Notes: Walsall Wood station was situated on the 5½-mile Brownhills branch that connected to the Walsall and Castle Bromwich line at Aldridge. The Midland Railway (MR) obtained two Acts to build the line. The first, granted in 1876, authorised a line from Aldridge to Walsall Wood, and the second, granted in 1880, was for an extension from Walsall Wood to Cannock. The primary purpose of the line was to give the MR access to the collieries in the Brownhills area, and it opened to goods services in April 1882.

A passenger service was introduced to the line on 1 July 1884, and stations were opened at Walsall Wood and at Brownhills.

Walsall Wood station was located on the north side of Lichfield Road in a cutting. The line was double track, and the main facilities were located on the west side on the Brownhills-bound platform.

Approached by a driveway that connected to Coppice Road the station building was quite different from its neighbour at Brownhills. It was a rambling single-storey three-cell structure built of brick with a tall pitched roof, the central cell curiously having a lower pitch than its neighbours. Door and window openings had shallow segmental arches, and a modest awning sheltered the

On the Aldridge-bound platform a single-storey brick building provided a waiting room. The Aldridge platform was reached by a sloping platform that connected to Lichfield Road.

Walsall Wood had goods facilities in the form of sidings and a goods shed located to the north of the station on the west side of the line.

The passenger service ran as a shuttle between Aldridge and Brownhills, and by December 1895 there were three trains in each direction on Monday-to-Friday, as shown in the table below. On Saturdays there were two extra trains in each direction, but no trains ran on Sundays.

During the first two decades of the twentieth century the Brownhills branch was extremely busy with goods traffic the bulk of which was coal. The passenger service had always been secondary. The July 1922 timetable showed only two trains in each direction Monday-to-Saturday.

On 1 January 1923 the Brownhills branch became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS).

The LMS withdrew the passenger service on 31 March 1930. Walsall Wood remained open for goods services.

By 1947 the line through Walsall Wood had been singled, the northbound track becoming bi-directional.

Walsall Wood became part of British Railways London Midland Region on 1 January 1948. By the autumn of 1960 the line north of Walsall Wood had been lifted, and the branch closed completely on 3 September 1962.

By May 2013 the side of Walsall Wood station had become a landscaped area with a children’s playground.

Tickets from Michael Stewart, timetable from Chris Totty and route map by Alan Young.

Sources:

• A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Volume 7 The West Midlands , by R Christiansen, David & Charles 1973.
• Bradshaw Timetable December 1895.
• Lost Lines, Birmingham and the Black Country , by N Welbourne, Ian Allan 2002.
• Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain a Chronology, by M Quick, Railway & Canal Historical Society 2009

To see the other station on the Brownhills branch click on the station name: Brownhills

See also stations on the Castle Bromwich and Wolverhampton line:
Castle Bromwich, Penns, Sutton Coldfield Town, Sutton Park, Streetly, Aldridge, North Walsall, Short Heath, Bentley, Willenhall Stafford Street,
Wednesfield and Heath Town