The Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway, (known informally as the 'Potts'), was a railway built between Shrewsbury, England, and quarry locations at Nantmawr and Criggion in Wales. It was initially opened in 1866; despite the extensive title it never reached further than those extremities. It had cost about £1.5 million to construct, but its financial performance was extremely poor, and economies resulted in near-suspension of maintenance, leading to dangerous conditions. The line rapidly became very run down as a result of low revenues and poor maintenance, and was closed at the instigation of the Board of Trade for safety reasons in June 1880. It lay derelict for 30 years but was revived when the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway re-opened it as a light railway in 1911.

Background

By the early 1860s Shrewsbury had become an important railway centre, dominated together by the Great Western Railway and the London and North Western Railway, and the main station was approached by trunk lines controlled by those companies, separately and jointly.

Shrewsbury itself was an important county town, but its hinterland was rural, agricultural and sparsely populated. Nevertheless, it had a strategic importance, in being the gateway to a large tract of land in mid-Wales. Earlier aspirations to form a direct railway route from London through Shrewsbury to a North Wales harbour, enabling a direct packet boat route to Dublin, had been superseded by the Chester and Holyhead Railway, and the development of Holyhead as a ferry port.

West Shropshire Railway

thumb|The Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway in 1866

Richard Samuel France was the owner of extensive limestone quarries; limestone is a heavy mineral and conveying it to market was expensive and difficult. France proposed a railway linking his quarries at Llanymynech through Kinnerley to Westbury (Salop), a place on the Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway about 11 miles west of Shrewsbury. France succeeded in getting the authorised, by an act of Parliament, (25 & 26 Vict. c. clxxxv), of 29 July 1862.

France's objective was to get the limestone to a main line railway station for onward consignment, and he was the prime mover in promoting the railway. The old idea of reaching a Welsh ferryport for Dublin remained, and a route involving a two-mile tunnel had been thought about. There was evidently some difficulty about the choice of Westbury, for the following year he obtained a modifying act of Parliament, the (26 & 27 Vict. c. cxlv), on 13 July 1863; now his line would run from Llanymynech to Red Hill, much nearer Shrewsbury.

The first part of the line, from Shrewsbury to Llanymynech, was opened without ceremony on 13 August 1866; there were four trains each way except Sunday, when there were two. to get out of the station, to gain sufficient height to pass over the existing main lines, but after that the line was generally level or nearly so. There was a connecting spur from the joint line from Wellington. The main line of the railway ran parallel to and alongside the Welshpool line on its south side as far as Redhill, where it crossed over the other route and struck northwest.

The Abbey Foregate spur was opened at the same time, joining the Shrewsbury and Wellington Joint Railway to Wellington east of Shrewsbury, the only connection at Shrewsbury with other lines. At Llanymynech the line terminated in a junction with the Cambrian Railways; the had its own platforms there. The main line was double track at first, singled later, and there were fourteen stations.

Subsequently, train operation took place only by consent of bailiffs who travelled with the trains. This state of affairs could hardly continue, and the company decided to sell some assets to realise ready cash. Auctioneers were appointed, but the sale of locomotives and other assets produced poor returns and the railway ceased operation from 21 December 1866.

In 1871 the Criggion branch was opened, diverging at Kinnerley station. This was followed in 1872 by the Nantmawr extension from the Llanymynech former terminus; trains had running powers for a few yards there over the Cambrian Railways before diverging northwards towards Nantmawr.

Closure

By the mid-1870s the company was losing money heavily; from 1874 a loss of over £2,000 annually was recorded for three successive years.

In time the Cambrian saw that this was potentially a permanent arrangement, and altered its lines at Llanymynech so that the continuation of its line to Llanfyllin branched from the Nantmawr branch; previously the two branches had crossed one another, and this arrangement simplified operations. The new system was opened on The Nantmawr branch reopened on 1 January 1896 and the Cambrian deviation was commissioned on 27 January 1896.

The Tanat Valley Light Railway was later opened, on 5 January 1904; on an east – west trajectory it crossed the Nantmawr branch at Blodwell Junction, actually using a short section of the branch. In fact from this time the Nantmawr terminus was reached from Blodwell Junction, and the section of the earlier Shropshire Railway to Blodwell from the junction on the Cambrian Railways west of Llanymynech was closed down. On 24 August the Potts company's rolling stock and other moveable assets were sold by public auction.

The formal re-opening of the line took place on 13 April 1911, this time with invited guests. Opening to the general public took place the following day.

The decline resulting in closure of all passenger operation, except for occasional excursions, was discontinued on 6 November 1933. The Criggion quarry train ran weekly, and occasional ordinary goods traffic served the intermediate stations.

Military use

In 1941 the entire line except the Criggion branch was requisitioned by the War Department and established to serve an ammunition store. Extensive track renewal took place. Army steam engines were brought in, to service numerous storage depots that were set up. A new exchange location with the main line was established at Hookagate. From 1 June 1941 the War Department operated all trains on the line, military and civilian.

In 1947 the line was returned to civilian status, and the company was nationalised (along with most other main line railways in Great Britain) in 1948. The War Department usage continued, until in 1959 that came to an end, and in December 1959 the Criggion stone traffic ceased to operate as well. The final scheduled train ran on 26 February 1960 and on 29 February the line was closed. Abbey goods yard at Shrewsbury was retained.

Locomotives

Little is known about the locomotives. According to Woodcock one of them, named Black Tom, was a 0-4-2 tender locomotive built by Bury, Curtis, and Kennedy in 1848 and acquired from the London and North Western Railway in 1866.

References

Further reading

  • Tanat Valley Light Railway heritage Facebook group