The engineers of the Worcester and Hereford Railway originally planned a branch line that was to connect Diglis Docks to the main line at Foregate Street, called the 'Butts Spur Line'. The hope was that big ships would come up the Severn to Diglis and there the goods would be transhipped to rail.
Work started in 1860, the line running down from Foregate Station on a slooping viaduct. On reaching the river near the railway bridge, it turned south and ran along the riverside, under the eastern towing arch of Gwynne's bridge to the South Quay as far as Dent's Factory and Stallard's Distillery. Unhappily for the engineer, the Cathedral Chapter vetoed the line running in front of the cathedral. It is hard to believe that the planners would have overlooked this fact, and one is led to believe that there was a change of decision on the part of the Cathedral authorities.
For many years the line fed the two factories, and brought cattle to the Cattle Market, but when the new road bridge was built in 1931, the line south of it was taken up, and the streatch from Foregate to the Grandstand cattle pens was removed in 1957.