Bordesley Railway Station
Serving the Bordesley, Digbeth and Camp Hill areas. Minimal station facilities. Trains call when Birmingham City Football Club is playing at home. Please check before travelling.
Bordesley station lies in the Birmingham council ward of Bordesley and Highgate. The station was opened in 1855 by the Great Western Railway on their mainline from London Paddington to Birkenhead Woodside (near Liverpool). Originally built as a two platform station, but in 1915 was rebuilt and upgraded to four platforms the station once had extensive cattle sidings.
The station still carries the painted lettering 'BR (W) Bordesley Cattle Station' and 'Bordesley Cattle Station GWR'. The station is now the least used in the West Midlands, with only one weekly city-bound train stopping on Saturday's at approximately 13:47. The station is known for its proximity to Birmingham City Football Club, and additional trains to Bordesley may run on match days.
Birmingham City Football Club, nicknamed 'The Blues' is one of two professional football club's in Birmingham. Initially, the club's home ground was at Muntz Street but moved to St Andrew's stadium in 1906. The nearby stadium is close to a pub called The Garrison that became a familiar name in the BBC TV series Peaky Blinders.
The series was loosely based around the notorious Peaky Blinder gangs and the Birmingham Boys from around the Bordesley area from the early 1890s to the 1920s.
The Peaky Blinders were an urban street gang mainly composed of young men deriving power from violence, racketeering, robbery, control of gambling and illegal bookmaking. The gang's signature outfit was tailored jackets, lapel overcoats, waistcoats, silk scarves, bell-bottom trousers, boots, and peaked flat caps. The gangs had disappeared by the 1920s'.
To the south of the station, Camp Hill was a battleground during the First English Civil war. On Easter Monday 3 April 1643 the Battle of Camp Hill took place. In the skirmish, a company of 300 Parliamentarians attempted to stop a detachment of 1400 Royalists, under Prince Rupert's command, from passing through the unfortified parliamentary town of Birmingham.
In the 1750's Bordesley Hall, which had replaced an earlier medieval moated manor house, was purchased and rebuilt in grand style by Birmingham Industrialist and banker John Taylor I. The Hall was burnt down, rebuilt and ultimately demolished. John Taylor manufactured buttons, snuff and jewellery boxes and made a fortune selling silver plated articles.
In 1765 in partnership with his neighbour Sampson Lloyd II they founded Taylor and Lloyd's Merchant Bank in Dale End Birmingham. This is the bank we know today as Lloyds Banking Group.
A celebrity born in the area is David Scot-Morgan, musician, vocalist, and songwriter playing the guitar for several groups, including ELO, and wrote songs for The Move and released his own solo albums.
Attractions:
Birmingham City Football Club.
Address:
Bordesley Railway Station, Coventry Road, Camp Hill, Birmingham B9 4HF