Great news! Water Orton Community Action Group’s new book on the history of our local railway network and the part the railways played in the growth of Water Orton community from the opening of the first railway station in 1842, when the village was a collection of six farms and a handful of cottages, through to the arrival of HS2.

If you are interested in local history, with a bit of a different twist, then this is the book for you!

All of the work to research, write and publish the book has been undertaken by Water Orton Community Action Group volunteers. The book is part of our wider campaign to secure the future of our Water Orton train station, and hopefully get the station building restored or improved from its current sorry run-down state. 

The book has been produced following a successful bid for grant funding from West Midlands Rail. Part of our commitment in receiving the funding is to host two presentations on our research findings.

The first of these presentations will be held at Water Orton Cricket Club from 6pm on Wednesday 30th September. It will be a free event and the bar will be open, so please come along for an evening with a bit of a difference. Printed copies of the book will be on sale at the event.

Our second presentation will be at a future Coleshill Civic Society meeting at the Old Market Hall, Church Hill, at a date to be arranged. We’ll let you know when it is organised.

We have decided to have one hundred high quality copies of the book printed and these will retail at £10, which, like us, you will be surprised to know will only cover the cost of printing!

If you can’t make our presentations but would like a copy of the book then you can either download a kindle edition off Amazon at £3.95p, or if you let one of the Action Group Members know we’ll get you a fabulous printed copy… or two if you’re getting the Christmas shopping done early!!! The Water Orton Community Action Group members are: Patrick Fleming, Judith Cleaver, Neil and Marion Bevan, Beverly McAlister, Stella Hunt, Judy Macdonald, and Dave Reilly.