British Railway History in Colour, Volume 10: Branch Lines to Leominster and Kington
Expected Mid April 2026
Leominster today is a two platform station on a double line of plain track but once it was the junction for branch lines heading east to Bromyard and Worcester, and west to Kington and New Radnor. Before reaching Kington, this latter branch passed through Titley Junction, where further branches from Eardisley, on the Hereford, Hay & Brecon line, and Presteign also came in. All of these branches are now long gone, with some having much longer working lives than others, but all once performed a vital function for the communities they served. The earliest, to Kington from Leominster, opened in 1857 and along with the branch to Presteign (which BR had more correctly renamed Presteigne), it was also the last to go when the freight service was withdrawn on 24th September 1964, outlasting the branch from Worcester to Bromyard by two weeks. Travelling through some of Britain’s most rural countryside in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Radnorshire, we start our journey at Worcester Shrub Hill station, where we also pay a visit to the engine sheds. Heading then over the River Severn and through the western outskirts of the city, we take the line to Bromyard and Leominster at Bransford Road Junction. Work began on building the line in 1864 but mired in financial difficulties from the start, it was only finally completed in 1897. After only fifty-five years, that last section from Leominster then closed in September 1952, leaving the rest as a branch to Bromyard. We stop at Leominster to study the station in detail, which still retains its original buildings today but is otherwise a shadow of its former self, before heading off west. With two different companies involved in their construction, the Leominster & Kington Railway and the Eardisley & Kington Railway (which followed the course of the 3ft 6ins gauge horse-drawn Kington Railway of 1820), these lines are traversed by date of build and company who built them. Thus, after arriving at Kington, we then head to Eardisley to travel the obscure branch up to Titley Junction (opened in 1874) and then via Kington to New Radnor (opened in 1875) and finally Titley Junction to Presteign, also opened in 1875. Passenger service withdrawals west of Leominster were early, all pre-Beeching, with Eardisley to Titley Junction going in 1940, to New Radnor and Presteign in 1951 and Leominster to Kington in 1955. In a departure from previous volumes in this series, we have therefore included a fine selection of early postcard views along with the ususal array of colour slides, to show these stations in their heyday, as well as track plans courtesy of OS extracts and a fine selection of colour plans of the lines to Kington from GWR 2-chain surveys. So join us here as we travel through some glorious countryside, on ex-GWR diesel railcars and Class ‘122’ units between Worcester and Bromyard, or in the brake van of a short freight hauled by a Class ‘14XX’ 0-4-2 tank on its way to Presteign or passing the delightful Forge Crossing deep in the woods near Kington. Marvel at the sight of Dolyhir station when the tracks were still in place or enjoy watching the trains at Worcester when ex-GWR steam still just reigned supreme – all in glorious colour!
Hardback, 208 pages, full colour throughout
ISBN: 9781915069627
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