Langwith railway station

This station is not to be confused with Langwith-Whaley Thorns which is about half a mile to the north on the same line.

Nor is it to be confused with Shirebrook North which was a good mile away in Langwith Junction on a different line altogether. The site in "External Links", below, contains wonderful photos of Langwith, but nevertheless confuses matters by using the heading "Langwith Junction."

The best way to get a handle on the Langwiths is to realise that Langwith is not a place, but an area which includes several settlements, notably Langwith Bassett, Upper Langwith, Nether Langwith, Langwith Maltings and Langwith Junction. The first three are long-established and predominantly rural. Langwith Junction is a product of the railway age which adapted the local naming convention, Langwith Maltings is not a formally defined community, but sees itself as a distinct entity. Whaley Thorns was a product of the coal age, but only locals know where Nether Langwith ends and Whaley Thorns begins.

The station was built by the Midland Railway on its Nottingham Midland to Worksop line. The station was designed by the Midland Railway company architect John Holloway Sanders.[2] The line and station were closed to passengers in 1964. The line was reopened in 1998 as the Robin Hood Line but the station was not reopened, the community being better served by a wholly new structure half a mile to the North, called Langwith-Whaley Thorns. In Henry Priestley's wonderfully evocative 1962 photograph of Langwith station[3] the colliery winding gear visible in the distance marks the approximate site of Langwith-Whaley Thorns station.

Midland Railway
Clowne and Doe Lea branches
Key open ex-Midland Railway Lines Clowne Branch Doe Lea Branch other closed Midland Railway Lines ex-London and North Eastern Railway Lines
Context
Great Central Main Line to Sheffield Victoria Midland Rly "Old Road" to Rotherham Masborough Robin Hood Line to Worksop Staveley Town Whitwell Staveley Central Seymour Junction Barrow Hill Clowne and Barlborough Whittington Creswell Junction Midland Main Line to Sheffield Creswell Chesterfield Midland Main Line to Derby Langwith Whaley Thorns Bolsover Castle Doe Lea Viaduct Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway Palterton and Sutton Glapwell Langwith Rowthorn Tunnel Rowthorn and Hardwick Shirebrook Pleasley West to Teversall Manor Mansfield Woodhouse Mansfield Robin Hood Line to Nottingham (MR)
Detail
Lanc's, Derbyshire & East Coast Rly to Spinkhill Robin Hood Line to Worksop Barlborough Colliery Southgate Colliery Clowne and Barlborough Whitwell Clowne South Creswell Junction Great Central Main Line to Sheffield Victoria Elmton & Creswell Hartington Colliery Creswell and Welbeck to Barrow Hill Lanc's, Derbyshire & East Coast Rly to Shirebrook North Bell House Sidings Staveley Central Oxcroft Colliery Staveley Town Seymour Colliery Ireland Colliery Seymour Junction Markham Colliery/Vale Coalite Chemical Bolsover Colliery Bolsover Castle Doe Lea Viaduct (Lanc's, Derbyshire & East Coast Rly) Bolsover South (LD&ECR) to Shirebrook North Byron Bricks Palterton and Sutton Ramcroft Colliery Glapwell Colliery Great Northern Railway to Shirebrook North Glapwell Pleasley West Pleasley East Rowthorn Tunnel Pleasley Colliery Rowthorn and Hardwick Mansfield Woodhouse to Teversall Manor Mansfield Great Northern Railway to Nottingham Victoria Robin Hood Line to Nottingham (MR)

The station was opened with some bunting, flags and ceremony on 1 June 1875. It initially provided a service of six trains each way, three between Mansfield and Worksop and three between Mansfield and Sheffield Victoria.[4]

The line was and remains double track. The station had two opposite platforms and a stone station building[5][6] very similar to those at Shirebrook West,[7][8][9] Elmton & Creswell[10][11][12] and Whitwell. The original Whitwell station has been dismantled and meticulously rebuilt at the Midland Railway Centre, the new Robin Hood line Whitwell station is a new building on the original site.

The last day of service was 10 October 1964, closure having been delayed for a week to serve the annual Nottingham Goose Fair. The station was demolished in 1978.[13]

• Anderson, Paul; Cupit, Jack (2000). An Illustrated History of Mansfield's Railways. Clophill: Irwell Press. ISBN 1-903266-15-7.
• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
• Garratt, Colin; Priestley, Henry (1996). Great Railway Photographers - Henry Priestley. Newton Harcourt, Leicestershire: Milepost 92.5. ISBN 1 900193 50 7.
• Hurst, Geoffrey (1987). The Midland Railway Around Nottinghamshire, Volume 1. Worksop: Milepost Publications. ISBN 0-947796-05-3.
• Kaye, A.R. (1988). North Midland and Peak District Railways in the Steam Age, Volume 2. Chesterfield: Lowlander Publications. ISBN 0 946930 09 0.
• Lund, Brian (1997) [1995]. Derbyshire Railway Stations on old picture postcards. Keyworth, Nottingham: Reflections of a Bygone Age. ISBN 0 946245 86 X.
• Lund, Brian (1999) [1991]. Nottinghamshire Railway Stations on old picture postcards. Keyworth, Nottingham: Reflections of a Bygone Age. ISBN 0 946245 36 3.

• Howard Anderson, P. (1973). Forgotten Railways: The East Midlands. Newton Abbott: David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 6094 9.
• Midland Railway System Maps (The Distance Diagrams), volume 2 - Leeds to Leicester and branches; Derby to Manchester and branches; Cheshire Lines (1909-1923 ed.). Teignmouth: Peter Kay. 1998. ISBN 1-899890-17-3.

• The station on an Edwardian 6" OS map, via National Library of Scotland
• The station on a navigable 1947 OS Map, via npe Maps
• The station, line and mileages, via Railway Mileages