Chesterfield Market Place railway station

Opening

The station was opened as Chesterfield by the LD&ECR on 8 March 1897^[3][1][4] and was the headquarters of the line. It was renamed Chesterfield Market Place on 1 January 1907.^[1][4]

The station was closed to passengers by British Railways on 3 December 1951^[1][4] because of the prohibitive cost of maintaining and repairing Bolsover Tunnel, together with concerns over Doe Lea Viaduct and the limited amount of traffic. Goods services continued until 4 March 1957.^[5][6]

Market Place station was situated on West Bars, adjacent to two old inns; the White Horse and the Bird in Hand. To take advantage of the additional custom generated by the railway, the owners of the White Horse, William Stones brewery of Sheffield, applied to build a new hotel. This was approved by the licensing magistrates in April 1898.

As the licensing laws of the time prevented a pub from closing down during rebuilding, the new hotel was built in two parts. Building of the first phase commenced on the site of the Bird in Hand which had closed and had recently been demolished, its licence being transferred to the refreshment rooms in Market Place station. When the first part was complete the licence was transferred from the White Horse, along with the landlord, Job Siddall. The second phase was then erected on the site of the White Horse. The hotel, named after the Duke of Portland, on whose estate much of the railway ran, was officially opened Christmas 1899 by the Earl of Rosebery Archibald Primrose.

Layout

The station was a substantial three-storey structure, with a long glass awning;^[7][8][9] it was quite unlike any other station on the line.

Inside the station, a glass-roofed concourse led to four curved platforms^[10][11][12] on two islands: 1 & 2, 4 & 5. In the centre, in place of the missing platform 3, was a release line for the locomotives.^{[13][14][15][16][17]} The adjacent goods depot was, at the time, the largest covered area in the town.

Leaving the station, the line passed the Saxby and Farmer 80 lever station signal box,^[18][19] crossed Park Road by an arched brick bridge then travelled along a short length of embankment followed by Boythorpe Viaduct which crossed the Midland Railway's Brampton Branch^[20] and the industrial Boythorpe Railway,^[21] then a longer stretch of embankment leading to a major viaduct at Horns Bridge, which passed over what is now the Midland Main Line, main roads to Mansfield and Derby, the Great Central Railway, Hyde's Sidings, and the river Rother. It consisted of seven brick arches and four girder spans, 63 feet (19 m) high.^[13] From there, the line climbed at 1 in 100 (10‰) as far as the first summit at Duckmanton Tunnel, followed shortly by the station at Arkwright Town.

Operations

Until 1927, the station was also served by Chesterfield Tramway which ran from Brampton to Whittington. A dead end spur was built near the station and was situated on Market Place. At least one published photograph of the station shows the tramlines and overhead wires.^[22]

Services

In 1922, there were seven departures on Mondays to Fridays, with four extra on Saturdays; it never had a Sunday service.

The weekday seven consisted of:

• Two all-stations to Lincoln High St, taking 90 minutes
• Three all-stations to Mansfield Central, taking 45 minutes
• One all-stations to Bolsover South, taking twelve minutes.

The Saturday extras consisted of one to Bolsover, one to Langwith Junction and two to Mansfield Central.

A notable feature was the care taken to timetable services along the Beighton Branch to connect with Chesterfield services at Langwith Junction. At 10:44, for example, four trains would be standing at Langwith Junction:

• 10:46 to Chesterfield Market Place (from Lincoln)
• 10:46 to Lincoln (from Chesterfield)
• 10:50 to Sheffield Midland, via the Beighton Branch
• 10:45 to Mansfield.

Anyone catching the last weekday departure from Chesterfield, the 19:00 to Mansfield Central, could stay in their seat at Langwith Junction and arrive at Mansfield Central at 19:50, or change trains and arrive at Mansfield Town at 19:40.^[23]

More journey opportunities were added in 1925, when the service from Nottingham Victoria through Skegby and Pleasley East which, since its inception in 1901, had inexplicably terminated at Shirebrook South, was extended the last mile to Shirebrook North. This was a forlorn gesture, as the service was withdrawn throughout in 1931.^[24]

The intersecting services along the Beighton Branch were withdrawn on the outbreak of the Second World War, with Mansfield Central services ending by 1945, leaving Chesterfield Market Place with two all-stations trains to Lincoln plus some shorter workings to Shirebrook North and to Bolsover.^[25]

v t e Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway
Legend
Chesterfield (Market Place) Boythorpe Viaduct over MR Brampton Branch and Boythorpe Railway   Horns Bridge over Midland Main Line GCR Chesterfield Loop River Rother Duckmanton Tunnel Great Central Main Line Arkwright Town Arkwright Town Jct (1907) River Doe Lea Doe Lea Viaduct over MR Doe Lea Branch Bolsover South Bolsover Tunnel Scarcliffe Summit MML to St Pancras Sheffield Midland Attercliffe Road (MR) Rotherham Masborough West Tinsley (SDR) Catcliffe (SDR) Rotherham Masborough Treeton (MR) Woodhouse Mill (MR) Beighton (GCR) Beighton Junction Killamarsh West (MR) Beighton (GCR) Upperthorpe and Killamarsh Spinkhill Spinkhill Tunnel Clowne South Summit Markland Grips Viaduct Creswell and Welbeck Shirebrook North (Originally Langwith Junction) Langwith Junction shed Shirebrook South GNR to Nottingham Victoria (1901) Shirebrook West MR (now Robin Hood Line) Nottingham Midland to Worksop Warsop Clipstone Colliery Sidings Mansfield Railway to Nottingham Victoria (from 1917) Edwinstowe Ollerton Boughton Tuxford Central Tuxford Works Rail Innovation & Development Centre | Tuxford shed Dukeries Junction GNR (now ECML) Kings Cross to Retford High Marnham Power Station Fledborough Fledborough Viaduct over River Trent Clifton-on-Trent Doddington and Harby Skellingthorpe GN&GEJR to Saxilby Pyewipe Junction Lincoln to Peterborough

Closure

In August 1948, its unused track and space was put to work to house the Stephenson Centenary Exhibition of locomotives and rolling stock.^[26][27][28] As a last hurrah, special trains were run to the coast shortly before the station closed to passengers on 3 December 1951.^[29]

After closure to passengers, the tracks into the platforms were lifted;^[30] the line to Arkwright Town was singled and operated on the "one engine in steam" basis. This was perfectly adequate for the single daily freight train from Staveley,^[31][32] which ended in March 1957.

From some point between 1951 and 1956, the station building became used by Charles Credland Ltd, a paint and wallpaper firm,^[3] which continued until demolition.

Tracks were lifted in 1957/8, when the bridge over Park Road was demolished using explosives.^[33]