Wilmcote Railway Footbridge

The Great Western Railway was one of the most important British railway companies in the late 19th and early  20th centuries. The GWR was formed to construct the line between London and Bristol (opened 1841) but it had expanded northwards into Warwickshire, to Birmingham, by collaboration and acquisition of smaller companies from around the 1860's and by the start of the 20th century the routes available to the GWR were more or less at is peak.  The company's employees believed their company was a cut above the rest and used to refer to the GWR  as "God's Wonderful Railway". They were rightly proud of  the innovative motive power, rolling stock and civil engineering developed by the company as well as the distinctive architectural style applied to GWR railway buildings. After all, the company's original chief engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.  The distinctive GWR architectural style is applied magnificently  to this very attractive and historic railway footbridge which serves the small rural railway station that was opened, on its current site, in 1908. 

The historic footbridge has cast iron columns and ornate moulded capitals which provide support to both a distinctive latticed iron frame and corrugated iron roof. The roof has, very typical of both the period and the railway company,  decorative wooden finials and pierced fretwork on the  canopy. The projecting  staircases (originally wooden but now with more modern flooring), create a  U shaped plan and they too have a matching  roof and canopy. Apart from its flooring, the bridge is in, more or less,  original, 1883, condition. It is a Grade 2 listed structure. Many stations in the area have similar footbridges but most have been extensively "modernised", often losing the 19th century, GWR, style in the process.

Amongst fans of railway architecture this bridge is a bit of an enigma. Cast into the structure is the date, 1883, but the station it serves was not built until 1908. It cannot have been moved from the earlier (even smaller) station nearby because archive photos show no footbridge on that single-platform station.