Ashchurch
Ben Brooksbank / Ashchurch Station, 1957 / CC BY-SA 2.0
Looking north with a Sheffield to Gloucester Express hauled by an LMS class 5MT passing through the station
Opened in 1864, the original Ashchurch station (seen above) was a junction on the main Birmingham to Gloucester line, with branches to Redditch via Evesham and Malvern via Tewkesbury also being served, as well as lines into the nearby Ministry of Defence depot. A direct link between the two branches was put in to the north of the station; initially built as double track, it was singled in 1927 and closed completely in 1957.
The original station closed in 1971, although by this point it was only serving the main line. The Tewkesbury branch had been closed in 1962, and services north to Redditch would cease the year after. However, a new station in approximately the same location would be opened in 1991.