 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2018) |
Leek | |
|---|---|
| Station on heritage railway | |
| General information | |
| Location | Leek, Staffordshire, Staffordshire Moorlands England |
| Operated by | Churnet Valley Railway |
| Platforms | 1 |
Leek (Churnet Valley) railway station is the proposed and future terminus of the Churnet Valley Railway and is currently awaiting construction. It will be the second railway station in Leek. [1]
The original station opened in 1849 by the North Staffordshire Railway on the Churnet Valley Line which connected the towns of Uttoxeter, Leek and Macclesfield. Other lines that the original station connected to were both the Stoke-Leek line which connected Leek to the villages of Endon, Stockton Brook, Fenton Manor and Stoke-On-Trent and the Waterhouses branch line which connected Leek to the villages of Cauldon and Ipstones.
The lines to and through the station closed in stages with passenger services being the first to be withdrawn on the Waterhouses Branch in 1935, followed by the Stoke-Leek Line in 1956 and finally the Churnet Valley Line closed in stages with the section from Leek-North Rode closing in 1960 and the section from Leek-Uttoxeter closing in 1965.
Freight continued to North Rode until 1964 when the entire line closed from North Rode to Leek and Leek was closed to freight and through traffic in July 1970.
Freight from Stoke-on-Trent continued to serve the sand sidings at Oakamoor as well as the Waterhouses Branch to the quarries at Cauldon until 1988 when the lines were mothballed.
Plans were first mooted to re-open Leek as a heritage railway as far back as 1970 when services were first curtailed, but following the council's short notice demolition of Leek station and the threat to Cheddleton in 1973, these plans were shelved and efforts concentrated on Cheddleton. The remaining Churnet Valley Line from Oakamoor Sidings to Leek Brook Junction was mothballed in 1988, and taken over by the Churnet Valley Railway in 1996. It has always been stated that the long-term aim was to restore services to Leek eventually. [2]
First announced in 2015, an article on the news website StokeSentinel.co.uk. announced efforts by Moorlands & City Railways to reconnect Leek back to the mainline [3] [4] with the article quoted as saying:
Members of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council ruling cabinet last week authorised the submission of a planning application to re-instate the rail line from Leekbrook to Cornhill. Councillors also authorised the negotiation of an agreement to lease the track-bed, owned by the council, to Churnet Valley Railway Trust to enable the construction, operation and management of the line. The district council is also contributing £22,000 from the Moorlands Partnership Board towards preparation of a full planning application; £5,000 to the cost of reinstating Leekbrook Station, which is estimated to cost £25,000 and a further £4,000 towards the cost of repairs to Cheddleton Station, estimated to also be around £25,000. Speaking at the cabinet meeting, council leader, Sybil Ralphs, said: “This report seeks approval to bring forward the project. A lot of people still do not think it will happen. “We have got a very good working relationship with Churnet Valley Railway as it is a success story. It brings in thousands of people to the Staffordshire Moorlands"
In January 2014 Moorlands & City Railways, in collaboration with the Churnet Valley Railway, announced their plans to rebuild this missing section of about 1 mile (1.6 km) between Leekbrook Junction and Leek. [5] Because the former station in Leek is now the site of a Morrisons supermarket, a new station was proposed as outlined in the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council's Masterplan for developing tourism in the area. [6] [7] This includes the proposed redevelopment of the Cornhill area with a new canal marina and railway station planned.
With MCR's planned western extension to Stoke, this new station would have provided an interchange for CVR services, via the Stoke–Leek line, to the national network.
With regards to the actual extension, the project was set up under the title "Reconnect Leek" and the main items of this was:
Since then, CVR have taken on the Leek project themselves, and after much dialogue with the council received outline planning permission for their own proposal in May 2018. [8] They then launched their own project publicly on 1 February 2020. [9]
Currently, the only scheme that has been completed by both CVR and M&CRL is the partial reopening of the Waterhouses Branch Line which has reopened from Leek Brook to near the former site of Bradnop but both companies are still awaiting permission to purchase the site to reopen for heritage use. [10]
They hope to eventually reopen the line to Caldon Low and eventually Waterhouses station site to link the line with the popular Manifold Way.
There is also an aspiration to reopen the line from Leek Brook to Stoke-on-Trent but to also share the line as a heritage, commuter and freight line which would mean that Leek would get a commuter service, the CVR can run services to Stoke-on-Trent on certain dates and freight traffic can serve the quarries at Ipstones and Caldon Low once again. The CVR plan to run services to Endon on select dates and the hope is to reopen the stations at Wall Grange, Stockton Brook, Endon, Milton, Bucknall and Northwood and Fenton Manor to give Leek a mainline connection once again via Stoke and to also allow freight to utilize the line to the quarries at Cauldon.
There are also aspirations to reach Oakamoor and eventually Alton Towers as a shared heritage and visitor railway.
