Apley Archives – Linley Station, Linley Halt

Linley Halt with bearded station master on platform

As part of my ongoing Apley archives project, thanks to Apley Farm Shop customer Bill Haywood, I recently came across the Disused Stations website which mentions Linley Halt (Linley Station), in the heart of the Apley Estate. It contains the very useful summary below by Nick Catford but also this great photo of the bearded station master.

Just before Francis was born in October 2009, we renovated Linley to be a very popular holiday cottage. I used this photo, amongst others, to help me renovate it as authentically as possible, including the 3 red fire buckets you can see in this photo & the metal adverts on the platform fence. I love the story below about Thomas Whitmore’s negotiations. Smaller stations like Linley were called halts, stops or flag stops.

Date opened:	1.2.1862
Location:	At Apley Forge which is at the end of a long track running through Apley Park
Company on opening:	Great Western Railway
Date closed to passengers:	9.9.1963
Date closed completely:	9.9.1963
Company on closing:	British Railways (London Midland Region)
Present state:	Station still extant and converted to a private residence. One nameboard still in place on the platform.
County:	Shropshire
OS Grid Ref:	SO705984
Date of visit:	May 1980 & 29.5.2005

Notes: The station was built at the request of Thomas C. Whitmore of Apley Park Estate, opposite the railway to the east of the River Severn. His opposition to the Severn Valley Railway plans of 1852 had forced the company to promise to run the line through tunnels to prevent it ‘…utterly annihilating the privacy and seclusion of the said mansion, house, park and grounds…’. This was despite the fact his property was on the opposite side of the river to the proposed railway. Raising extra capital for the construction of these tunnels helped postpone construction of the whole railway. Further negotiations with Whitmore in 1855 led to agreement for the tunnel plans to be abandoned but the price for this was high. Whitmore claimed £14,000 as compensation as well as a charge of £150 per acre for any land the railway company had to purchase from him. In addition, he had the company agree to build a station at which at least two ordinary passenger trains in each direction every day could be stopped on request. Linley station was the result. First closed 1.1.1917 and then reopened 2.4.1917. Opened as a station but demoted to a Halt by closure. The present Severn Valley steam railway runs from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth, Linley was the next station, beyond Bridgnorth.