Former Railway Works And Attached Footbridge

Former Railway Works and Attached Footbridge

A former railway works with attached footbridge, built in 1865–6, attributed to Sharp, Stewart & Company, Thomas Savin and John Robinson, with later additions and alterations.

The main range of the works consists of a two-bay central section arranged over three storeys, with two-storey, three-bay buildings attached to either side. These comprise the former works offices, stores and washhouses, with later inserted staircases and wall divisions. Either side and to the rear are long single-bay-wide ranges forming a courtyard. To either side of the main range stand locomotive and carriage sheds. The seven-bay sheds to the left, the former carriage shops, are subdivided by a red brick division with round-arched openings, alternately sealed in red brick. The sheds to the right, with an attached footbridge, have been redeveloped with new buildings inserted, and their historic layout is no longer legible. The wagon and paint shops and the foundry remain in their original open plan, although a heavy steel platform and concrete structure has been inserted at the north-west end of the wagon shops. The cambered arches between the carriage and wagon shops have been infilled.

The main façade displays three gables to the centre with lower gables to left and right. The windows are round-arched with cast-iron glazing. The central gabled ranges contain roundels, some sealed. The larger windows to the ground floor form a nineteen-bay round-arched arcade, with twentieth-century openings inserted to the outer bays. The three gabled ranges to the right have reconfigured openings to the front. The south-west flank wall has twelve round-arched openings with blue brick arches. A courtyard is entered through an arch in the right bay of the centre-right gable. The elevations facing the yard have a range of openings with round or segmental arches, some sealed, with fenestration combining cast iron and timber. The boiler house range to the south-east features a tall, tapering, octagonal chimney of brown and red brick. Attached to the north-east of the seven-bay engine shed are three sheds of phased construction. The northernmost two sheds, the former wagon shop, are steel-framed early-twentieth-century structures clad in later twentieth-century steel sheet. The former paint shop shed to the south-east has a red brick exterior with stone kneelers, skew arches, original shop doors, and an arcade of blank arches along its south-eastern wall. The roof structures vary in treatment but are partly of early-twentieth-century date. The roof of the central gable has a lantern with a weathervane to the ridge.

The wrought-iron footbridge is attached to the left of the right gables, constructed of latticed trusses and supported by two sets of cast-iron columns and a central brick pier.

The central bays of the main works building have been reconfigured with inserted partition walls, ceilings and staircases, though structural cast-iron columns remain in place. The roof structures are constructed of substantial timber beams in a queen-post arrangement. The connecting bays, former shops and the smithy are open areas. The bays to the right, formerly the locomotive and tender shop, are currently being restored and refurbished with new buildings inserted within the envelope. The nineteenth-century sheds to the left, the former carriage shops, have cast-iron columns supporting the roof. The twentieth-century sheds further left are supported by steel structure.

To the rear of the works buildings is a red brick sheet room with an attached twentieth-century range and a further attached nineteenth-century single-storey gas works. The sheet room has a queen-post roof and attic lights, although there is no first-floor structure.

The works are constructed of red, brown and blue brick with slate and corrugated iron roofs with coped verges. Some sheds and their roofs are constructed of steel.

The Oswestry and Newtown Railway reached Oswestry in 1860, and in July 1864, various railway lines were consolidated to form the Cambrian Railways. In 1866, Oswestry became the administrative and engineering headquarters of the Cambrian Railways. The works was designed to fulfil the pressing need for the construction, repair and maintenance of railway locomotives and rolling stock, based on the design of the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway works at Coleham, Shrewsbury. The design is attributed to the Manchester locomotive builders Sharp, Stewart & Company, with detailed specifications by Thomas Savin. The works was built under the supervision of Cambrian engineer George Owen and architect John Robinson of Manchester. The main works building is shown on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1875. The works was adapted and expanded in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to include a gas works and other structures.

With the expansion of the national road network in the interwar period and later, the railways gradually declined. The works were closed in phases through 1964–6, culminating in the closure of the locomotive repair shops on 31 December 1966. Passenger services through Oswestry ceased in November 1966 and goods traffic stopped in 1988, by which time the works had been converted for other commercial uses. In 2010, the former works has been adapted for a variety of uses.