Maps of the town at the start of the 20th Century show the extent of railway development – with tracks radiating in all directions, accompanied by freight marshalling yards, locomotive depots and a series of historic stations serving different communities.
Only Chesterfield Railway Station survives – others closed in the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, or even earlier as competing lines were closed when companies were amalgamated.
We are grateful to Philip Cousins, of Chesterfield and District Civic Society, for producing this list of lost stations in the borough.
Philip has also thanked members of the Derbyshire Victoria County History Chesterfield research group for contributing to the article.
9. Barrow Hill Station
Until the Midland Railway constructed their direct line to Sheffield the city was accessed via a line that went to Rotherham Masborough, opening in 1840 and constructed by the North Midland Railway. Philip said: "In the present Chesterfield borough were two stations situated on this line which both replaced much earlier ones. Whittington opened in 1873 and closed in 1952, but excursion trains still called until at least 1977. Barrow Hill station opened in 1888 and closed in 1954, though was used for trains to the nearby Barrow Hill railway roundhouse open days into the 1970s." Shuttles from Chesterfield’s only remaining railway station were run to the surviving platform at Barrow Hill station for some of the railway roundhouse open-days in BR times. The buildings fronting Station Road had been demolished some years earlier. Here is a diesel multiple-unit at the station on October 5, 1980. Photo: Philip Cousins