Society

History

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

2 Railways around Kiveton and Wales Society

Alan Rowles History

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

3 Society

History

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

© Copyright Notice This book is producedReproduction as part of the and Wales History Project 2007. All material in this book is copyright of Alan Rowles, unless otherwise stated. This version and the design work Kivetontherein is copyright of the Kiveton Park and Wales History Society, with acknowledgement to the editorial and design contributions of Holly Greenhalgh of Kiveton Creative and John Tanner as editor.

No material can be used without express written permission.

If you wish to use material found in this book, please email the History Society with your request.

For an explanation of copyright laws and how they apply to the internet please go to: http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/faq/copyright/internet.htm

Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) can result in civil or criminal prosecution. 4 CONTENTS

Introduction and Acknowledgements 7

The Coming of the Railways 13 Kiveton Park Station Society15 Charles Peace 18

The Branch 20 Lines that might have been History 22 Kiveton Bridge Station 23

The Waleswood Curve and Waleswood Station 28 Wales Copy Epilogue Prohibited 33 and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

5 Society

History

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

6 Series Editor’s Introduction

The railways have been crucial to the social and economic evolution of this corner of and acted as the major spur behind the positioning of the deep pits at both Kiveton Park and Waleswood. This book perfectly complements the research that local people haveSociety carried out into their mining heritage over the last year, the results of which can be seen at www.kivetonwaleshistory.co.uk.

This is an excellent short book and in writing it Alan has provided a real service that will be appreciated both now and long into the future. The railways, particularly in the age of steam, have entranced young and old alike. This book, including its manyHistory professionally taken photographs, gives a real insight into their history and importance to this area. Wales Copy ProhibitedJohn Tanner and November 2007 Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

7 Society

History

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

8 Introduction

This book was written at the suggestion of John Tanner of the Kiveton Park and Wales Community History Project. As one who has been interested in railways but was not born and bred in the area it gave me the opportunity not only to learn about railways in and around the village but also the chance to document my findings. Society

This book is not meant to be an academic or technical history. It is simply an attempt to chronicle in a few short pages an important segment of our village’s recent past.

Finally, I am happy to dedicate the followingHistory record to all those who assisted me with my research. The final text however is entirely of my own choosing, and the blame for any errors must be laid at my door, not theirs. I hope readers find few such anomalies.Wales Copy ProhibitedAlan Rowles

and November 2007 Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

9 Society

History

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

10 Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Geoffrey Hurst for permitting me to make use of his excellent work The Great Central East of , Volume 1 and also to Alan Smalley for providing me with a number of superb photographs. The visual aspect of railways is where most people’s interests lie and these excellent pictures help the text come alive.Society

History

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

11 Society

History

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

12 1 THE COMING OF THE RAILWAYS

The arrival of the railways in the 1840s signalled a huge step forward for coal mining in this area and was to bring benefits, not just to the industry, but the district in general.

The North Midland was the first railway to arrive in this locality, opening its route from Leeds to Derby via Woodhouse Mill and Beighton on May 11th 1840.Society Nine years later, on February 12th 1849 the Manchester, Sheffield and Railway began running its trains via Woodhouse to link up with the North Midland at . Later that same year, on July 17th, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire began running trains on its new 45 ½ milesHistory cross-country route from Woodhouse Junction to Bole, just west of Gainsborough, where it connected with the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Railway. This provided a continuous line of railway from Manchester to the North Sea coast at Grimsby and Hull Copy Traffic on the route would have been upWales and running a few months earlier had not a terrible accident taken place in the Rother Valley near WoodhouseProhibited Junction. Here, on the 30th of September 1848,and work on the huge thirty-six-arch viaduct spanning the valley was nearing completion when disaster struck. Just before ten o’clock, the 19th arch under which four men were workingInternet suddenly collapsed. It was followed almost immediately by the fourteen adjoining it and soon afterwards six more gave way in rapid succession.Park Two of the men died almost instantaneously and another succumbed to his injuries a few hours later.

The catastrophe was attributedReproduction to the premature removal of the centres and to insufficient foundations, the situation being further accentuated by heavy rainfall Kivetonwhich had flooded parts of the valley. The collapsed structure effectively dammed the already swollen River Rother, causing the water level to rise to fifteen feet above the river bed. Despite this setback work proceeded rapidly and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway half-yearly meeting on the 13th March 1849 was informed that the viaduct would be completed in early May at a cost of £17,000.

