• Second donation presented to GWRT for Stanway Viaduct appeal • Presentation ceremony at Broadway station on 4th November • Caravan and Motorhome Club’s Broadway park on site of Broadway goods yard
On Saturday 4th November, in a short ceremony at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway’s (GWSR) Broadway station, Matt and Gemma Walters, Simon Knight and Carrie Ayling, the Broadway Caravan and Motorhome Club’s site team, presented a cheque for £670 to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Trust (GWRT). This follows a donation of £300, presented in May this year.
Broadway, in Worcestershire, is a popular destination for caravan and motorhomers visiting the Railway. The Club’s 118-pitch campsite based on the site of the former railway goods yard at Broadway station.
The donated money, received by Maurice Hall, the GWRT’s Finance director, is destined for the Trust’s Stanway Viaduct appeal, which aims to raise £1.5 million to fund essential repairs to this impressive 15-arch structure between Broadway and Toddington. The first part of the contract has already been placed with Walsh Construction, and work has now begun to lay a new waterproof deck on the viaduct.
Matt and Gemma Walters from the Caravan and Motorhome Club Broadway site said: “The money has been raised through raffles and the ‘Book Swap Box’ in a former telephone box: our guests can swap books for 50p or buy them for £1 and it has been very successful.
“We have a close relationship with the GWSR and a large number of our guests stay here specifically to visit the railway, especially during special events when we are always fully-booked, often weeks in advance.
“We also have a board which not only displays a QR code to access the train times but tells our guests which locomotives are running, similar to that on the stations. There’s always a group of people looking at it on the railway’s running days,” he adds.
Maurice Hall, Finance Director of the GWRT says: “The Caravan and Motorhome Club is a wonderfully supportive neighbour of the railway and of course, it is on the site of the former goods yard and also uses the old goods shed, which houses a pair of historic caravans.
“A large number of Caravan and Motorhome Club guests take trips through the lovely Cotswold countryside on our trains and we know that many visitors come specially to experience the railway. Clearly the park is a very convenient place to stay. It’s a symbiotic relationship that works really well,” he says.
Broadway station is now closed as the line north of Toddington is inaccessible by train until the beginning of the 2024 season in early March, as the track is now being lifted from the viaduct so that the vital repair work can begin. The Caravan and Motor Home Club park however, remains open throughout the winter.
