Eventually, it was agreed to open the line under a temporary order, subject to retrospective application and government approval of the level crossing. The line opened on Tuesday, 28 July 1857, with a train consisting of 32 coaches and two engines travelling from the joint GWR/
LNWR station at
Leominster to Kington, stopping briefly at all stations along the line. When they reached Kington, the directors retired to the Oxford Arms Hotel, where with 300 guests then
Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Hastings CB presided over lunch. The return journey was completed with dinner for the same 300 guests at the Royal Oak Hotel, Leominster, presided over by Lord Bateman. Bateman remained chairman for 22 years, and had a private station built at Ox House. In 1862, the line was leased to the
West Midland Railway, which taken over by the
Great Western Railway, amalgamated the line on 1 July 1898. This meant that by 1874 a journey from Kington to Leominster took 40 minutes, to
Hereford 1 hour 20 minutes, and to
Shrewsbury 3 hours and 30 minutes. As the line was rural, and based in the
Welsh Marches farm district, the main revenue was earned from transporting goods to the various markets.
Sheep and
cattle which had been driven to Kington on the various
drovers trails, were now transported to their original destination of Hereford by train. Often on market days, seven or eight cattle trucks were attached to the Hereford-bound passenger service, specifically for bull transportation.
Titley Junction was the busiest intermediate station on the line with up to 30 trains a day passing through. It was the connection point for the L&KR with the
Kington and Eardisley Railway south to the
Hay Railway, and the L&KR's own line to
Presteigne. After completion of this extension, the K&ER extended north from Kington to a small station at
New Radnor, in the hope of completing a cross-Wales mainline to
Aberystwyth, but this never happened.
Kington and Presteigne Railway The Kington and Presteigne Railway opened on 9 September 1875. Commencing at Titley Junction, it passed through Leen farm, to
Staunton-on-Arrow, in front of the Rodd farm via Corton into Presteigne. By 1929 it was possible to join one of the three
steam trains a day – each way – and make the 6 hour journey to
London. The passenger service on this line ended in 1951, but a freight service continued to run every other day until the line was finally closed in 1964.
World War II With need for new hospital capacity out of the reach of
Nazi Luftwaffe bombers, the British government looked at sites in the Welsh Marches, which had the convenience of being accessible. A hospital camp was built by the
British Army at Hergest, which later acted as a clearing point for two general hospitals built by the
US Army in 1943. The first dedicated hospital train arrived shortly after the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940. After the US Army
Artillery arrived in late 1943, the camp had received 11 hospital trains for one hospital, carrying up to 300 patients per train. Between 4 January and 28 April 1945, the other hospital had received 10 trains and admitted 2,413 patients. All the hospital trains arrived from
Southampton. The camp was developed as
RAF Shobdon, a
glider training camp for both the
Normandy and
Arnhem campaigns. ==Closure==