Martyn's Blog

It was a fine spring day on April 15th, when I visited the eastern southern terminus of the Cross-City Line (Bromsgrove is the other southern terminus). This was my second attempt at covering Redditch on the blog, more of which later.

I took two trains to get to Redditch, changing at Birmingham New Street on the way. The 15th April was the day that the new trains were being introduced on the Cross-City Line, but they are not running on all services on the line yet, so I had to make do with one of the old ones.

I arrived at Redditch station, a terminus station with a nomadic history.

The first station in Redditch was opened by the Redditch Railway in September 1859. It was then relocated in 1868 by the Evesham & Redditch Railway. The line to the south of Redditch was closed by British Rail in 1962 due to poor track condition, and the station and remaining line were almost axed by Dr Beeching, but locals campaigned for a reprieve, and were granted one.

The station was relocated yet again in 1972 as part of the wider development of Redditch as a New Town. As part of the electrification of the Cross-City Line in the early 1990s, it was moved once again to its present spot in 1992.

The station is staffed, with a ticket office and a small shop. Being a terminus station, it only has the one platform.

I first visited Redditch in January this year, coincidentally also on the 15th. I walked up to the ruins of Bordesley Abbey to the north of the town back then.

The abbey was built in the 12th Century and was set up as a monastery for a group of Cistercian monks. King Henry VIII had the place destroyed in 1538, and it was subsequently sold. Archaeologists from the University of Reading have been studying the site since 1969, making several archaeological surveys. Their findings are on display at the nearby Forge Mill Needle Museum, which was closed when I visited in January.

While visiting the Abbey, I became stuck in mud which splattered up my legs and coated my footwear. That, and the low winter sun which made it difficult to see anything, made me decide to cut that trip short and head home.

Back to April, and I had a walk through the town centre of Redditch. The largest church in Redditch is St Stephens, which has a fountain and a bandstand within the churchyard.

Also in the area are two memorial sculptures. The Holocaust Memorial depicts a child of the holocaust with its liberator and was designed by artists Chase Lloyd and Andy DeComyn. It was installed in 2005.

A few metres away is the other memorial, to the Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. Bonham was born in Redditch and died aged 32 in 1980 at his home in Clewer, Berkshire, having consumed a large amount of alcohol the previous day.

The memorial depicts Bonham playing the drums and was unveiled on 31st May 2018, which would have been his 70th birthday. It is made of bronze and was created by sculptor Mark Richards.

I left the town centre, passing the Palace Theatre and the Town Hall on the way to an underpass decorated with legitimate graffiti, as part of a scheme to brighten up the town’s underpasses.

I was headed for Arrow Valley Country Park, a large open space to the west of Redditch. The park has a 29 acre lake in the centre, and was created in the 1970s as part of the scheme to build the New Town of Redditch.

There is a visitor centre in the park, with a cafe and other amenities for visitors. To the north of the park is the Millennium Wood, planted at the turn of the century. I didn’t walk all the way around it, as some of the paths were a bit damp and muddy.

On the way back up the hill to the centre of Redditch, I passed by another old church. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church was built in the 1830s.

On the ground in Alcester Street is a plaque and a mosaic commemorating the town’s needle making history.

Redditch was at one point a world centre for the production of needles. The town grew hugely in the second half of the 20th century when it was designated as a New Town, similar to Milton Keynes and Cumbernauld. A complex road system was built in the town, including England’s only cloverleaf road junction. This road network was often the butt of comedian Jasper Carrott’s jokes.

The retail heart of the town is the Kingfisher Shopping Centre, opened in 1976 and home to several well known high street chains. It is attached to the local bus station, within which I got lost trying to find my way back to the railway station. I did find my way there in the end, and boarded the train to University, from where I changed trains to Burton. It was my first chance to check out the newly rebuilt station there, and I will be back sometime for a proper look at it.

Famous people from Redditch include the aforementioned John Bonham, the actor Charles Dance and pop megastar Harry Styles, formerly of One Direction.

That’s it for this post, thanks for reading.