Arley Station
Arley Station, Severn Valley Railway, Arley, Worcestershire, DY12 3NF
The heart of the Severn Valley Railway
MAIN STATION BUILDING:
The main station building dates from the opening of the line in 1862, the single storey part nearest to the road contains most of the station facilities (originally only a waiting room with booking office), whilst the two storey part was the station master’s house with a gentlemen's lavatory at the north end. Extensions were made in the late C19th to provide a second bedroom for the station master’s house and a ladies waiting room (part of which has since been converted into the station master’s office). The building is of buff coloured brick with a mixture of semi-circular stone arches and lintels over the doors and windows with a stone string course at first floor level and stone sills. The roof is of Welsh slate and has overhanging eaves with ornamental barge boards and finials. There is a small glazed canopy over the space in front of the waiting room with a traditional decorative valance. This building originally stood on a very much shorter single platform than that which exists today, and which was also at least a foot lower than the present platform. The original station facilities also included a weighbridge and small redbrick office on the site of the present tea kiosk.
Buildings:
Find us on Facebook
DOWN PLATFORM WAITING SHELTER:
This was built at the same time when the passing loop and down platform were installed during the 1880’s to a design also used at other stations along the line. The materials matched the main station building. It was always open at the front with a bench seat around three sides and a projecting canopy over the entrance with a decorative valance.
THE SIGNAL BOX:
A signal box was also installed at Arley as part of the 1880’s improvements, it stood on the same site as the present box (to make the most of the limited visibility along the line in each direction). The original box had a brick base, and was demolished following its closure in 1964. The current Arley signal box originally served the London and North Western Railway’s Yorton station on the line between Shrewsbury and Crewe and was painstakingly re-erected at Arley as part of the restoration of this part of the line during the mid 1970’s. The lever frame installed in the box came from the Kidderminster Station signal box.
