Godfrey Holmes goes in search of Derbyshire railway stations that faced Beeching’s axe – and those that have risen from the ashes since.
RICHARD BEECHING was not kind to Derbyshire’s railways. Nor was he – or the Labour Government of 1964-1970 – kind to the railways and railway stations of adjoining areas: North Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, West Lincolnshire. So drastic was the surgery: 19,000 miles of passenger track and 7,000 stations cut back to 10,000 miles and 2,500 stations; that the whole East Midlands from Nottingham to Sheffield was left with only one staffed station, Chesterfield, and six unmanned ones: Duffield, Belper, Ambergate, Whatstandwell, Cromford and Matlock…