STATIONS ARE SPECIAL PLACES. For most of us, a draughty platform recaptures the excitement of a holiday just starting, the sadness of a farewell or the relief of a safe homecoming.
HOW LUCKY WE WERE to be in right at the start. George Stephenson’s North Midland Railway from Derby to Leeds and York was pioneering stuff when it opened on May 11, 1840. It connected with the new London and Birmingham and the Birmingham and Derby Junction lines. Coal powered the locomotives and, indeed, the Victorian world, so it was doubly fortunate that George struck rich seams when cutting the Clay Cross tunnel and set up a company to exploit the reserves, making his home at Tapton House where he consolidated the family fortunes and occupied his leisure hours in his greenhouse growing straight cucumbers…