The Macabre History of Shrewsbury Train Station

Folklorist Amy Boucher investigates the macabre history of Shrewsbury Train Station.

Shrewsbury is truly a ghost ridden place, From the violent ‘Bloudie Jack’ that haunts its red stone Castle to the myriad of Phantom soldiers, who stretch back through the centuries.

There are ghosts everywhere, you just need to know where to find them. Such spirits serve as a reminder of the towns long and vibrant history. The town follows a largely medieval street plan, with over 660 listed buildings and a long history of habitation before this.

It’s been both part of Wales and England and served as a place of power among the Welsh marches during the medieval period. The rulers of the Welsh Marches had immense power, and even at times held sway over the king and the fate of England.

It’s a place of bloodshed and battlefields but also of creativity and independent thinking (being the home of Charles Darwin to name but one brilliant Shrewsbury mind) and has played an important role in the history of the UK. If you’ve never visited, I would genuinely implore you to go and have a look, as there is something for everyone there.

If you do pay a visit and happen to be travelling by train, you will find yourself in Shrewsbury train station, which is the focus of today’s haunting.

Shrewsbury train station, formally known as Shrewsbury General was built in October 1848, just ten years after Britain’s first station Paddington which was built in 1838. It is now the only remaining railway station in Shrewsbury, with the other much smaller stations being closed during the 20th century.

The station was actually Shropshire’s first railway and connected the town to the Chester line. The architect of this endeavour was a Shropshire born Thomas Mainwaring Pension, who hailed from Oswestry. The Original building was extended between 1899 and 1903 by the construction of a new floor underneath the original one.

Style wise it is imitation Tudor, complete with carvings of Tudor heads all around the window frames, to match the former Shrewsbury school, which is now the library. It gained its listed building status in 1969, and as far as train stations go, it is rather charming. Though Charming, it has a somewhat macabre history, so let us look at this in more detail, starting with its very own ghost story.

The winter of 1888 was an incredibly harsh one, with blizzard like conditions and huge amounts of snow. The sky was white with it, and it fell for days, coating the whole town in thick white powder, making any travel difficult to complete.

However, despite this, the wonderfully named Mr Thomas Thomas, Local coal merchant and councillor was stood waiting for a train to take him to London, apparently on important business.

He stood nervously at platform 3, worried that the train would not make it, and he would be delayed. Perhaps he fidgeted nervously with his watch, or paced the platform, looking out for the train. Unfortunately, he would never board it, as he would soon lose his life.

Unaware of the situation, he stood under the ornate glass roof that had been accumulating snow and ice. Suddenly, the sheer weight of this gave way, raining glass, ice, and snow on top of him as well as part of the metal from the roof. Poor Mr Thomas was crushed to death and died at the scene. Folklore also states that his horse was injured too, though I am unsure why his horse was accompanying him on the platform.

The story doesn’t end with Mr Thomas’s death, as we see when looking at the folklore. Indeed, not too long after his passing, people began to see him once more. They reported strange sounds and feeling a lingering presence around the platform. Soon enough he began to be seen wandering again. He is seen in locations all over the train station, but most prominently on the platform in which he lost his life.

He manifests as an older man, dressed in all the trappings of Victorian finery, often anxiously checking his pocket watch, or peering up the train platform, to look out for the train he was never fated to step on.

He is also seen stood looking out from the ramp entrance near castle St. He has frequently been seen throughout the 20th century, as well as more modern reports. I feel rather sorry for his ghost, stuck in a perpetual limbo, still waiting to start his journey.

As well as the melancholy ghost of Thomas Thomas, people have reported seeing other ghosts, dark shapes that seem to move in the corner of your eye, perhaps the memory of a lifetime of commuters.

Train stations are very liminal spaces, people travel through them every day, but never linger, that’s why I think it’s so poignant to think of the spirits left behind here.

Are they aware of the comings and goings, or are they stuck in the same cycle? Where were they all going? And how did a seemingly mundane commute turn into their final stop?

Thomas Thomas is not the only train station ghost in Shropshire. Bridgenorth station (which is now part of the Severn valley railway) boasts several, including a lovely Edwardian man who stands holding hands with his daughter and waving at passing trains, and ‘Arnold’ a man who manifests to warn individuals of a coming accident.

These spirits were people once, so it is important to remember their humanity, and there does seem to be something very human about them.

Though not strictly paranormal, I wanted to turn to another aspect of Shrewsbury train station’s history, which I discovered whilst doing the research for this article. It concerns a very macabre and rather sad finding dating from October 1867.

When I stumbled upon this story, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The newspaper stated that a train from Hereford has stopped in Shrewsbury train station (perhaps for cleaning) which was bound for Edinburgh. The train staff found a large wooden box which was marked with an Edinburgh address and the phrase ‘Till Called For’ written on it.

The box was placed in lost luggage in the station, where it sat for some time, without being claimed. Eventually, around 3 months passed, and as no one claimed it, the staff had grown curious, so they opened the box. Inside they found the remains of a child.

The poor thing had been wrapped carefully in newspaper but had nothing to identify them on the body. They weren’t even wearing clothing. The Staff of Shrewsbury Train station were obviously shaken, and contacted the authorities, but little could be done.

The body was well preserved, but still decomposed at a rate that made it difficult to make any sound judgements about the age or gender of the child. Sadly, I couldn’t find much else about this event, or even where the body was buried, but it must have been incredibly traumatic for those involved. We may never know why this child’s remains were being sent to Edinburgh.

Perhaps it was a medical specimen or some more sinister event that inspired this. What I do know is that it is part of this buildings history, adding but another layer to it. How many stories does it contain? How many more will be told?

If you ever find yourself in Shrewsbury train station, think of this sadly unnamed child, and keep an eye out for Mr Thomas Thomas, who is still nervously waiting…