HS2 works, Burton Green

Image: © Stephen McKay Taken: 14 Apr 2021

It might be thought that High Speed 2 (HS2) will be a completely new railway but in fact that is not entirely true; here it will use the alignment of a long-closed line, a victim of the Beeching axe. The Victorian masonry arch bridge is something of a give away! The line ran from Kenilworth Junction to Berkswell and was opened in 1884 as a way to avoid the bottleneck at Coventry - it became known as the Berkswell Loop. It was always primarily a freight route and, although a passenger service was provided, that had become very sparse by the mid 20th century. In fact, the 1955 timetable shows just one passenger service each way on weekdays timed to provide a commuter service from Kenilworth to Birmingham; there were no intermediate stations on the loop. These trains were withdrawn in 1965 and the line closed to freight four years later. Most of the land passed to Warwickshire County Council in the 1970s but it was not until the 2000s that the route was developed as the Kenilworth Greenway, in partnership with Sustrans, as a linear country park for the use of walkers and cyclists. While the HS2 works are in progress a temporary greenway has been established but the aim is to restore it to run parallel to the new railway. Here at Burton Green a 'green tunnel' will be built covering the cutting in the vicinity of the village.

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