13 Leaving the Rother Viaduct the route passed through open countryside, the collieries at Waleswood (1858), Beighton (1902) and Brookhouse (1929) being still some years in the future. The contract for this section of the line which commenced at Woodhouse Junction and ended at was awarded to Miller and Blackie at the tendered price of £125, 564. The section was also notable for being the first on the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Rly to be equipped throughout with semaphore signalling. Designed by W. W. Cutts of Sheffield the signals were a quality product and made a very favourable impression on Captain Wynne who inspected the new railway. Society

Two miles beyond the Rother Viaduct was the second largest civil engineering project on the line, the huge cutting at Wales. Here, 400,000 cubic yards of material were excavated to allow the railway access to Kiveton. FromHistory Woodhouse East junction to where Kiveton Bridge Station would eventually be sited, the gradient was and still is severe at 1 in 115, the steepest on the whole route between Sheffield and the East Coast. Beyond the summit at Kiveton Bridge, the line falls at 1 in 179 to Kiveton Park Station and continues on a falling gradientWales all the way Copy to and beyond. Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

14 2 KIVETON PARK STATION

When the new line opened in 1849 there were only three stations between Sheffield and Worksop. These were at Darnall, Kiveton Park and Shireoaks. Opened on the day trains began running, Kiveton Park Station was built by James Drabble and Company from Carlton. It is interesting to note that it had originally been intended to call the station ‘Dog Kennels’, the adopted name of the area which was home toSociety the Duke of Leeds’ kennels.

History

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Since the arrival of the in 1777 there had been lime kilns in this vicinity and soon after the Reproductionrailway became operational more were constructed. It is worth a mention at this juncture that the Chesterfield Canal Company was swallowed Kivetonup in the tide of railway-mania and duly became part of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway on July 9th 1847, a full two years before the railway ran its first trains through Kiveton. On one side of the canal at this time was Mr. Grizzell’s wharf from where stone was shipped to London for the construction of the new Houses of Parliament, and on the other was that of Messrs. W. Wright and Company who worked Anston Quarries.

15 Along with the continuing increase in lime output a proposal was put before the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire board by one of its members, Samuel Watkins, that they provide a weighing machine for lime at Kiveton Park. The date of the meeting was April 3rd 1857 and the cost was an estimated £160. Thirteen years later, on October 2nd 1870, a Mr. Coggan asked the company to provide a siding two miles east of Kiveton Park to a stone quarry at which he intended erecting some lime kilns. It was estimated that these would generate traffic of between £1,000 and £1,500 per annum. The board sanctioned the siding on condition that SocietyMr. Coggan paid the whole cost of the block telegraph and the wages of the watchman.

On January 29th 1872 the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway board were contacted by agents of the Duke of Leeds for a sidingHistory at Kiveton Park, to which the company agreed subject to negotiation. In 1873, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway improved facilities at Kiveton Park and the board undertook to ask the Duke of Leeds to purchase ten acres of land for sidings and station enlargement. On July 18th of the same year it was proposedCopy that the level crossing at the eastern end of the station be substitutedWales by a bridge at a cost of £1,100. By now though, increased traffic meant that the existing station wasProhibited becoming increasingly inadequate and it was recommendedand that a new station be built on a site a few yards west of the present structure. Tenders for the new station were not received until November and on the 14th of thatInternet month, the contract was awarded to Foxton and Company for £1,717.Park

At the board meeting of July 18th 1873, a decision was made to increase siding capacity at Kiveton Park by laying new sidings near to . These were brought into use shortlyReproduction after the new station was completed in 1874 and at a cost of £4,400. In 1877, the upgrading of facilities took a further step forward with Kivetonthe installation of gas lighting at Kiveton Park Station.

16 Society

Kiveton Park Station looking to the east. This was the second station on the site and opened in 1874. The building on the right contains the Station Master’s house and booking office. Over on the left are two waiting rooms, a sheltered area and a gents toilet. The footbridgeHistory survived until the 1970s. Modernisation swept away all but the Station Master’s house in the mid-1990s.

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

Retford B1 61120 runs into Kiveton Park Station with a ballast train on August 26th 1962. Note the trespass sign, the gas lighting still intact and that the sidings are still operational. (Photograph courtesy of A. Smalley) 17 3 CHARLES PEACE

The railways next and probably most momentous event took place on January 17th 1879 and involved one of the country’s most notorious criminals – Sheffield-born Charles Peace.

