1st Shenstone Scout troop on Sunday Parade, 1962, showing a Shenstone Station before some features were removed. Picture kindly supplied by Steve Hickman.
Here’s a quick one that’s piqued my intent and left me pondering, so I thought I’d share it – friend of New Hall Mill Alan Dawson has asked a really excellent question about my frequent 365daysofbiking muse, Shenstone Railway Station.
Alan asked:
Hi Bob,
Seeing the photo of Shenstone railway station in 365 days of biking, I was wondering if any of the railway fraternity would know the purpose of the upstairs rooms?
Was it all accommodation? How many people would be employed at typical village stations and did they live on site?
Regards,
Alan
That’s a very, very good question. So I started looking at other stations, and Alan’s right, The upper storey is a bit unusual. Lichfield City does have one, as you’d expect, but I can’t think of another locally. So what was the upper storey for?
There are no clues in Steve Hickman’s wonderful 1963 image, above. For the story behind that, see this post.
I believe at Shenstone it’s now rented out; for a while it was the offices of a concrete restoration company. I always thought it would be a great place to have an office.
Cheers to Alan for an interesting discussion point, and also for the very kind mail he sent me regarding publicity for the events at New Hall Mill – advertising on the blog does appear to work, and I’m glad the Mill seems to be benefiting. Alan, if you’d like any help with the Friends Group’s social media, I’d be happy to advise.
If you can answer Alan’s question, or just have a view, I’d be glad to hear it. Please do comment or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.
Shenstone sadly had it’s chimney truncated and lost it’s glass canopy but is still beautiful, as I’ve noted on many occasions.