Description

SP 8241; 891/2/10005

OLD WOLVERTON ROAD,
Wolverton,
Former Royal Train Shed

23-MAY-01

GV

II

Railway works building. Built in 1889 and designed by C A Park. The building is constructed of red brick with a Welsh slate and glazed roof. It is a long narrow gabled three-road shed of thirty-three bays built parallel with the tracks with an additional shorter and narrower gabled shed built onto the north-west side of the main one. The south gable has triple doors with a tripartite arched opening in the gable above. The north gable has three sunk panels with a tripartite opening in the gable above. The north gable of the additional building has only two sunk panels, but it also has a tripartite opening in the gable. The long walls have thirty-three sunk panels separated by pilasters. Each bay has a large iron framed window with 5 x 6 panes. Continuous rooflights both at the ridge and along each slope. The west wall is level with the tracks, the east wall stands on the earlier revetted stone and brick embankment which itself is articulated by plain pilasters acting as buttresses.
Interior: The interior was not inspected, but each wall pier will carry a light wrought iron or steel truss spanning the building and leaving the floor space unimpeded. Since it was designed as a lifting shop the walls had to be very strong to support the tracks for the travelling cranes.
History: This building was constructed in 1889 as a part of the improvements to the Wolverton works designed by the Works Superintendent C A Park and was a state-of-the-art railway works building for its time. It is built on a rock faced sandstone and red brick revetted embankment, which dates from the 1830s and carried the original Wolverton station in use 1838-40. It is an important component of what was in the 1890s one of the most important integrated large-scale manufacturing sites in the world. It was built first as a lifting shop, but it had become an underframe shop by 1926 and a heavy machine shop in 1934. When the works were reorganised post-Beeching in 1963 it became the storehouse for the Royal train (built in the adjoining works) which it remained until 1991, and it has been unused since.
References: M A Bird, The Development of Wolverton, Buckinghamshire from Railway Town to New City (1838-1974), Goldsmiths College dissertation, 1974 (Wolverton Library).
Bill West, The Trainmakers, The Story of Wolverton Works, 1838-1981.
Bill West, Wolverton Works in Camera, 1838-1993.
Information from Milton Keynes Borough Council.

Listing NGR: SP8185341580

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Former Royal Train Shed at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26561465

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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