Rotherham Masborough railway station
Encyclopedia
Rotherham
Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...
, South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
from the 1840s, until most of its trains were rerouted via Rotherham Central
Rotherham Central railway station
Rotherham Central railway station is in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. The station was originally named "Rotherham", becoming "Rotherham and Masborough" in January 1889 and finally "Rotherham Central" on 25 September 1950...
in 1987. It had four platform
Railway platform
A railway platform is a section of pathway, alongside rail tracks at a train station, metro station or tram stop, at which passengers may board or alight from trains or trams. Almost all stations for rail transport have some form of platforms, with larger stations having multiple platforms...
s, with a large sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
station building on the eastern Platform Four, large iron and glass platform canopies
Canopy (building)
A canopy is an overhead roof or else a structure over which a fabric or metal covering is attached, able to provide shade or shelter. A canopy can also be a tent, generally without a floor....
, a fully enclosed footbridge
Footbridge
A footbridge or pedestrian bridge is a bridge designed for pedestrians and in some cases cyclists, animal traffic and horse riders, rather than vehicular traffic. Footbridges complement the landscape and can be used decoratively to visually link two distinct areas or to signal a transaction...
and wooden waiting room
Waiting room
A waiting room is a building, or more commonly a part of a building where people sit or stand until the event they are waiting for occurs.There are generally two types of waiting room. One is where individuals leave one at a time, for instance at a doctor's office or a hospital, or outside a school...
s on the other platforms. It closed in 1988, except for a few football specials.
The station, designed by Francis Thompson
Francis Thompson (architect)
Francis Thompson was an architect particularly well known for his railway work.He was born in 1808 in Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, to a family of builders. He married Anna Maria Watson in 1830 at Woodbridge church and emigrated to Montreal in British North America . Their son Francis Jacob...
, was originally opened by the North Midland Railway
North Midland Railway
The North Midland Railway was a British railway company, which opened its line from Derby to Rotherham and Leeds in 1840.At Derby it connected with the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what became known as the Tri Junct Station...
between Derby's Tri Junct Station and Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, known then as, simply, 'Masbrough', without the 'o', since Rotherham had not yet grown to surround the village. The station was renamed 'Masbrough & Rotherham' in 1896, 'Rotherham Masborough' in 1908 and it became simply 'Rotherham' in 1969.
The line was the first main link between Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, via Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
or Rugby
Rugby, Warwickshire
Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, located on the River Avon. The town has a population of 61,988 making it the second largest town in the county...
. In time, it became part of the main line to London St Pancras and the South West. Initially, it avoided a route through the region's main settlement of Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
by routing down the Rother Valley
River Rother, South Yorkshire
The River Rother is a river in the northern midlands of England, after which the town of Rotherham and the Rother Valley parliamentary constituency are named. It rises near Clay Cross in Derbyshire, and flows through the centre of Chesterfield, where it feeds the Chesterfield Canal...
, due to difficult terrain on the prospective route south of Sheffield. At Masborough the line passed over the Sheffield & Rotherham Railway's Sheffield Wicker
Sheffield Wicker Station
Wicker railway station was the first railway station to be built in Sheffield, England. It was to the north of the city centre, at the northern end of the Wicker, in the fork formed by Spital Hill and Savile Street...
to Rotherham Westgate Station
Rotherham Westgate Station
Rotherham Westgate railway station was the eastern terminus of the five-mile-long Sheffield and Rotherham Railway, the first passenger-carrying railway in the Sheffield/Rotherham area...
line and a large triangle junction was built allowing trains from the north and North Midland trains to travel into Sheffield from the north-east along the Don Valley. Immediately to the north of this junction stood Rotherham Masborough station.
In the 1870, Sheffield was finally linked with Chesterfield
Chesterfield railway station
Entrance to the station is on Crow Lane and includes a car park, taxi rank and bus stop. There is also a small car park on the other side of Crow Lane which does not have a parking charge. The main entrance leads to the station concourse, which is very spacious and was built in the late 1990s. It...
, allowing Midland Main Line
Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line is a major railway route in the United Kingdom, part of the British railway system.The present-day line links London St...
trains to call at the newly opened Sheffield railway station on their way north, passing back on to North Midland metals via the Sheffield & Rotherham.
As late as the 1940s some long distance passenger trains still used the original Chesterfield - Rotherham old road, avoiding Sheffield and calling at Rotherham. Other ex-London expresses
Express train
Express trains are a form of rail service. Express trains make only a small number of stops, instead of stopping at every single station...
would slip a coach at Rotherham until this practice was discontinued nationally from the 1930s onwards. The corresponding up working would involve the coaches being worked to Sheffield by a local train and the attached to a London express there. Up until the 1980s the odd London-Leeds express train would call at Masborough.
During the 1960s rationalisation of railways, Rotherham Masborough became Rotherham's only station and eventually lost its "Masborough" suffix.
Short-sighted track and signalling rationalisation in the late 1970s meant that platforms 3 and 4 could not be used by Sheffield-bound trains without reversing which made them effectively useless and removed much operational flexibility on the line as express trains could no longer easily pass/overtake local trains at Rotherham.
By the 1980s railways in South Yorkshire were in a sorry state having lost most of their passengers. Rotherham in particular suffered from its remaining station being, at the time, just under half-a-mile from the town centre. As a result, a link was built from the former Sheffield & Rotherham Line at Holmes to the Great Central Railway
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...
line, allowing local trains to use a re-opened Rotherham Central
Rotherham Central railway station
Rotherham Central railway station is in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. The station was originally named "Rotherham", becoming "Rotherham and Masborough" in January 1889 and finally "Rotherham Central" on 25 September 1950...
station, at the same time recreating the flexibility for expresses to pass local trains that had been removed a few years earlier. Rotherham Masborough regained its suffix in the timetables (although the station signboards were not modified) and soldiered on for a few years with Sheffield-York trains
Dearne Valley Line
The Dearne Valley Line is the name given to a railway line in the north of England running from York to Sheffield via Pontefract Baghill and Moorthorpe.-History:...
stopping until eventual closure on 3 October 1988. Most of the station buildings, awnings and footbridge were demolished in the early 1990s but the platforms still remain, and the line through the station is still used by express and freight services. The main station building on the east side has been converted into an Indian restaurant.