The highly dedicated railways researcher Glyn Wait gave the history club an hour long trip along the above line at their April meeting. Glyn started out as a train-spotter as a young lad and has been researching through many archives and talking to elderly railway men ever since.
It appears that when the line was first proposed in 1846, the Duke of Rutland was opposed to it and the Duke of Devonshire was very much for it, even offering £50,000 towards its development. Very ironically, the proposed Rowsley, Chatsworth, Baslow and Calver route was rejected and eventually the Duke of Rutland settled for a cut and cover tunnel through his grounds. Slowly the engineers progressed northwards with the Longstone Station opening in 1863. Glyn showed several very old photographs of the viaducts under construction with wooden arches supporting the new masonry. Most strikingly the photos taken from Monsal Head show huge natural screes on the east side of the dale. Monsal Station opened in 1868 and he showed us a list of station masters from then until 1920.
To make a level yard at Millers Dale Station, they first had to quarry out by hand thousands of tons of the second hardest rock in Britain – Derbyshire limestone. Much later the station was to become one of the most important in the county, having several platforms and even a subway. It was also the last in the country to have its own post box. Slowly the line was driven along the Wye Valley towards Buxton overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles, much to the fury of the art connoisseur John Ruskin.
This being the largest block of the purest limestone in the world, big lime-burning enterprises sprang up alongside the railway giving their names to sites such as the Oldham Lime Company Sidings and the Newton Chamber’s signal box at Topley Pike. Also, next to the line are the Blackwell Mill Cottages and we were shown a list of the railway servants who lived there over the years. The local joke was that Blackwell Halt was “the largest station in the country” when in fact it was only a shed and two ramps! The line has quite a steep gradient and a second “banking” engine was required – mostly to prevent the wagon couplings from snapping. Wagon brakes were quite primitive at this time with only a manual lever at one side. Sadly this arrangement led to several fatalities.
The work was not over, even after the line opened, because the masons then had the job of lining the tunnels with brickwork even whilst there were steam trains running through! Today we can admire these amazing tunnels and the viaducts over the river from the outstanding Monsal Trail.
Thanks Glyn for a very informative talk, which also brings us to the end of our lectures for this season. Please put a note in your diary for November 12 when Julia, our intrepid speaker- finder, will have another calendar of delights for us. Thanks very much Julia.
Brian Woodall