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In 1852, during the early stages of the formation of the Severn Valley Railway Company which would eventually build the railway, [[Linley|Thomas Whitmore]] sponsored a rival proposal, the '''Shrewsbury, Ironbridge and Bridgnorth Railway'''. A Bill to construct the railway was introduced to Parliament in February 1853 but was thrown out in June of that year.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books|Marshall (1989)]] p. 24.</ref>
Before the building of a railway, road services were available for goods or passengers from Bridgnorth to nearby railway stations. An 1849 poster advertises a service by Richard Beeston, by arrangement with the Grand Junction Railway Company, for carrying goods to Wolverhampton. An 1856 advert in the Bridgnorth Journal offers a GWR service for 'passengers and parcels &c.' to Shifnal.
<gallery>
File:Bridgnorth 1849 poster.jpg | 1849 poster
File:GWR Bridgnorth advert 1956.jpg | 1856 advert
</gallery>
===The Severn Valley Railway Company===
:''Main article: [[The Severn Valley Railway Company (19th Century)]]''
In 1849 plans again emerged for a line following this route, linking the still incomplete [[Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway]] (‘OW&W’) at a point south of Hartlebury to the Shrewsbury & Birmingham Railway’s projected branch at Madeley in Shropshire. The proposed Severn Valley Railway would provide a more direct route between the railway junction towns of Shrewsbury and Worcester than the alternative route via Hartlebury, Kidderminster, Stourbridge, Wolverhampton and Wellington, and would also provide railway access to the coalfields of Highley and Alveley.
'''The Severn Valley Railway Company''' ("SVRC") was formed to build the railway. The first Engineer was [[Robert Nicholson]], an associate of Robert Stephenson, who carried out the survey of the proposed route. Although nominally an independent company, the SVRC was closely associated with the OW&W. The Chairman and two other directors of the SVRC were on the Board of the OW&W, while OW&W Engineer [[John Fowler]] would succeed Nicholson as Engineer of the SVRC in 1855.
