For the last trip of April 2024, on Monday 29th, I visited two stations on the Cross-City Line which runs from Lichfield in the north to Redditch and Bromsgrove in the south. Gravelly Hill and Aston were the destinations as I left Burton on Trent and changed trains at Birmingham New Street.
Gravelly Hill was the first stop for me. Opened in 1862 by the London and North Western (LNWR) railway company on their line between Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield, the station consists of two platforms and an accessible footbridge between them. Some old station buildings and the original footbridge were demolished in 1992 upon the electrification of the Cross-City Line, although the original two storey station building remains. West Midlands Railway is in charge of the station, which is staffed and has a ticket office.
I headed out of the station and had a walk through Gravelly Hill. I passed a mural on the side of a house, which was painted in 2022 to mark the city’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games.
The mural depicts local cultural references, including a Spitfire, a Jaguar car, the Commonwealth Games relay torch and the rock venue Mothers. At the bottom of the mural is a depiction of the area’s most famous landmark, the Gravelly Hill Interchange, more commonly known as Spaghetti Junction.
Spaghetti Junction opened in May 1972 and it links the M6 motorway to the A38 (M), along with various other smaller roads. It is a remarkable feat of engineering, having to span two railway lines, three canals and two rivers. One interesting fact is that the Swadlincote-based bus company Viking used to run coach trips to Spaghetti Junction from Burton on Trent just before it opened, charging 65p for a return trip (around £10 in today’s money).
I walked under the road via the Salford Circus underpasses and emerged close to Aston Reservoir, a local beauty spot which used to provide drinking water for the local area, extracted from the nearby River Tame (the same one which flows through Tamworth).
A short walk from the reservoir, through an industrial estate, took me to the church of St Peter and St Paul. The first church on this site dates back to 1120AD, with major rebuilding and renovations being carried out over the centuries. At the time of its construction it was the second largest church in the West Midlands, behind the original Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed in the Second World War.
Just a few minutes away from the church is another large place of worship. Devotees of Aston Villa Football Club gather every other week to cheer on their team, which (at the time of writing) is doing quite well in the English Premier League.
Aston Villa were formed in 1874, and have played at Villa Park since 1897. With a capacity of 42,682, it is the 10th-largest football stadium in England. Villa Park has hosted 55 FA Cup semi-finals, more than any other ground in the country.
The impressive frontage of the Holte End looks very old, but in fact, the stand was only built in 1994, with the mosaic of the club name added in 2007. The Trinity Road Stand was originally a hugely impressive grandstand with an ornate frontage, but this was controversially demolished in the late 1990s to facilitate the expansion of the stand. The stadium was built in the original grounds of Aston Hall and Aston Park, which was where I walked to next.
Aston Hall was built between 1618 and 1635 by the Holte family, and is an example of a “prodigy house” – a house built to show off, basically. It was bought by James Watt Jr., the son of the Scottish steam engine pioneer James Watt. In 1864, the then-Birmingham Corporation bought the house and park, making it open to the public. Birmingham City Council still owns it to this day.
The house is open to the public, but it is undergoing some improvements, so it wasn’t open when I visited. Within the park are various sporting facilities, including a cricket pitch, tennis courts and an all-weather football pitch.
After a stroll around the park, it was time to go home. Aston railway station is helpfully signposted by Aston Villa, with club-branded signs hanging from lamp posts along the way.
Aston railway station is one of two which serve Villa Park, the other being Witton on the Chase Line. Aston was opened in 1854 by the London and North Western Railway. The aforementioned James Watt Jr. refused to allow the railway line to encroach on his Aston Park, which is why the line is situated where it is. The station itself is on an embankment, reached by stairs or lifts. It is staffed, with a ticket office and waiting shelters on both platforms.
Trains are quite frequent at Aston station, and I was able to catch a slightly earlier train than the one I had planned back to Birmingham New Street, from where I also caught a slightly earlier train back to Burton.
That’s it for this post, thanks for reading.
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