Earlswood Railway Station
Serving local rural communities at Earlswood, Tanners Green, Forshaw Heath and Fulford Heath. This station has minimal facilities.
Most of Earlswood is situated in the parish of Tanworth in Arden within the District of Stratford on Avon and County of Warwickshire. A small part to the north lies in Tidbury Green's parish, which is part of the metropolitan borough of Solihull.
The village is surrounded by farmland and forests. It gives its name to Earlswood Lakes (entirely within Warwickshire), and the railway station is on the border between Warwickshire and Solihull. Adjacent to Earlswood station is the old Station Masters house and a row of homes built by the Great Western Railway when the railway line between Birmingham and Cheltenham was constructed in 1908.
Earlswood used to have traditional GWR station buildings and a signal box situated at the station's southern end. As the railway between Stratford upon Avon and Earlswood is uphill express passenger and some freight trains were regularly 'banked'. A steam locomotive would run up behind a standing train at Stratford upon Avon. When the train left for the north, the locomotive would push from the rear helping the locomotive at the front that was pulling its load, usually of several hundred tons. At Earlswood, the 'banker' would stop, and as it was not coupled to the train, the train would head off without stopping. The banker would then run back down to Stratford to bank the next train.
Also adjacent to Earlswood station is Earlswood Garden and Landscape Centre (EG&LC). The Centre was established in 1995 by brothers Dave and Steve White when the site was nothing more than a large neglected plot that consisted of no more than an old workshop barn and a couple of polytunnels.
With the help of their friends and family, Dave and Steve quickly got to work on making full use of the site by manufacturing fence panels in the old workshop and growing bedding plants in the polytunnels to make beautiful hanging baskets.
Today EG&LC employs 35 full time and a number of part-time staff across the 7.5-acre site throughout its retail, manufacturing, transport, horticultural and contracting operations.
In 2020 Earlswood Garden and Landscape Centre offered to sponsor and support the station adopters at all twenty-one railway stations along the Shakespeare Line. In 2021 over 60 new garden planters were made, delivered and filled by EG&LC to the twenty-one stations along the line. EG&LC have made so much possible by supporting the Friends of the Shakespeare Line and 70+ volunteers along the route that tend the stations.
Attractions:
Clowes Woods. Earlswood Lakes. Country walks. Adjacent Garden Centre (with a restaurant).
N.B. The Lakes is closer to the reservoirs than Earlswood station.
Address:
Earlswood Railway Station, Station Drive, Earlswood, Solihull B94 5JS