Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway

Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway

Overview
Locale	Tewkesbury and Malvern
Dates of operation	16 May 1864–14 August 1961
Successor	Midland Railway
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Length	13.5 miles (21.7 kilometres)

Tewkesbury & Malvern Railway
Cotswold Line to Worcester Great Malvern Cotswold Line to Hereford Malvern Hanley Road Upton-on-Severn River Severn Ripple Mythe Tunnel River Avon Tewkesbury Tewkesbury Docks Birmingham and Gloucester Railway to Birmingham Gloucester loop line to Evesham Ashchurch MoD depot Ashchurch Birmingham and Gloucester Railway to Cheltenham

Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway Act 1860
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act for making a Railway from the Ashchurch and Tewkesbury Branch of the Midland Railway at Ashchurch in the County of Gloucester to Great Malvern in the County of Worcester, and for other Purposes.
Citation	23 & 24 Vict. c. lxxii
Dates
Royal assent	25 May 1860
Text of statute as originally enacted

Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway Act 1862
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to confer upon the Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway Company further Powers for the Completion of their Railway; and for other Purposes.
Citation	25 & 26 Vict. c. lvi
Dates
Royal assent	30 June 1862

The Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway was a branch of the Midland Railway which ran from Ashchurch via Tewkesbury to Great Malvern in the United Kingdom. It was authorised by the Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. lxxii), and opened on 16 May 1864. At grouping in 1923 it became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway.

Connections

It connected with the Worcester and Hereford Railway and the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway.

Structures

There were two significant bridges when first constructed – over the River Avon at Tewkesbury (62 yards or 57 metres) and over the River Severn at Saxons Lode (145 yards or 133 metres) with five spans and a sliding centre section to allow tall masted ships to pass). There was also a 420-yard (380-metre) tunnel and a long embankment and viaduct over a floodplain at The Mythe near Tewkesbury. The embankment, viaducts and remaining bridges were demolished in 2013 as part of the Tewkesbury area flooding improvement works with the bricks being reused in the reconstruction of the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Broadway station. In 1961 a bridge over the M50 motorway was erected – as of 2012 this bridge has been removed and moved to the Bluebell Railway.

Closure

The section of line from Malvern to Upton-upon-Severn was closed in December 1952. The remainder closed to passengers on 14 August 1961. Freight continued to operate to Upton until July 1963, then as far as Tewkesbury until December 1964.

External links

• History in relation to Upton station
• History at tewkesburyhistory.com
• Malvern's Lost Railway