Rednal Goods Shed

Summary

A railway goods shed of around 1848, for the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway Company.

Reasons for Designation

The former Goods Shed at Rednal, of 1848 for the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the building's design is functional yet characteristic of its type, and it survives well, with little alteration.

Historic interest:

* as a rare example of a timber goods shed from the early period of railway construction, thought to be among the earliest to survive;
* for its association with the 'heroic age' of railway building, built for the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway.

Group value:

* it has strong group value with the adjacent Station Building.

History

The station at Rednal stands on the line which opened as the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway in October 1848. The Shrewsbury and Chester Railway Company (S&CRC) had been formed in 1846, following a merger of the North Wales Mineral Railway and the Shrewsbury, Oswestry and Chester Junction Railway. This merger allowed the new company to use sections of line which had already been constructed near Chester and Wrexham, with new tracks being laid to carry the line further south. The engineer for the line was Henry Robertson, with contractor Thomas Brassey in partnership with William Mackenzie and Robert Stephenson. The station building at Rednal was designed by the architect Thomas Penson (junior) of Chester, who lived from around 1790 - 1859 and worked widely in the local area and in North Wales.

The station was also provided with a goods shed, as was common at the time. Here, it was set off to one side and accessed by a turntable, rather than the more common arrangement of goods sheds being sited parallel or at right angles to the railway line. This positioning is characteristic of earlier goods sheds; those parallel to the main line were common from around the 1860s onwards.

At Rednal, the goods shed is of the through type with cart dock, and probably had an internal office (there is no evidence for there having been an external office). The track ran through the shed, allowing carts to be brought directly inside to be loaded and unloaded. There would most likely have been a platform allowing this to take place, with a jib crane fixed to a bearing in the roof structure above and the floor below.

Timber goods sheds survive less well than their stone or brick counterparts; those that do survive tend to be from later in the C19. This goods shed at Rednal is a rare survivor from the early days of the development of the railways.

The station closed in the 1960s and the goods shed is now in use for storage.

Details

A railway goods shed of around 1848, for the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway Company.

MATERIALS: the building is constructed of a timber frame with timber cladding, under a slate roof.

PLAN: the goods shed is square on plan with a projecting canopy at its north-eastern end, which faces the railway line, and is of the through type, with a cart entry to the south-eastern side.

EXTERIOR: the building has a simple appearance, characterised by the vertical timber cladding which covers its elevations. It has a pitched roof and square-headed openings for wagons in each gable end. The north-eastern gable has a projecting canopy, supported on deep brackets, with narrow dagger boards around its three sides. The south-eastern elevation has a central arched doorway for cart access.

INTERIOR: the interior of the goods shed is a single open space. The timber structure of the building is completely exposed and evidence survives in the roof structure for the central bearing for the jib crane which would once have been sited there.

Sources

Books and journals
Biddle, G, Britain’s Historic Railway Buildings, (2003), 312-316
Minnis, J, Hickman, S, The Railway Goods Shed and Warehouse in England, (2016)
Parissien, S, The English Railway Station, (2014)

Other
Shropshire Historic Environment, ref. 33100 & 05779
'Introduction to Heritage Assets: Railways Goods Sheds and Warehouses', Historic England, 2016

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