‘Sad’ railway station found thanks to Shropshire Star readers
Readers have put us on the right track after we published this photo in our Pictures From The Archive slot and wondered which overgrown Shropshire railway station this was.
The photo was taken by a professional newspaper photographer, the late Peter Hayward, who was also a railways enthusiast and amassed a collection of his own photos recording changes in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
And it turns out that this particular station with grass growing up among the tracks was at Hodnet.
John Carter of St Georges in Telford dropped us a line to say: "I believe the disused railway station to be Hodnet. The clue is the offset mounting of the signal arm.
"I seem to recall there was a similar one at Adderley station, but the platform building was a different design.
"I would suggest the photograph date would be between 1966 and 1969/70, the track had gone by early 1970 according to Bob Yate’s book 'By Great Western To Crewe.'"
John came back after checking that book to say that two photographs in it confirmed that it was Hodnet.
Further confirmation came from William Price of Wem.
"The sad looking railway station in the archive picture is Hodnet, on the line between Wellington and Market Drayton," he told us.
"The line closed to passenger traffic on September 9, 1963, and to all traffic from May 8, 1967."
