Whittington railway station

The original Whittington station was opened by the Midland Railway in 1861 to serve Old Whittington.

The station was on the North Midland Railway's "Old Road" between Chesterfield and Rotherham Masborough. The line opened in 1840 and became very busy with coal and steel traffic with a number of new branches. In 1870 the Midland opened the "New Road" through Sheffield from Tapton Junction just north of Chesterfield, diverting passenger expresses away from the Old Road.

The line through Whittington remained busy with local passengers, particularly with the rapidly expanding industry. The original station was replaced with a station 1.5 miles (2 km) further north in 1873. This 1873 station was the final Whittington station in the area.

The buildings were constructed of timber, as was the signal box, with loops to each line. For a period around 1938 there was a wagon works nearby, with a small siding.

The last regular passenger trains called on 4 February 1952, though it was used for excursions and special trains until 1977.[2]

In 1922 passenger services calling at Whittington were at their most intensive, with trains serving four destinations via five overlapping routes:

• On Sundays only
  • stopping trains plied directly between Rotherham Masborough and Chesterfield (MR) via the Old Road.
• On Mondays to Saturdays three stopping services plied between Sheffield (MR) and Chesterfield
  • most ran direct down the "New Road" through Dronfield and went nowhere near Whittington.
• the other two services went the "long way round" via the "Old Road". They set off north eastwards from Sheffield (MR) towards Rotherham then swung east to go south along the Old Road
  • one of these continued north past Holmes, a short distance before Masboro' then swung hard right, next stop Treeton, then all stations, including Whittington, to Chesterfield,
  • the other continued past Attercliffe Road then swung right onto the Sheffield District Railway passing through or calling at West Tinsley and Catcliffe before Treeton, after which they called at all stations to Chesterfield.
• Also on Mondays to Saturdays two stopping services plied between Mansfield (MR) and Chesterfield via Barrow Hill
  • some ran via the circuitous Clowne Branch through Elmton and Creswell, Clown (MR) and Staveley Town
  • others ran via the equally circuitous Doe Lea Branch through Glapwell and Staveley Town. Some of these terminated at Barrow Hill, but others continued to Chesterfield, calling at Whittington.[3]

The line is now part of the current Midland Main Line. It is used predominantly for freight, with a handful of passenger trains going the "long way round" from Chesterfield to Sheffield via the Old Road and Darnall largely to retain staff route knowledge in case of diversions.[4]

• Whittington, Barrow Hill, Staveley Works, Staveley Central and Staveley Town on old OS map: via npemaps