Abbey St 1957
A memory of Abbey St. by Janet Ames - March 2003.
In the mid 1950's I worked at Nuneaton Trent Valley Station, we used to send a
messenger to the goods yard at Abbey St. There was a chap who worked in the good office
(on the right-hand side of the road facing away from Nuneaton), his name escapes me, but
he was rather like a mad professor. Hair on end and he used an ink pencil (a pencil that
when dampened was rather like ink), and indelible pencil. He used to get it everywhere.
All over his hands and face. The Stationmaster at Abbey Street had a magnificent garden
with the name of the station picked out in whitewashed stones. He was very proud of his
garden, rightly so.
At the end of the platform by the road bridge was a wooden walkway between the lines,
to enable porters, and postmen, to drag hand carts across the lines. There was an iron
notice- "Passengers must cross the Line by the Bridge". In those days trains
were much slower and there was no express line at Abbey St. so my Grannie always marched
boldly across, assuring me that the signals were " horizontal" and we should
hear the train coming anyway, I was always fearful, but trusted that Grannie knew best.
To a small child a trip to Brum on the train was an adventure and we passed a colliery
near Stockingford with the big wheel sometimes turning. Across the road from the station
there used to be a row of houses running alongside the track with a white-painted message
on the end wall in somewhat wobbly letters. "Welcome home George." It stayed for
years after WW2 and at least George was sure of a welcome everytime he went home.
The end is nigh
| Nuneaton Opened |
1.8.1873 |
Name Changed to
Nuneaton Abbey Street |
2.6.1924 |
| Closed for Passengers |
4.3.1968 |
| Closed for Goods |
2.8.1982 ?!? |
| Abbey Junction Signal Box Opened |
before 16.8.1877 |
| Re-framed |
3.1894 |
| Replacement Box |
1.11.1925 |
| Signal Box Closed |
? Destroyed by fire in 1980's |
Also visit Warwickshire
Railways web site for more pictures
Current State of Site
Traces of the yard still exist. The Waiting Room still stands in the old stationmasters
house garden, but is derelict.
More information on this Station will
be added as it becomes available.
If
you have something to add please let us know.
