Hednesford Railway Station

Hednesford is an historic market town in Staffordshire, approximately 1.2 miles north of Cannock.

 

Hednesford was a coal mining community for over a century, which is commemorated in the town centre where a Miner’s Lamp has been erected, surrounded by a wall with individual bricks giving the names of former miners.

 

During the first world war, two army training camps were built and between 1914 and 1918, over a quarter of a million British and Commonwealth troops passed through Hednesford, destined for the Western Front. In 1938, Hednesford became home to an RAF training camp to train technicians in maintenance and repair of aircraft, better known as RAF Hednesford. This was subsequently used to house Hungarian refugees fleeing from the Russian invasion of Budapest in 1956. It is now a part of Cannock Chase Country Park.

 

Hednesford railway station was opened in 1859 on the line from Cannock to Rugeley Town. It was closed to passengers and goods in 1965 as part of the Beeching Axe, although the line remained in use with goods trains serving the power station at Rugeley and various local collieries.  The station was reopened by British Rail in 1989 as the terminus of the first stage of reopening the Chase Line to passenger trains, initially with just one platform, but latterly a second platform was added when services were extended to Rugeley Town.

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