Any expansions to Denstone. Rocester, and Uttoxeter would be unlikely to happen unless a viable solution is found as the trackbed remains clear as far as the former Denstone platforms but the trackbed towards Rocester has been blocked by a house which sits on the other side of the former level crossing. The trackbed is still partially unblocked or built on until the former Rocester station site which is now occupied by the JCB and the trackbed towards Uttoxeter now forms both roads and has been built on or returned to agricultural use.
Any expansions towards Rudyard, Rushton Spencer and Macclesfield is impossible unless a viable solution is found due to the trackbed towards Rudyard being built on by both housing and road alignments.
Leek is a market town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet 10 miles (16 km) north east of Stoke-on-Trent. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1214.
Endon is a village within the Staffordshire Moorlands district of Staffordshire, England. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Leek and 6 miles (9.7 km) north-northeast of Stoke-on-Trent. Endon was formerly a township in civil parish of Leek.
The River Churnet is a river in Staffordshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Dove.
Staffordshire Moorlands is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council is based in Leek, the district's largest town. The district also contains the towns of Biddulph and Cheadle, along with a large rural area containing many villages. North-eastern parts of the district lie within the Peak District National Park.
Caldon Canal is a branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal which opened in 1779. It runs 18 miles (29 km) from Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, to Froghall, Staffordshire. The canal has 17 locks and the 76-yard (69 m) Froghall Tunnel.
The Uttoxeter Canal was a thirteen-mile extension of the Caldon Canal running from Froghall as far as Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, England. It was authorised in 1797, but did not open until 1811. With the exception of the first lock and basin at Froghall, it closed in 1849, in order that the Churnet Valley line of the North Staffordshire Railway could be constructed along its length. The railway has since been dismantled and there are plans to reinstate the canal.
The Churnet Valley Railway is a preserved standard gauge heritage railway in the Staffordshire Moorlands of Staffordshire, England. It operates on part of the former Churnet Valley Line which was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway. The railway is roughly 10.5 miles (16.9 km) long from Kingsley and Froghall to Ipstones. The land from Leek Brook Junction to Ipstones was opened by Moorland & City Railways (MCR) in 2010 after they took a lease out from Network Rail. This has subsequently been purchased by the Churnet Valley Railway. The main stations along the line are Kingsley and Froghall, Consall, Cheddleton and Leek Brook. Work has begun to extend the line to the town of Leek which will act as the northern terminus of the line. The line between Leek and Waterhouses has also been reopened as part of the heritage railway as far as Ipstones.
Leek Brook railway station is a passenger station in Staffordshire, Great Britain.
Froghall is a village situated approximately ten miles to the east of Stoke-on-Trent and two miles north of Cheadle in Staffordshire, England. Population details as taken at the 2011 Census can be found under Kingsley. Froghall sits in the Churnet Valley, a beautiful and relatively unspoilt part of Staffordshire. There are some excellent and challenging walks in the area, many of which encompass the area's historic development by the coal, ironstone, copper and limestone industries.
Oakamoor railway station is a closed railway station in the Churnet Valley, Staffordshire. The station was opened in 1849 as part of the Churnet Valley Line constructed by the North Staffordshire Railway. Serving the village of Oakamoor the station remained open until 1965 when all services were withdrawn, A little north of the station, freight traffic from Oakamoor Sand Sidings continued until 1988.
The Churnet Valley line was one of the three original routes planned and built by the North Staffordshire Railway. Authorised in 1846, the line opened in 1849 and ran from North Rode in Cheshire to Uttoxeter in East Staffordshire. The line was closed in several stages between 1964 and 1988 but part of the central section passed into the hands of a preservation society and today operates as the Churnet Valley Railway.
Leek railway station served the town of Leek, Staffordshire. It was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway in 1849. Passenger services to Uttoxeter were withdrawn in 1965, with complete closure following in 1970. For a short time in 1961–62, special football excursions were arranged to Stoke following the return of Stanley Matthews to Stoke City FC.
Waterhouses railway station was a railway station that served the village of Waterhouses, Staffordshire. It was opened jointly by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) and the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway (L&MVLR) in 1905 and closed in 1943.
The Stoke to Leek line is a mothballed railway route, which up until 1988 was used by BR freight trains to reach the quarries at both Cauldon Lowe and Oakamoor.
Ipstones railway station was a railway station that served the village of Ipstones, Staffordshire. It was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) in 1905 and closed to passenger use in 1935, but remained open to freight traffic until 1964.
Bradnop railway station was a railway station that served the village of Bradnop, Staffordshire. It was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) in 1905 and closed to passenger use in 1935, but remained open to freight traffic until 1964.
The Waterhouses branch line was a railway built by the North Staffordshire Railway to link the small villages east of Leek, Staffordshire with Leek, the biggest market town in the area. The railway opened in 1905 but closed to passengers in 1935. Freight continued on the line though until 1988, when the line was mothballed as the traffic from the quarries at Caldon Low ceased.
The Biddulph Valley line was a double tracked line that ran from Stoke-on-Trent to Brunswick Wharf in Congleton. The line was named after the town of the same name as it ran via the Staffordshire Moorlands and covered areas of East Staffordshire and Cheshire.