A quick-witted and prolific burglar, Charles Peace graduated to the ultimateSociety crime in November 1876 when he murdered Arthur Dyson at the latter’s home in Banner Cross. With a £100 price on his head, he went on the run and evaded capture for almost two years. A burglary in London on October 10th 1878 did not go as planned and in trying to make good his escape he shot and injured a police constable. Following his arrest, he gave his name as John Ward andHistory was charged with burglary and attempted murder and sentenced to penal servitude for life. However, his true identity soon came to light and he was taken from Pentonville Prison to stand trial for the murder of Arthur Dyson. Wales Copy On January 17th 1879, Peace was taken from Pentonville to King’sProhibited Cross Station where along with two warders he was put on board the 5.15am train to Sheffield Victoria which was due to arrive at itsand destination at 8.45am. Throughout the journey, he kept making excuses to leave the train to visit the toilet whenever it stopped. To lessen the hassle the two warders provided Internethim with special bags which Peace could use and then throw out Parkof the window. Just after the train had passed Worksop, Peace asked for one of the bags and the carriage window was duly opened for him to dispose of it.

Peace, with lightning agility, took a flying leap through it. One of the warders caught him by the left foot. Peace hangingReproduction out of the carriage grabbed the footboard with his Kivetonhands and kept kicking the warder as hard as he could, with his right foot. The other warder, unable to get to the window to aid his colleague, was making vain efforts to stop the train by pulling the communication cord. For two miles the train ran on with Peace struggling desperately to escape. At last he succeeded in kicking off his left shoe and dropped onto the line. The train ran on for another mile until, with the assistance of some gentlemen in other carriages, the warders were able to stop it. They

18 immediately hurried back along the line and there, near Kiveton Park, they found their prisoner lying alongside the track, apparently unconscious and bleeding from a severe scalp wound. A slow train from Sheffield was stopped to pick up the injured man and he was lifted into the guard’s van where he asked them to cover him up as he was cold.

By January 30th, a doctor pronounced Peace fit to face the magistrate, the proceedings taking place in one of the corridors of Sheffield Town Hall. He was committed for trial at Leeds Assizes on February 4th 1879 where he was Societyfound guilty of the murder of Arthur Dyson and inevitably sentenced to death. Before his execution on the 25th of February he made a confession to a priest and admitted to the shooting of another police officer in Manchester on August 1st 1876. 18 year old William Habron had been arrested and sentenced to Historydeath (later commuted to life imprisonment) for the killing. Peace had even attended the trial, but had kept silent thereby condoning a miscarriage of Justice. He was executed at Armley Prison on Tuesday February 25th 1879, aged 47. Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

Reproduced by kind permission of Sheffield Libraries, Archives and Information: Local Studies 19 4 THE MIDLAND RAILWAY BRANCH

On the 1st of October 1869 the Midland Railway opened a short branch line from just north of its Station to two collieries at Norwood. The single-track, freight- only line was 1 ½ miles in length and accessed both pits via short spurs on the southern side of the line. The first colliery was Norwood (Holbrook No. 2), 70 chains (7/8 of a mile) from the main line junction. Here also some years later a secondSociety short spur led off the original and gave access to Ellison and Mitchell’s Works, later to become the Yorkshire Tar Distillers plant. 49 chains further along at the point where track terminated beyond the Mansfield Road Bridge was West Kiveton Colliery which now, like its near neighbour, is just a distant memory. History

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

20 In 1878, nine years after the branch saw its first traffic, a two-mile extension was laid giving the Midland Railway access to Kiveton Park Colliery and in doing so doubled the length of the line. 300 yards beyond West Kiveton Pit a tunnel from driven through the ridge blocking the route to Kiveton. 300 yards long, it was only one tenth the length of the Norwood Canal Tunnel alongside which it ran, or should I say runs, for despite decades of disuse both are still down there. At its eastern extremity the railway tunnel passed beneath Coal Pit Lane before opening out into a cutting beyond which Kiveton Park Colliery came into view. Society

It is not an exaggeration to say that the gradient between Killamarsh and the tunnel was severe and demanded the very best from the driver and fireman of the locomotive, particularly in adverse weather conditions.History Even with a banking engine working flat out at the rear there was no guarantee that the train would make it to the top of the incline. Descending the bank would often pose even more problems. Despite pinning down some of the wagon brakes prior to the descent, all too often trains would slip on the greasy rails and gatherCopy speed towards the junction. Fortunately, such a situation was cateredWales for by the signalman at Killamarsh. On being informed that a loaded coal train had left one of theProhibited pits, he would set his signals on the up main lineand to danger and thus stop trains entering the block. He would then set the points to allow the coal train straight onto the main line. To warn the signalman of a runaway, theInternet driver would continuously blow the locomotive’s whistle. Park

