Trustworthy, administrator
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edits
Changes
Station master information supplied by Chris Haynes
==Facilities==
The station has a small kiosk serving snacks and hot and cold drinks. There is also a [[The Highley Station Fund shop | station fund second hand bookshop]] in the [[GWR 542 Horse Box (body only) | the grounded body of GWR Horse Box 542]] on the platform. A picnic area is located next to the signal box, opposite the platform.
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GW_542_20150426.jpg|Station fund bookshop
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===Platform extension===
Highley only has a short platform. In winter 1974-75, at the end of the first year of reopening, volunteers extended the southern end of the platform by around 30 feet using platform edge coping stones and diagonal blue brick pattern surface slabs recovered from the former GWR station at Halesowen.<ref>SVR News 34</ref> The platform now stretches all the way to the [[Highley Station foot crossing|barrow crossing]], which is accessed by a ramp behind the footbridge. The original layout, with a shorter platform and a ramp in front of the old footbridge, can be clearly seen in this photograph.
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File:Highley old bridge.jpg|Station and original footbridge pre-preservation
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===Cattle dock===
In December 1869 the GWR Board approved the erection of a cattle pen at a cost of £15.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books|Marshall (1989)]] p. 99.</ref> The cattle dock now at Highley is situated broadly in the original 1869 location, although it is an SVR re-construction. The original cattle dock became unsafe and was dismantled in the autumn of 1979; the fill used by the GWR during its original construction was found to consist mainly of old broken tiles!<ref name = "SVR61" /> The new cattle dock was temporarily removed restored during the repair work following the [[2007_Storm_Damage | 2007 storm damage]]2004. <ref>SVR News 148</ref> The photograph below shows the view in 2005, two years before the storm damage. The new cattle dock and water tower can both be seen; construction of The Engine House had not yet begun. Also notable is the absence of lineside fencing at that time.
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The new cattle dock was temporarily removed during the repair work following the [[2007_Storm_Damage | 2007 storm damage]]. A major refurbishment of its wooden structure began in May 2017.
===Crane===
A (non-operational) hand powered crane is located on a small platform in the goods yard. The winding gear appears identical to that on the wooden crane in [[Bewdley Goods Shed]]. The refurbished crane was erected in August 1992<ref>SVR News 105</ref>.
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File:HighleyCrane.jpg | The crane at Highley
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===Awards===
When first taken over by the SVR, Highley Station was in a very dilapidated condition. The standard of restoration has won a number of [[awards]], including the ‘Best Preserved Station’ award in 1982. Plaques commemorating these awards can be seen in the waiting room.
<gallerymode=packed heights=200px style="text-align:left">File:The waiting room at Highley Station - geograph.org.uk - 1454335.jpg | Waiting room (Wikimedia Commons)
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==Highley history before preservation==
*1908: The General Manager recommended that additional sidings and a passing loop should be provided. In the event the work was not undertaken, as a result of which it was never possible to pass passenger trains at Highley.
*1912-1915: Approval was given for construction of a footbridge, which was a steel lattice-girder structure of two spans. The bridge was reluctantly deemed beyond economic repair and demolished by the SVR in 1974. It was situated in the same location as the current footbridge which dates from 2009.
*1927: It was announced that "At Highley...the track is to be lifted at various points where subsidences have occurred owing to mining operations".<ref>Great Western Railway Magazine, March 1927</ref>
*1921: The population of Highley had reached 1,985, with at least 500 employed at the colliery. Over the following years passenger numbers remained high while beginning to fall elsewhere on the line; during the 1930s Highley averaged 20,000 ticket sales per year which exceeded both Stourport and Bridgnorth.
*1922: [[SVR staff in 1922#Severn Valley Railway (Kidderminster to Bridgnorth)|GWR staff records for 1922]] show the station had a staff of 12, including those working at [[Kinlet and Billingsley Sidings signal box|Kinlet Sidings]].
{| class="wikitable
|+ Early Station Masters at Highley prior to 1939
|-
!Name!!Born !! From !! To !! Comments
|William Farmer||14 June 1846 Hartlebury, Worcestershire||June 1870||August 1871||Previously employed by the West Midlands Railway and GWR as a Booking Clerk at Hartlebury. Resigned September 1900. Died 14 March 1937.
|-
|G Watts|| ? 1848 Blockley, Worcestershire ||August 1871|| January 1873 ||
|-
|J Wilkinson|| ? ||13 January 1873||December 1875||Resigned December 1875
|-
|Isaac Batts||14 August 1850 South Leigh, Oxfordshire||9 May 1878||November 1882||Previously Switchman at Hartlebury. Resigned 1 October 1910.
|-
|William Henry Cole||17/2/February 1855 Northfield, Worcestershire||13 November 1882||December 1913||Previously employed as a Porter and Switchman at Kidderminster, and as a Booking Porter and Station Inspector at Highley. Off sick December 1913, retired 1916. Died 4 February 1932. |-|William Thomas Gingell|| 25 March 1861 Rodmarton, Gloucestershire||January 1916||Before April 1926||Previously Station Master at Cleobury Mortimer. Died 22 August 1949.|-|Thomas Lewis ||16 August 1869 Lower Oddington, Glos.||April 1926 || 2 June 1930||Died|-|Albert Higgs || 25 May 1874 Mortimer Berkshire ||July 1930 || 1934 || Retired|-|Sydney James Prothero || 10 January 1878 Ewyas Harold, Herefordshire ||March 1935 || 10 January 1938 || Retired
|-
|Joseph William Thomas GingellSimmonds ||25/3/1861 Rodmarton2 January 1892 Paxford, GloucestershireWorcestershire ||1915March 1938 || || |-|Frederick William Peachey || 29 March 1891 Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire || 1940s ||>1919||Previously Station Master station master at [[Ironbridge and Broseley]] and subsequently at Cleobury Mortimer. Died 22 August 1949.[[Hampton Loade]]|-|George Austin || January 1899 Worcester ||June 1943 || |||-|Harold Victor Hook || 28 October 1912 Worcestershire ||1950s || ||
|-
|}
== See also ==
*[[Variant spellings of SVR station names]]
*[[List of stations]]
*[[Highley Station Footbridge]]
==References==
Station masters information supplied by Chris Haynes
<references />
*[[Bibliography | Marshall (1989), pp. 99-100.]]
