was by then the Great Western Railway replaced it with a parallel blue brick viaduct, although the red brick abutments of the old structure can still be seen on either side of the valley. The station was situated on Mill Lane, where level crossing gates were operated from a signal box. After that became redundant, it was acquired by the Churchill and Blakedown Historical Society for their headquarters and in 2016 was shifted across the road to a site adjoining the station. Buildings Settlement of the area along the Kidderminster road came slowly. The timber-framed Harborough Hall was built in 1635 for William and Anne Penn on land that had belonged to the family since the reign of Edward III. On William's death it was left to his two daughters, of whom the elder married Thomas Shenstone and was the mother of William Shenstone the poet. Damming produced a chain of pools below the house, curving round to Broome Mill, which was disused by the 1880s. Following shortly on the enclosure of Harborough Common in 1832, Harborough Farm was built on the other side of the main road, with two farm cottages further along the hillside. At the opposite end of the village, beyond the parish boundary, there was once a half-timbered cottage on the slope, with the village smithy on the other side of the main road, both of which were demolished in the early 20th century. Springbrook House, dating from the turn of the 18th century, still survives, as does the contemporary Churchill corn mill beside Wannerton Brook. Along the village street there are two survivals from the end of the 18th century, Castle Ash and Jack's Cottage (which now adjoins the Post Office). Rose Cottage, near the Belbroughton Road, dates from 1820 but has since been combined with the former blacksmith's round the corner. Beyond the blacksmith on Belbroughton Road (which continued to be called by its old name of The Common for decades) there were the narrow plots of Victorian cottage developments, each with their peaked porch. On the other side of the road were the cottages built for foundry workers in the 1830s at the top of Forge Lane. By 1860 there were enough inhabitants in the village for the church of St James the Great to be built to a design by Gothic revivalist George Edmund Street. At first it consisted of a simple