Throughout its 100-year life the branch was hardly a hive of activity and the only surprise is that it survived for so long. Most of the Kiveton Park coal traffic left the pit and went to its destinationReproduction via the Great Central route. After the closure of West Kiveton and Norwood, only the Yorkshire Tar Distillers traffic and the occasional Kivetontrain from Kiveton Park Colliery made use of the branch. As with the branch line’s opening, its closure came in two phases. The little-used section from Yorkshire Tar Distillers to Kiveton was closed to all traffic on May 19th 1961 and the by then disused Killamarsh to Yorkshire Tar Distillers fragment was officially withdrawn on November 15th 1972.

21 5 LINES THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

In 1891 the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway proposed to open a branch line from Conisborough to Kiveton Park via a westbound connection near Kiveton Park Station. Plans were submitted, withdrawn and resubmitted and yet again were withdrawn. The prospect of no coal being worked on or near the branch meant that the proposal was a none starter and the idea was never raised Societyagain.

In 1899 preparations were made to sink a new pit at Dinnington and plans were made to build a railway to the site. About five miles in length it was to have run from the Midland Railway branch at Kiveton Park Colliery then via the Great Central Railway at Kiveton before turning north-east to terminate nearHistory to Laughton Church. The engineer was the well-respected C. E. Rhodes who vouched for the mineral wealth in the vicinity. Sir Courtney Boyd for the board was less convinced though and observed that he was being asked to give his consent for a railwayCopy that may never be built, and so it proved. The proposed Wales andWales Laughton Railway never got beyond the planning stage and was never heard of again. Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

22 6 KIVETON BRIDGE STATION

On numerous occasions, Wales Parish Council had put their case for a station at Wales to first the Great Central Railway and in later years the L.N.E. R. but all to no avail until 1928. A traffic committee meeting on November 29th of that year was informed that Wales Parish had a growing population of 5,000 and 452 more houses had been built in the last year. It was also brought to their attention thatSociety the nearest station was Kiveton Park, 1 ½ miles away.

The Kiveton Park Coal Company had undertaken a verbal agreement with the L.N.E.R. that if receipts from the new station were not sufficient to cover outlay they would divert traffic now passing via the competingHistory route (the former Midland Railway branch, now L. M. S. R.). They added that as soon as the station opened they would also transfer 50% of the pit prop and mining timber traffic onto the L.N.E.R. as well. The committee was told that this traffic wouldCopy gross £1,500 per year. It was estimated that the station would cost £2,507Wales to build. Prohibited The L.N.E.R. were obviously swayed by the above submissions and the works committee asked for tendersand to be invited for the building of the new station. It was decided that it would come under the control of the station master at Kiveton Park and the staff would consist of oneInternet 5th class clerk at £200 per annum maximum and one porter includingPark uniform and holiday relief at £114. Stores, lighting and maintenance were estimated at £35 per year. A profit of £750 per year was calculated.

Kiveton Bridge Station was opened to both passengers and parcels on the 8th July 1929. Situated one mile fifteenReproduction chains from Kiveton Park Station and one mile forty- Kivetoneight chains from Waleswood Station, it consisted of two 300 feet-long wooden platforms linked by an overbridge, access to which was gained from the booking office. Set at road level and adjacent to the main road, the booking office was, like the platforms, gas lit. Each platform had a wooden waiting room.

23 And so after 30 years of lobbying the people of Kiveton at last had a railway station. The Worksop Guardian of July 12th reported that the station was informally opened when, before a large crowd of spectators, the 9am from Sheffield steamed in. There was lots of competition for the first ticket. District Inspector Mr. E. H. Cause from Lincoln gave the aforementioned ticket to Mr. E. P. Hall and the second to Mr. H. S. Turner, both of the Kiveton Park Coal Company. Few would argue, for the KPCC had worked tirelessly to have the station built.

There was some dissatisfaction that on the timetable no passenger Society trains were scheduled to stop at Kiveton Bridge before 9am. What particularly annoyed people was that a train to Sheffield passed through at 8.28am and would been ideal for large numbers of secondary scholars who attended Woodhouse Grammar School, as well as business people working in Sheffield. There was also noHistory Sunday service. On a more positive note, weekday services after 9am were noted as being both frequent and convenient, and the lack of early stopping trains was addressed soon afterwards.

