The Old Station, Welshpool
Trains used to depart from outside this “French Renaissance” building. The shop extends onto the old station platform, under the canopy which kept passengers dry. The photos, taken by Peter Clark in 1963 and 1965, show steam trains alongside the building.
The building housed facilities for passengers and station staff. It was also the headquarters of the Oswestry & Newtown Railway (O&N) from February 1860 until the January 1862, when HQ moved to London. Passenger trains between Welshpool and Oswestry via Four Crosses began in May 1860.
In 1863 the O&N and other companies formed the Cambrian Railways, which became part of the Great Western Railway in 1923. From 1903 there was a goods interchange east of Welshpool station with the narrow-gauge trains of the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway, now a popular scenic ride for visitors.
In 1992 a smaller station opened to the south east, enabling construction of Welshpool’s bypass alongside the old station building. The bypass opened in July 1993. Four accidents occurred in its first five days.
The Old Station’s car park was the station forecourt. A crowd assembled there in October 1916 for the arrival of the body of Viscount Clive, heir to the Powis Castle estate. His family had him evacuated from the Western Front to London for operations to remove a bullet, but he died aged 23. His body was accompanied on the train from London Paddington by his parents, his brother Mervyn – who was to die in the Second World War – and 16 Welsh Guards drummers and pallbearers. The King’s Shropshire Light Infantry band played the Dead March as the body travelled from Welshpool station to Christ Church on a gun carriage drawn by six black horses.
The Cambrian Railways lost more than 50 employees in the war including goods porter Edward Henry Owen, whose parents lived at St Mary’s Place, Welshpool. He died, aged 26, in France in September 1918.
Five months after the war ended, the body of Colour Sergeant Joseph Groom DCM, aged 25, was conveyed with full military honours to Welshpool station from a guesthouse in the town, where he was holidaying with his wife when he died of blackwater fever contracted on war service in Africa. He had married Edith De Lonra of Brecon during home leave in 1917. His body went by train to Brecon for burial.
With thanks to Peter Clark
Postcode: SY21 7AY View Location Map
Website of The Old Station (Facebook)
To continue the Welshpool (Powys) in WW1 tour, follow Severn Street to the town centre, crossing over the canal. The Royal Oak is on the right before the traffic lights |