A Bridgnorth couple who have devoted countless hours to ensuring the success of the town’s landmark Cliff Railway have decided to call time.
Allan and Jean Reynolds have been the driving force behind England’s last inland electric funicular for 15 years, but have now decided as sole shareholders of the Bridgnorth Castle Hill Railway Co Ltd to sell the business.
A guide price of £700,000 to £800,000 for the entire share capital of the tourist attraction, with tenders invited by June 3, has been quoted by Birmingham estate agents Knight Frank.
The grade two listed railway includes the stations at the top and bottom – the latter with the original ticket booth with the five-bedroom Stoneway guest house above.
The top station, which has the benefit of 150-year lease at a peppercorn rent, comprises the ticket booth, machinery room, Winding House tea rooms and offices with a top floor flat.
The railway has 14 staff including a permanent manager, eight drivers who work 20 hours a week, plus a pool of relief drivers and maintenance engineers as well as cleaners.
“We have decided to sell our shares in the company,” explained Jean. “We are both in our 60s and we have to think not only of our future, but of the future of the railway
“We want all this to go to someone who will do it justice – it isn’t just a railway, it’s a part of Bridgnorth.
“When we came here the railway was in a poor state and we have ploughed everything back into the company. We have renovated the bottom station and next to the top station we converted carried out stabilisation on a derelict cottage and converted it into the tea rooms three-and-a-half years ago.
“We will miss the Cliff Railway – it will be a real wrench for us. Originally, Allan had been thinking of getting a watermill – instead he got what I can only describe as a big boy’s toy.”
“My wife Jean had been in further education and neither of us wanted to find ourselves sitting on either side of the fireplace with nothing to do,” said Allan, who is now 67. “The problem was, working what to do next.”
The solution was to buy the funicular railway which has been ferrying local residents and visitors between High Town and Low Town since 1892, sparing everyone the climb of one of the several flights of steps.
On its busiest days the railway will do 200-plus journeys virtually non-stop and carry about 2,000 passengers.
Passengers have come from all round the world as far afield as Arizona and even included the manager of the Hong Kong Peak Tramway.
On special occasions they aside one of the 18-seater cars for a private journey, such as the time they were contacted by a young man who wanted to propose to his girlfriend on the climb up the hill.
“We were all waiting at the top when they got there,” recalled Jean. “The minute the door opened, we all crowded around asking if she said yes and fortunately she did.”
Continuing the romantic theme, wedding parties as well have used the railway to make the journey up the hill for ceremonies at St Mary’s Church. It’s not just humans who are regulars on the Cliff Railway either.
“We’ve got a dog who gets a bit impatient with his mistress and often takes the train down back without her,” said Allan.
Jean and Allan say the secret of its success and survival lies in its loyal service to the local community and stress its vital link between High Town and Low Town.
The original power for the railway, which rises 111 feet, was hydraulic, with water pumped back up the hill to counterbalance the carriages, but this was changed to electrically-driven winding in 1944.
Its first Victorian owners built the Cliff Railway to avoid the “fatigue hitherto attendant upon a climb from the lower to the higher level by way of very steep steps.”
The cost of a round trip is £1 and the only discount for diehard, five-days-a-week commuters is for 10 tickets costing £6.50, instead of the full £10.
“This is an amazing opportunity which will appeal to an enormously wide audience of potential buyers,” said Jonathan Bengough of Knight Frank.
“It could be bought by all sorts of people, be they railway enthusiasts, those looking for an investment, those looking for a property which will also employ them and at the same time be able to ‘live over the shop,’ and also those that want to be part of Bridgnorth’s heritage with tourism in mind.
“There are so few funicular railways which are for the benefit of the public,” he added. “This is a unique chance to buy a part of Victorian history.”
Further information can be obtained from Mr Bengough on 0121 200 2220 , email: jonathan.bengough@knightfrank.com
PICTURED: Bridgnorth Cliff Railway is for sale – pictured at the High Town station are owners Allan and Jean Reynolds.