Little changed at Kiveton Park for the next four decades,Copy indeed the station remained gas lit until the early 1970s. At aroundWales this time concrete platforms replaced the ageing wooden ones and the wooden waiting rooms were demolishedProhibited to be succeeded by bland brick shelters. The andbooking hall went when the station became destaffed the following year. Internet Along with Kiveton Park, the station was completely rebuilt in the 1990s. The work included modernPark platforms and waiting shelters, the project being funded by the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. On completion of the work the station received new signs, unfortunately with the name KIVERTON BRIDGE emblazoned on them. TheseReproduction were replaced by the correct spelling on May 21st 1993. As residents of Kiveton were well aware, this was not the first such spelling error, nor Kivetonwould it be the last. Indeed, British Railways made the same blunder in the late 1950s when workmen spent two whole days fitting two huge enamel signs reading – you guessed it – KIVERTON BRIDGE.

24 Society

Kiveton Park Colliery looking westwards, c. 1915, in the directionHistory of where Kiveton Bridge Station would eventually be sited. The Colliery is clearly visible, as is the Kiveton Park Colliery signal box. (Photograph courtesy of Betty Quinton)

Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

A magnificent portrait that requires no descriptive text, suffice to add the rider, that with the exception of the platforms, colliery offices and pithead baths, nothing else on this evocative picture remains in 2007. For the railway enthusiasts the locomotive is B1 61212. September 10th 1964. (Photograph courtesy of A. Smalley) 25

Society

Darnall B1 61315 is about to pass beneath Hard Lane BridgeHistory as it propels an engineers inspection train towards Kiveton. The date is June 28th 1962 and the locomotive was destined to be the last operational B1 on British Railways, albeit as steam heating departmental engine No. 32. She was not withdrawn from nearby Barrow Hill M.P.D. until April 1968. Two survive in preservation. (Photograph courtesy of A. Smalley) Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

April 3rd 1971 and the gas lighting on Kiveton Bridge Station is not only extant but still operational. 26 Society

History

Immingham B1 61328 has just left Kiveton Bridge Station with a lengthy Sheffield Victoria bound passenger train. The Wales Cutting which the train has just entered was created by removing 400,000 cubic yards of material. In the distance towering over the village are the colliery spoil heaps. The date is June 1st, 1963. Copy (Photograph courtesy of A. Smalley) Wales Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

Retford based class W.D. No. 90131 trundles an Eastbound coal train through Wales Cutting on September 10th 1964. Steaming freely and apparently having made light work of the incline from Woodhouse Junction the grimy locomotive (this class were seldom anything other than grimy) was to survive six more months, being withdrawn in March, 1965. (Photograph courtesy of A. Smalley) 27 7 THE WALESWOOD CURVE AND WALESWOOD STATION

By 1888, traffic, particularly of the coal variety, had increased so significantly that bottlenecks were created in the local network and Woodhouse Junction and its adjacent freight yard was a prime example. Situated at the intersection of the Sheffield to Lincoln line and the Sheffield to Annesley (north of Nottingham)Society route with its access to the Midland Railway at Beighton, problems were greatly accentuated by some trains needing to reverse at Woodhouse. Traffic from the Lincoln direction needing to head south had to perform the time-consuming task of running into the goods yard and there moving the locomotiveHistory from the front to the rear of the train and vice versa with the brake van. A protracted event that took up roads in an already busy sidings and held up traffic on what was often a busy main line. And this was only 50% of the problem, for the situation was exactly the same for trains coming up from the south and needingWales to head Copyeast. Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

28 Looking ahead, plans were already in the pipeline to extend the Annesley line 135 miles south to reach the M.S. & L.’s ultimate goal, a terminus in London. Thus, sorting out the predicaments at such places as Woodhouse Junction needed to be done sooner rather than later. A solution was sought and eventually arrived at in the form of what came to be known as the Waleswood Curve. One and three quarter miles in length, it was a connecting line of double track running from a point alongside the roadbridge at Waleswood to link up with the Annesley line just north of Killamarsh station. The route had two engineering features of significance,Society a 66 yard stone-lined tunnel which conveyed the tracks beneath the hillside over which Delves Lane passed and a short viaduct which carried the railway over the River Rother. Laid on a falling gradient from Waleswood to just short of Killamarsh Junction the line opened to freight on July 17th 1893 and was passed forHistory passenger work in January 1894.

