Great Malvern railway station

Great Malvern National Rail

Northbound platform
Location
Place Great Malvern
Local authority Malvern Hills
Grid reference SO783457
Operations
Station code GMV
Managed by London Midland
Number of platforms 2
DfT category D
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05  0.374 million
2005/06 Increase 0.392 million
2006/07 Increase 0.405 million
2007/08 Decrease 0.385 million
2008/09 Increase 0.451 million
2009/10 Increase 0.464 million
2010/11 Increase 0.485 million
2011/12 Increase 0.502 million
2012/13 Increase 0.515 million
2013/14 Increase 0.526 million
2014/15 Increase 0.543 million
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Great Malvern from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal
The station drinking fountain, a Malvern spring water spout, gets "well dressed" every year. Naturally in 2010 the theme of the decorations was railways.

Great Malvern railway station is one of two stations serving the town of Malvern, Worcestershire (the other being Malvern Link station) on the Hereford to Worcester section of the Cotswold Line. It is situated downhill from the centre of Great Malvern and near to Barnards Green. The station retains most of its original Victorian station design by the architect Edmund Wallace Elmslie and is a Grade II listed building.[1]

History

Great Malvern station was opened by the Worcester & Hereford Railway in 1860 and the present buildings by architect Edmund Wallace Elmslie were completed in 1862. It was later absorbed by the Great Western Railway.

Lady Emily Foley was a key sponsor of the building of Great Malvern station. She had a waiting room made for her exclusive use at Great Malvern Station, which is now ‘Lady Foley's Tea Room’, where she would wait for her train.[2]

The station celebrated its 150th birthday on 23 May 2010 with the unveiling of a plaque and a special train.[3][4] An additional part of this celebration was the reinstatement of some of the highly decorated lighting columns around the cab road at the front of the station.

Architecture

The buildings are in local Malvern Rag stone and follow a French Gothic theme.

Floral capitals to canopy columns

Floral capital to a canopy column

A particular feature of the station are the deep canopies which are supported by elaborate, cast-iron girders, which are in turn supported by columns with elaborate capitals. These capitals are decorated with high relief mouldings depicting different arrangements of flowers and foliage.[5] The sculptor William Forsyth was employed to work on the buildings and designed the metal capitals of the columns which support the canopies above both platforms of the station.[1]

The Worm access to Imperial Hotel

Interior view of the Worm

At the end of Platform 2 is the entrance to the Worm, an enclosed passageway which leads under Avenue Road into the former Imperial Hotel (now Malvern St James). It formed a private pedestrian access and is believed to be the only structure of its kind in the country.[6] Although in need of extensive restoration and generally not open to the public, the Worm is itself Grade II listed.[7]

Services

The station is served by two train operating companies: London Midland (who manage the station) and Great Western Railway. London Midland operate services to Birmingham New Street via Worcester and Hereford every hour and also some services to Birmingham Snow Hill via Kidderminster and Stourbridge Junction. A number of services to/from Shrub Hill and Birmingham start or terminate here.[8]

Great Western Railway operate a roughly hourly service to London Paddington via the Cotswold Line and Oxford (some of which run to/from Hereford) and every two hours (except Sundays) to Bristol Temple Meads via Gloucester. Many Bristol services continue onwards to Westbury & Weymouth, with one through service to & from Brighton.[9] Those services (including all from Bristol) that terminate here run empty to Malvern Wells to reverse, then return to the station to take up their next scheduled working.

There was previously a branch line to Ashchurch via Upton-on-Severn & Tewkesbury. Operated by the Midland Railway, it was closed in 1952.

Facilities

There is a ticket office[10] and an award-winning café which opened in 1984,[11] named 'Lady Foley's Tea Room', after Lady Emily Foley, on the east platform.

References

  1. 1 2 "Great Malvern Station". Historic England. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Lady Emily Foley of Malvern". Malvern Beacon. Malvern Beacon. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  3. ↑ Malvern Worcester 150th Anniversary Official website
  4. ↑ "Worcestershire railway stations mark 150 years" 23 May 2010 Retrieved 23 May 2010
  5. ↑ The Railway Station Gallery
  6. ↑ "Step back in time through the Worm". Worcester News.
  7. ↑ "Great Malvern Station covered pedestrian walkway". Historic England.
  8. ↑ GB National Rail Timetable 2015-16, Table 71 (Network Rail)
  9. ↑ GB National Rail Timetable 2015-16, Tables 123 & 126 (Network Rail)
  10. ↑ "Great Malvern (GMV)". National Rail Enquiries. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  11. ↑ "Lady Foley's Tea Room". Worcestershire Tourist Guide. Retrieved 5 July 2016.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Malvern railway station.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Colwall   London Midland
Birmingham-Hereford		   Malvern Link
  London Midland
Hereford-Dorridge		  
  Great Western Railway
Cotswold Line		  
  Great Western Railway
Great Malvern - Bristol and beyond		  
Terminus   London Midland
Birmingham-Great Malvern		   Malvern Link
Disused railways
Terminus   Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway
Midland Railway		   Malvern Hanley Road
Line and station closed

Coordinates: 52°06′32″N 2°19′05″W / 52.109°N 2.318°W / 52.109; -2.318

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.