Leek (Churnet Valley) railway station
| Leek | |
|---|---|
.jpg) The proposed site of the new Leek station | |
| Location | |
| Place | Leek, Staffordshire |
| Area | Staffordshire Moorlands |
| Operations | |
| Operated by | Churnet Valley Railway |
| Platforms | 1 |
| Stations on heritage railways in the United Kingdom | |
| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | |
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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]
History
Original station
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.
Closure
The lines to and through the station closed in stages with passenger services being the first to be withdrawn on the Waterhouses Branch in 1935, followed by the Stoke-Leek Line in 1956 and finally the Churnet Valley Line closed in stages with the section from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 1962 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 the 1988 when the lines were mothballed.
Preservation and reopening of the Churnet Valley Line
The line from Oakamoor Sidings to Leek Brook were closed in the late 1980s and as a result. The line was mothballed until they were later reopened as a part of the Churnet Valley heritage railway in 1980s although this has so far being only extended to as far as Kingsley and Froghall which reopened in 2001.
Reconnect Leek Project
First announced in 2015, According to the news website, StokeSentinel.co.uk. An article entitled "Reconnect Leek" mentioned about a decision to reconnect Leek back to the mainline[2][3] and the website was 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"
This was later backed by both the Churnet Valley Railway and Moorlands and City Railways Ltd who stated their full commitment to reaching Leek and connecting it to the heritage railway at Cheddleton.
Proposed and completed extensions
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.[4]
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 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 is 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.