 The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway opened throughout in 1840.With the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, it formed a through route between the dominant manufacturing districts of the West Midlands, and the important port of Bristol.The principal objective of the promoters of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway was to achieve a trunk route between those important centres, and in devising its route, they paid little heed to the agricultural districts of the Vale of Evesham, ("one of Britain’s richest") and other areas of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.