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→Construction and history: route of the Shrewsbury, Ironbridge and Bridgnorth Railway
[[File:Apley_Hall_20080216.jpg|300px|thumb|Apley Hall in 2008, seen from near the location of Linley Station]]
[[File:Apley_Chain_Bridge_20080216.jpg|300px|thumb|The 1905 suspension bridge in 2008]]
The Severn Valley Railway passes through the Apley Park estate, owned at the time of the line's construction by '''Thomas C Whitmore'''. Although his property was located on the opposite bank of the [[River Severn]], Whitmore opposed the Railway's construction as "''utterly annihilating the privacy and seclusion of the said, mansion, house, park and grounds''". Whitmore had already sponsored a rival and ultimately unsuccessful proposal, the [[The Severn Valley Railway under GWR/BR ownership#Unsuccessful proposals|Shrewsbury, Ironbridge and Bridgnorth Railway]] whose route was planned to be further away from cross the Severn at Quatford, south of Bridgnorth and pass to the east of Apley HallPark before joining Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway's Madeley Branch. A Bill to construct that 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>
To overcome Whitmore's opposition, the route authorised by the original Severn Valley Railway Act of 1853 included running the line through tunnels under the estate. Negotiations to reduce the cost of the line resulted in a revised route not including tunnels, authorised in the second Severn Valley Railway Act of 1855.<ref name=marshall>[[Bibliography#Books|Marshall (1989)]] pp. 31-36,107.</ref> To achieve this the Severn Valley Railway Company paid Whitmore £14,000 in compensation as well as £150 per acre for the land purchased, and in addition were required to provide a station at which at least two trains per day in each direction could be stopped on request.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books|Vanns (1998)]] p. 49.</ref> Linley Station, built to meet this condition, had no public road access.<ref name=marshall/> Although [[Construction of the Severn Valley Railway]] began in 1858, Whitmore's land was among the last to be acquired in 1860.
