churchyard was removed to accommodate the cutting for the station, and a number of crosses were incorporated into the building’s wrought ironwork — supposedly, as a mark of respect to the area’s former inhabitants! Look up into the canopy above platform one, or to the weather vane atop the booking office roof, to see examples of this work.
Outside the confines of the station precincts there were many other changes, too. One of the most notable was the destruction of the Talbot Inn, which lay on the site of what is now Station Road. Perhaps the town’s premier hostelry, it was eventually replaced by the Station Hotel, which stands on the forecourt outside the modern day booking office. When the railway arrived in Wellington, it served as a refreshment room for hungry passengers but quickly became a focal point for the local coaching trade, ferrying in their droves tourists alighting at the station to the foot of The Wrekin.
Changing Times
While Wellington retains a vibrant rail service on a busy commuter line, transporting thousands of people from Mid-Wales to the Midlands and London, the station today is a far cry from its former self. Before the rail rationalisations of the 1950s and ‘60s, four signal boxes were required to operate the network here, six platforms waited to disgorge passengers and an engine shed occupied what is now the car park. When the railway reached Wellington, speculators wasted no time buying-up land in the west of the town in the mistaken belief it was the location where the station would be built. In the event, the area would eventually host rival goods yards of both the GWR and the LNWR, located on either side of the track. With the town’s cattle market moving in alongside, this busy picture continued for the best part of a century. Looking out from the train window today, at a supermarket car park, it seems hard to believe but little is as it really seems where Wellington station is concerned!
Changing Times
While Wellington retains a vibrant rail service on a busy commuter line, transporting thousands of people from Mid-Wales to the Midlands and London, the station today is a far cry from its former self. Before the rail rationalisations of the 1950s and ‘60s, four signal boxes were required to operate the network here, six platforms waited to disgorge passengers and an engine shed occupied what is now the car park. When the railway reached Wellington, speculators wasted no time buying-up land in the west of the town in the mistaken belief it was the location where the station would be built. In the event, the area would eventually host rival goods yards of both the GWR and the LNWR, located on either side of the track. With the town’s cattle market moving in alongside, this busy picture continued for the best part of a century. Looking out from the train window today, at a supermarket car park, it seems hard to believe but little is as it really seems where Wellington station is concerned!