Former railway building at Atherstone Station in Warwickshire, built in 1847 for the Trent Valley Railway by J.W. Livock (1814-1883). The listing text describes this attractive Tudor-style Grade II listed building in its usual close and helpful detail, starting as follows: "Brick with limestone dressings. Steep-pitched roofs have bands of fish-scale tiles and plain-tiles. Coped gable parapets have moulded octagonal finials to apex and moulded kneelers; brick ridge, end, and internal stacks have decorated octagonal shafts with moulded and embattled cornices to left part, and similar diagonally-set square shafts to right ranges."

Left: View showing the whole of the main gable. Right: The whole range of the station buildings.

The station follows Nuneaton at a distance of four miles along the line between Rugby and Stafford in the Trent Valley, and was built to serve the small town of Atherstone which was known at that time for its manufacture of hats and ribbons (Meassom 278). It also has some important and colourful historical associations: Henry, Duke of Richmond, took the sacrament in the church here the day before the battle of Bosworth Field, which is just seven miles away. At Atherstone Station, too, "the line crosses on the level the Roman road called Watling Street, a remarkable record of the Roman occupation of this country, extending, as it does, for hundreds of miles through the kingdom" (Illustrated Guide).

The station building itself, having been saved from demolition in the 1980s, is now a Veterinary Practice, but trains still stop at Atherstone Station (see Freeman).

Photograph by Colin Price, and text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Bibliography

"Architects and Architecture." steamindex.com. Web. 10 January 2021.

Former Railway Station Building at Atherstone Station.” Historic England. Web. 10 January 2021.

Freeman, Christine. Atherstone through Time. Electronic ed. Stroud, Glos.: Amberley Books, 2013.

Illustrated Guide to the London and North Western Railway: Royal Mail Express Route between London and Liverpool. London: Morton & Co., [1893]. Internet Archive. Contributed by the State Library of Pennsylvania. Web. 10 January 2021.

Measom, George. The Official Illustrated Guide to the North Western Railway. 1859. Google Books. Free Ebook.

Riversmeet Vets. Web. 10 January 2021.


Created 10 January 2021