Notes: Lawley Street station was the terminus of the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway (B&DJR) Tame Valley Line which opened as a double-track route between Water Orton and Birmingham Lawley Street on 10 February 1842. The B&DJR opened a railway between Derby and a junction with the London & Birmingham (L&B) at Hampton-in-Arden on 12 August 1839. From Hampton the B&DJR trains had to travel over the L&B to reach Birmingham, which caused considerable expense. The Tame Valley Line gave the B&DJR their own route into the city.

This two-platform dead-end station was opened on 10 February 1842 and was incorporated within the goods shed on the B&DJR. Certain passenger trains and London mails of the B&DJR were legally obliged to use the Curzon Street terminus, running via Stetchford on the L&B until a Post Office operating agreement lapsed on 1 July 1842. The goods handling facilities on site were extensive with the passenger facilities almost an afterthought. At the time of opening the station was remote both to the city centre and to the terminus of the L&B at Curzon Street. In a vain attempt to aid passengers transferring between the stations the B&DJR constructed a footpath between the two sites, which did shorten the distance, but the situation could not continue.

The table below shows the depatures and arrivals for Lawley Street taken from the Bradshaw's March 1850 timetable. The station was only handling arrivals and depatures for Derby along the Tame Valley route with all the company's long distance services running from the shared site at Curzon Street.

With the creation of the Midland Railway (MR) following the amalgamation of the North Midland Railway (NMR), the Midland Counties Railway (MCR) and the B&DJ and the creation of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) with the amalgamation of the L&B and the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) a new era of inter-company co-operation began. First on the newly formed MR list was the closure of Lawley Street terminus, and this was achieved on 1 May 1851 with the opening of a connection from Derby Junction (MR) to Landor St Junction (LNWR). This allowed passenger trains to run directly from the MR to the terminus at Curzon Street and the formal closure of Lawley Street to passenger services.

The site at Lawley Street became goods-only and was to flourish until on 26 May 1937 when the original station building and goods shed were destroyed by fire. The outbreak of the Second World War delayed any rebuilding, and during the blitz of 1940 the other buildings on the site were destroyed by enemy aircraft. A new shed was erected on the site and would open in October 1945, but with changing patterns of traffic this, too, would become redundant and would subsequently be demolished. The site was chosen to accommodate a container terminal, a function which it still performs today, although on the site of the original terminus a large warehouse was constructed with no rail access.

Route map by Alan Young.

For further information on this Midland Railway route see Mike Musson's
Warwickshire Railways website

Sources:

• A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain - Volume 7 The West Midlands - Rex Christiansen - David St John Thomas Publisher 1991
• Bradshaws Rail Times March 1850 - Middleton Press 2011

To see other closed stations between Birmingham and Castle Bromwich click on the station name: Saltley, Bromford Bridge Racecourse,
Castle Bromwich