Inside the little UK village torn apart by £80bn train line where locals say ‘it’s hell!’

The pretty village of was once a typical slow paced dwelling for its population of just over 3,000. This week it became the “peak” of completion after the first of 13 viaducts at a key juncture of the new rail line was finished.

The mood was jubilant for managers of the controversial project with client director for the Midlands Matt Young telling the : “Momentum on is absolutely incredible at the moment. On the civil engineering part of the project, we’re at peak construction; we’ll stay at peak through 2025 and into 2026.”

But it’s different matter for locals. For them, it’s the “peak” of two years of upheaval and mess, with green fields replaced by big brown heaps of soil and much-loved oak trees felled to make way for huge steel containers.

Any semblance of peace and quiet has gone, too. All you can hear is the din of works and traffic backed up on the main road.

Construction began in the North Warwickshire village in 2023, with creating two huge scars across the landscape that will eventually carry passengers along 700 metres of track over the nearby M42 motorway.

Reaching 20 metres tall at its highest point, the viaducts, the first of which is now finished, will be amongst the tallest structures along the route, dwarfing homes in its shadow.

Roger Hunt, 72, has lived in Water Orton for 36 years. “I have a lot of frustration, a lot of anger and a lot of sadness now because of what has happened to my village,” he says. “I’m just really fed up. As soon as my daughter leaves home, we’re getting out of here.”

Lynda Davies, 75, a retired librarian, says her dog Maisie has fewer places to walk due to the work, explaining: “It’s dreadful – the pollution, the dust, the noise. There are queues of traffic going out of the , every single entrance and exit to the village is controlled by traffic lights, it’s gridlock for most of the day. We cannot get out of the village now – it’s like a prison.”

was first announced in 2009 by Gordon Brown’s Labour government. In the 16 years since the project has become a byword for Britain’s seeming inability to successfully build any new infrastructure.

According to HS2, journey times between central London and will be reduced by 40% to 49 minutes when construction has finished.

Hopefully, these journey time estimates prove to be more accurate than the project’s budget, which has ballooned from an initial estimate of £37.5billion to a possible high of over £80billion.

It was also to Manchester and Leeds but it will now only go as far as Birmingham after ’s government axed the Leeds leg of the line in October 2023 to cut costs.

Water Orton is one of many areas across the country to undergo developments for the high speed train line. Near the site in Birmingham, other areas such as Coleshill and Gilson have also been invaded with trucks, cranes and grey concrete pillars.

With a name conjuring up its once bucolic surroundings, Water Orton’s Gardeners’ Rest Tearoom is just a minute away from the and often plays host to hi-vis clad crews. Julie Heenan, 56, manager of the tearoom, says her father, Ken Cole, 90, started the family-run business in 1973 and now, 52 years later, the business is feeling the effects of HS2.

“We’ve had to spend on drainage, which is something we wouldn’t have had to do before the work started and we have lost customers. We estimated our tearoom was cut by 25% during road works”, she says. “One week it was so quiet I had to cut some shifts for my staff because we weren’t getting enough people through the door.”

Tearoom manager, Amy McLeod-Whitaker, 40, adds: “We’re all just local people working hard, then suddenly there was no need for us to come in. It was quite a worry.”

Julie says she hopes to and would like to pass it down to her son so that it can be a part of his future.

Against the backdrop of chatter, workers file in for a cooked breakfast while locals greet meet for their regular coffee in the attempt to continue an aspect of familiar village life mere metres from the temporary structures they’ve come to hate. All are welcome but it’s not clear that this business will continue into the foreseeable future.

HS2 will not even stop at Water Orton – the closest station will be Birmingham Interchange, over six miles away.

Retiree Judith Cleaver, 72, moved to the village 15 years ago and is feeling stuck with her decision. “A friend wanted to move us out of the area – I said no, we’ve moved here, we’ve downsized to a flat to live here and enjoy our life. I’m not moving away from here, even though it’s killing me. We retired here, we can’t afford to move, we just have to put up with it.” She lets out a sigh. “We’re not even eligible for compensation.”

Rachel Taylor, MP for North Warwickshire and Bedford, understands locals’ concerns.

He says: “The project is essential for relieving the pressure on the west coast main line. The issue for my community is that they don’t see much benefit. It’s an ongoing project so it won’t be available to use until 2033 and nobody in the village initially envisaged their lives were going to be disrupted quite as much as they are.”

Julie Ford-Terry, 61, a resident of Coleshill was born in the same house she still lives in today; today it’s a “never-ending building site”. Speaking through tears, she says: “It’s been soul-destroying watching the whole area we live in, and my childhood, completely disappear.”

Her heart was broken by the felling of one oak tree that had stood for 250 years before being ripped down by HS2 workers. They later presented her with a log and some acorns to remember it by. “We used to play under that tree when we were kids,” she adds.

Yet despite the changes is creating to once rural landscapes, pro-development organisations say the rail upgrade is crucial.

The head of housing of pressure group Yimby [Yes In My Back Yard] alliance Kane Emerson says: “Railway developments like HS2 are incredibly important for activity between British cities. People will use them to commute which will enable some of the economic prosperity in London to spread further out. cutting commute times is important as British workers have the longest commute times in Western Europe.”

Villagers say they do not want to be seen as [Not In My Back Yard]. Instead, many simply want recognition of what has happened to their homes.

A HS2 spokesperson told : “We take our responsibilities to local communities very seriously and try to minimise the impacts of construction wherever possible. We’ve built a haul road in this location – carrying our vehicles directly off the nearby M6/M42 link roads to the works site – which means construction traffic doesn’t travel through Water Orton village or pass people’s homes.”

They added that contractors had listened to residents and introduced measures based on their feedback including noise mitigation, road sweeping, window cleaning and access to car washing facilities.

However, residents feel their .

Julie adds: “We probably won’t even see it up and running in our lifetime. I don’t know why I should want to move from my family home despite what has happened.”

Many in the community are determined not to let themselves be wiped off the map, she adds: “If I was going to leave, I would have gone a long time ago.”

Five other areas impacted by HS2

Kenilworth

Kenilworth is a small town largely surrounded by greenery but HS2 has seen construction change its once natural landscape. The town won’t have a stop for passengers despite the HS2 line surrounding it, so many locals see little benefit to the town itself.

Richard Hales, Councillor for Kenilworth Abbey and Arden, says: “It’s had a devastating impact on the countryside, vast swathes of green spaces have been destroyed.

Lostock Green

While the second leg of up to Manchester has been scrapped, uncertainty over the future has left many properties in Lostock Green, Cheshire, empty. After years of fearing the future, around 20 properties out of the small village have been left to fall into ruin.

Wendover

The village of Wendover lies along the HS2 route, it will be home to a 450 metre-long viaduct that is the first major railway bridge in the UK to be built with a ‘double composite’ structure. This uses two steel beams sandwiched between layers of reinforced concrete to create a lightweight and super strong hollow span. Wendover has experienced road closures and diversions causing complications for drivers.

Bicester

The HS2 line has caused some woodland around the town to be used for building works leading to the removal of trees which were hundreds of years old. The line will travel through the North-East of Oxfordshire and HS2 has completed the overbridge on the A41 Bicester Road, a key road linking Bicester and Aylesbury.

Whitmore

This village in Staffordshire has turned into a ghost town after HS2 brought 41 properties there before the northern leg was scrapped. Some of the properties have been rented back out to people on short-term contracts but the area has not made a full return to normal.

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