The Butts Spur was a freight railway line constructed around 1860 with the aim of linking Worcester Foregate Street railway station to

Diglis Diglis is an inner-city area and suburb of Worcester in Worcestershire, England. It is located around half a mile south of the city centre on the banks of River Severn. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal starts in Diglis, connected to the Seve ...

where the

Worcester and Birmingham canal The Worcester and Birmingham Canal is a canal linking Birmingham and Worcester in England. It starts in Worcester, as an 'offshoot' of the River Severn (just after the river lock) and ends in Gas Street Basin in Birmingham. It is long. There ...

joined the

river Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

. From around 1892 the line was worked by a small wheeled

0-6-0 is the Whyte notation designation for steam locomotives with a wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. Historically, this was the most common wheel arrangement used o ...

saddle tank locomotive No. 2007 constructed in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

. It was hoped that goods arriving at Diglis from the river Severn would be transhipped to the railway. The line was used by Dent's factory and Stallards's distillery and brought cattle to the cattle market

It descended from Foregate street station on a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

to the north side of the Worcester to Hereford rail line into a

headshunt A headshunt (or escape track in the United States) is a short length of Rail tracks, track provided to release locomotives at Terminal station, terminal platforms, or to allow Shunt (rail), shunting to take place clear of main lines. Terminal hea ...

where the locomotive would reverse direction. The train continued its journey under the Worcester to Hereford railway viaduct via the east bank of the river Severn under Worcester bridge, at the time referred to as Gwynne's bridge, towards

Worcester cathedral Worcester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and Blessed Mary the Virgin, is a Church of England cathedral in Worcester, England, Worcester, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Worcester and is the Mother Church# ...

. The line's construction did not achieve its aim of reaching Diglis, instead finishing adjacent to Dent's factory and Stallard's Distillery which at the time were located on South Quay. This was due Worcester cathedral authorities objecting to a railway running between the cathedral and River Severn. With the rebuilding of the Worcester road bridge in 1931, the track was truncated to the north side of the bridge. The line was closed and the track removed in 1957. Traces of the line remain visible in the descending gradient of the viaduct arches which are currently used as commercial and storage units.

External links

Former Route of the Butts Spur Railway in 1930

Historic photographs of the Butts Spur Railway

Historic photographs of the Butts Spur Railway in an article on Worcester Skywalk bridge

References

{{reflist * * * * Worcester, England Rail transport in Worcestershire Closed railway lines