On September 4th 1884 the M.S. & L. board turned down a request from Skinner and Holford, owners of for a station Copyadjacent to the pit. The request came before the Board of the by-thenWales Great Central Railway on an almost annual basis. At long last the Worksop Guardian was able to announceProhibited on May 23rd 1905 that the G.C.R. would open aand station at Waleswood, unfortunately the article went on, ‘the plans have been lost’. Internet It was of couple of years later before the Retford Times of July 5th 1907 described the official openingPark of the station which took place four days earlier: ‘Flags flying, well equipped, commodious, excellent train service, the creation of the all timber station was due to the efforts of directors of the adjacent Waleswood Colliery.’ By this era, Wales was a rapidly growingReproduction village of 100 houses. Other literature stated that the station was opened due to public demand. The construction was carried out by Roper Kivetonand Sons of Sheffield for the modest sum of £2,447.

29 Society

History A former Great Central 04 locomotive heads an Eastbound train of coal empties over the Bedgreave Viaduct on the Waleswood Curve c. 1960. The site of the viaduct is now submerged beneath the lake in the centre of Rother Valley Country Park. Wales Copy Prohibited and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

A pre-World War One photograph of Waleswood Station which opened to passenger traffic on July 1st 1907. With the exception of the footbridge, lamp standards and chimney stacks almost everything else on the photo appears to be of timber construction. (Reproduced courtesy of the Great Central Railway Society) 30 Society

History A fine portrait of the Great Central Railway Station Staff at Waleswood circa 1910. For a small country station Waleswood appears to boast a pretty comprehensive work force, although numbers have probably been swelled by the addition of a shunter or two and the Signalman. Didn’t anyone ever say ‘cheese’ for the camera in those days? Built almost entirely of timber the station opened on July 1st 1907 and was closed on March 7th 1955. Copy (Photograph courtesy of Edmund Ashton) Wales Prohibited . and Internet Park

Reproduction Kiveton

B1 61212, affectionately known in this locality as the Retford Rocket, heads west through Waleswood Station with a Sheffield-bound parcels train. This photograph affords a fine view of Waleswood Colliery, which could hardly have been constructed much closer to the railway! The crossovers on the front right give access to the Waleswood Curve.

31 Fire destroyed the interior of the station booking hall on May 24th 1953 causing £2,000 worth of damage. The fire raged so fiercely that traffic was delayed for some time. Waleswood station closed to passengers on the 7th of March 1955, the writing on the wall having been there since the adjacent colliery ceased production in May 1948.

Society

History

Copy August 1954 and the K3 hauled 1.04pm NewWales Clee-Banbury-Whitland ‘fish’ approaches, Killamarsh Junction on the Waleswood Curve. Beyond the rear of the lengthy train the trackbed arcs round to the left on an embankment whereupon it passes through a short tunnel andProhibited a cutting, prior to reaching Waleswood Junction. (Photograph courtesy of D. M. Sutcliffe)and For 50 years the Waleswood Curve proved to be a valuable asset in reducing the need for trains to pass through the busyInternet bottleneck at Woodhouse Junction, but by the 1950s the gradual decline in rail traffic meant that its days were numbered. Scheduled passengerPark services ceased in July 1961 when the only remaining service using the Curve – the Saturdays only July 1st – August 26th, 7.36am Chesterfield Central to Skegness and the 1.47 return, were withdrawn. By now only the occasional freight traversed the curve,Reproduction although one particularly long-standing service survived almost to the end. This was the New Clee– Banbury ‘Whitland Fish’ – an express Kivetonvacuum-fitted freight which was always worked by one of Immingham sheds’ top locomotives and, for obvious reasons, was always given priority right of way. Standing on the stations at Kiveton and Waleswood one did not need to see inside its vans to know what the contents were: the lingering aroma that pervaded its wake left you in no doubt.

32 By the mid 1960s, the Waleswood Curve was seeing so little use that closure was now inevitable and the route was officially withdrawn on January 8th 1967 with the track being lifted in April of the following year. Carried out 100 hours of oral history interviewsSociety 8 EPILOGUE History By 2007, activity on the former Great Central line from Sheffield to Retford, Lincoln and beyond is rather thin on the ground. Freight traffic is infrequent and the once almost continuous cavalcade of grubby coal trains clankingCopy through Kiveton survives only in the memory. It has been replacedWales by an occasional merry-go-round working bringing imported coal from Immingham Docks, and othersProhibited transporting coal to West Burton and Cottam power stations. Passenger services consist almost entirely of the hourly Sheffield-Lincolnand trains but although the route is a shadow of its former self on the credit side the village retains two modern and well-patronised stations and long may they remain. Internet Park Alan Rowles November 2007

Reproduction Kiveton

33