Over 60 volunteers, councillors, and local residents came together on Sunday 26th July to celebrate the first milestone in the revival of the old Dudbridge Station site, on the Stroud Valleys Trail N45 National Cycle route.
Located opposite the Sainsbury’s on Dudbridge Hill, the station is a key emblem of Stroud’s industrial heritage. The station was previously the site of a stone-built railway station on the former Midland Railway line from Stonehouse to Nailsworth, which opened in 1867.
The line was known as ‘The Dudbridge Donkey,’ slow and reliable, carrying passengers and freight and operated by Midland Railway. In 1885 a short additional branch line was opened running from Dudbridge to Stroud.
The passenger service kept running until 1949, and the goods service stopped in 1966, after 99 years of service. The railway track was removed, and the line became derelict and overgrown until it was cleared and a cycle track built in 1983.
After years of neglect, volunteers say the Dubdbridge Station site became a hotspot for litter, graffiti and anti-social behaviour. The remaining railway benches were broken, and the former station platform became covered in soil and weeds.
Over the past weeks, local volunteers have cleared the debris from the old platform edges, re-painted the old railway sign, repaired the benches and given the site a clean-up. Stroud District Council cut back the overgrown vegetation, allowing sign writer Eleanor Harper to paint a big new sign on the platform wall.
Woodchester Parish Councillor Katharine McNealey, Chair of the Stroud Valleys Trail Working Group, said: “The new signage has really made people stop and stare, and it has stimulated all sorts of conversations and memories from older people.”
“We had two people who told us how they had been brought here by their parents in 1951 when Bertram Mills circus came to Stroud. The animals were brought by train and unloaded at Dudbridge and then walked up to Stratford Park. It must have been quite a sight to have a camel and an elephant on the station platform!”
Local History group Remembering Rodborough shared their collection of old photographs of the station and the trains that used to run along the line.
Kings Stanley Parish Councillor James Rowse, who is also a theatre set designer, said: “We still have more work to do, including an interesting project to paint the inside of the tunnel. The plan is to create a mural depicting the local landscape of hills, valleys and mills along the route of the old railway. We are also waiting for the installation of two information boards which will help people learn more about the history of the area.”
