Bewdley bus services

Bewdley station is situated in Wribbenhall, on the Bewdley to Kidderminster Road, on the opposite side of the River Severn to the town. From construction of the Railway several sources, principally advertisements for hotels and inns, refer to local bus services. Unlike Kidderminster and Stourport, Bewdley did not connect to the later electric tramway.

Dedicated railway bus service

Between at least 1877 and 1898 an omnibus service plied between Bewdley station and The George Hotel, Load Street.

In 1877 the service was described as a horse drawn omnibus, and a report of a collision records four passengers carried.

By 1884 Kelly’s Directories records Mrs S.E. Woodward as Bantock’s cartage agent and a horse and trap to meet passenger services. The hotel was advertising a ‘bus in 1898.

It is uncertain whether this service was provided directly by the hotel or under some commercial arrangement with a local carrier, and whether it ran on demand or to a timetable. In 1885 a passenger unsuccessfully sued W.H.H. Blight (not the hotel or its proprietor) for missing a train, having told the driver of the importance of him catching it.

Other services

Other ‘general carrier’ omnibuses were also operating. In 1881 The Red Lion in Wribbenhall, close to Bewdley Station, advertised ‘The Kidderminster and Bewdley Omnibus calls three times each day’.

Replacement bus services on railway closure

Under the 1963 Railways Act, when BRBritish Rail or British Railways’s proposals involve passenger closures the procedures allowed for certain replacement bus services to be subject to similar protections from services being withdrawn. The closures to passengers of the Wyre Forest Line in 1962 and Severn Valley Branch north of Bewdley in 1963 and to Hartlebury and Kidderminster in 1970 provided no such protected bus services, with the public simply advised to contact to local operators for further information.

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