 An extension to Shipston-on-Stour was opened in 1836, this time with the intention of extending to Coventry.The OW&WR Act of 1845 authorised the new railway to take over the tramway on a perpetual lease; it had debts then of over £48,000.The Stratford section fell into disuse about 1880, but local people agitated for the Shipston part to be modernised, and it was converted by the GWR into a conventional railway, opening on 1 July 1889, with locomotive operation.