Nature reserve improvements on track
Released: Tuesday, 8 January 2008
Former railway buildings are to be restored to create a visitor centre at a popular country park.
Work on the makeover of the old Tettenhall station is expected to begin later this month after Wolverhampton City Council approved £600,000 worth of improvements.
The former station building will become home to a new visitor centre and interpretation centre for visitors to the popular Smestow Valley Nature Reserve, while the old booking office will be converted for use by the park rangers as a mess room and store.
John Reynolds, Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture, said: “This is a very exciting development and is something people who come to the nature reserve have asked us for.
“We are looking forward to being able to welcome visitors to the centre and to allow school children to use the resources that will be displayed there.”
John Pugh, Wolverhampton City Council’s Head of Parks and Contracts, added: “The interpretation centre will tell visitors all about the history of the building and of the railway line, and about the sort of flora and fauna that they can see in the area today.
“We look forward to being able to open it to visitors in the summer.”
The station buildings were restored in the early 1980s but now need some renovations, for example, the toilets which are not compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act.
The work will cost around £600,000 and is being paid for by the European Regional Development Fund.
Work will begin at the end of January and is expected to take around five months to complete.
Smestow Valley Nature Reserve follows a south-westerly route from Oxley to Wightwick along the disused Wolverhampton - Kingswinford - Stourbridge railway line.
It is a haven for wildlife with its meadows and over 150 acres of woodland. The reserve is also close to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and Smestow Brook.
Tettenhall station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1925, when passenger services were first introduced along the route.
But usage was never very high, despite the introduction of a number of station amenities which failed to improve patronage. It closed a mere seven years later, though goods trains continued to rumble past the buildings until the line was completely shut in the mid-1960s.
Mr Pugh said it was hoped that the former goods shed, which forms part of the station complex, could be redeveloped further in the future to offer complimentary facilities for visitors.
Issued by the press office.