STOKE Edith passes in a flash for rail passengers on the Hereford to Worcester line, but soon they might have something to see.
Planners yesterday unanimously approved on plans to re-build the station, near Tarrington, that served the parish back before Beeching.
Farmworkers in surrounding fields used the trains calling there as clocks – because they didn’t have watches.
Now, it seems the station’s time has come again.
What went to planners isn’t an exact replica of Stoke Edith station as it was, but a re-creation of a typical Great Western rural station of the type that served the likes of Stoke Edith before Beeching signalled their demise.
Followingh approval, the replica station will form two “niche” holiday let units.
Tarrington Parish Council gave it the green light, but Network Rail did have reservations given how close the building would be to the line.
But, a in a response to planners, Network Rail has said that a solution is “likely”.
The old station building was demolished in the 1960s and the application site is made up of previously developed land taking in the former stationmaster’s house, an original Victorian engineer’s shed and – further to the west – a larger replica locomotive shed approved in 2001.
Back in its day, the station was served by a “community” of five families and staffed by a station master, two porters and three signalmen.
The signalbox itself worked round the clock and there were goods sidings busy with fertilisers, animal feed, coal, farm implements and machinery coming in and hops, sugar beet, cattle and horses going out.
The application says the building is designed to be a station should trains ever stop at Stoke Edith again.
