Review of Glynn Waite & Laurence Knighton's book Rowsley: A Rural Railway Centre, by Julie Bunting
This review is by Julie Bunting, and was published originally in
The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper,
on 9th February 2004, and is reproduced with Julie's kind permission.
ROWSLEY - A RURAL RAILWAY CENTRE
by Glynn Waite and Laurence Knighton
Describing themselves as career railwaymen, Glynn Waite and Laurence
Knighton are, respectively, Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Midland
Railway Society, publishers of this highly informative book. Both
authors have also contributed to the Rowsley Association's magnificent
collection of railway photographs, used liberally in Rowsley - A Rural
Railway Centre, a book dedicated to 'the railwaymen and railwaywomen of
Rowsley who created a spirit that refuses to die'.
At its commercial peak, just after the Second World War, 550 railway
staff were employed at Rowsley and many readers will remember the once
bustling depot which closed in the 1960s. It is impossible to separate
the history of Rowsley from the railway and, remarkably, around 130
people still get together for an annual commemorative reunion.
It was the great George Stephenson who 160 years ago surveyed a route
on behalf of the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock & Midlands Junction
Railway. Running south of Buxton it was to join the Midland Railway at
Ambergate via 'the Valleys of the Wye and Derwent to or near Ashford,
Bakewell, Chatsworth, Winster, Matlock, and Cromford'. Importantly, the
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfields would be linked to the
industrial north via Rowsley.
By 1861 nearly 2,000 men and 140 horses were employed in construction
of the line; in the event it was the Midland which achieved the goal of
reaching Manchester. Modifications had to be made to the original
prospectus, partly to allow for differing ducal opinions which almost
denied Bakewell a mainline connection. Joseph Paxton, a director of the
MBM & MJR, designed Rowsley's station building, now the attractive
centrepiece of Peak Village.
In June 1863 the entire line between Rowsley and Buxton was open to
both goods and passenger traffic. The Rowsley depot received valuable
revenue from the despatch of local milk churns; textiles from Calver
Mills reached the goods yard by road, and stone merchants set up
outlets for the easy export of Peakland stone and lime.
Rowsley was the station for Chatsworth and welcomed dignitaries such as
Mr & Mrs Gladstone, the Russian Ambassador and members of the British
and foreign royal families. In 1908 three hundred MPs disembarked from
'specials' at Rowsley for the funeral of the Duke of Devonshire. Waite
and Knighton have tracked down a ticket of 1895 for the Prince of
Wales' dog which arrived by train from Sandringham, a telegram relating
to the conveyance of a Daimler to the Duke of Devonshire in 1912 and,
more prosaically, a memorandum from a signalman to the Station Master -
working less than 200 yards away - reporting that 'The Clock in this
Box is out of order & will not go'. On one occasion the Station Master
was admonished over the one-minute delay of a passenger train!
Absolutely everything had to be documented, providing so many
fascinating diversions that this book extends far beyond its
inestimable worth to railway enthusiasts. The authors have brought
together years of research to produce a permanent record which will be
the envy of lost railway centres around the country.
Rowsley - A Rural Railway Centre is on sale locally or to order
(ref. ISBN 0-9537486-2-6) priced £17.95
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[Created 31 Jan 2004. Last updated 24 Oct 2008 - 11:02 by Rosemary Lockie]