On Friday March 7th 2025 the enterprising, ambitious Churnet Valley Railway operated the first passenger-carrying train to the site of its new Leek (Churnet Valley) station: Our First Heritage Open Day – What A Huge Success! – Churnet Valley Railway.
(I wish the CHR had not hijacked the brand ‘Heritage Open Day’ which has been the brand of England’s annual celebration of the nation’s history and culture since 1994.)
Leek is a market town with a current population of twenty thousand, which until 1965 was an important rail crossroads created by the North Staffordshire Railway, the much-loved “Knotty”, linking the Staffordshire Moorlands with Stoke-on-Trent, Macclesfield and Uttoxeter, where main lines extended to London, Birmingham, Manchester and Derby.
The north-to-south route stretched from near Macclesfield to Uttoxeter on the line from Crewe to Derby, while the westerly route reached Leek from Stoke-on-Trent. A branch line eastwards from Leek Brook to Waterhouses formed an end-on junction with the 2ft 6in-gauge Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway, built to serve a dairy at Ecton though the terminus was further on at Hulme End. It opened in 1904 and closed thirty years later, shortly after the creamery at Ecton closed.
Services declined in stages between 1956 and 1970, except for a freight connection between the Oakamoor Sand Sidings and Stoke. Track was lifted but the trackbed remains on the ten-mile line westwards between Leek and Stoke and south from Oakamoor to Alton Towers and Denstone. The routes north from Leek to Macclesfield and south of Denstone to Uttoxeter have been blocked by redevelopment, including road improvements and the vast JCB factory at Rocester.
The site of the original Leek station is now a Morrisons supermarket.
The Churnet Valley Railway punches well above its weight. It grew out of earlier efforts to safeguard the railways around Leek from 1971 onwards, and from small beginnings focused on taking over the seven-mile route through the valley between Oakamoor and Leek Brook, which was accomplished when heritage train services began in 1996. The further mile to the site of the new Leek station was added in 2024.
The stations are interesting in their own right and a testament to the energy behind their restoration.
Leek Brook is only accessible by rail at present. It was the junction for the St Edward’s Hospital tramway, which ran three-quarters of a mile through the grounds of the Staffordshire County Mental Hospital, using 220-volt DC electric overhead. Passengers were conveyed in a second-hand London horse tram, but the main purpose of the tramway was supplying the hospital with coal. Passenger service didn’t last beyond the 1920s, but the coal traffic continued to the end of 1954.
Cheddleton station is the only original building remaining, and was famously saved in 1974 by a local businessman, Norman Hancock, parking his Jaguar on the level crossing to prevent its demolition. The station was subsequently listed Grade II and became the original base of the grandly-titled Cheshire and Staffordshire Railway Society which ultimately became the Churnet Valley Railway.
Consall station was opened in 1902 to serve the nearby village and the workers of the adjacent forge and lime kilns. The main building on the down platform is a reproduction, completed in 2002, after which the original 1902 shelter was reinstated on the restored up platform which abuts the Caldon Canal.
Kingsley & Froghall station is a convincing reproduction of the demolished original station. After passenger services were restored in 2001, the main building on the down platform was completed two years later, followed by the shelter on the opposite side which, like Consall, overhangs the canal.
Timetabled services run on Wednesdays and at weekends from March to October, with additional operations for special events on bank holidays and other occasions: Events Calendar – Churnet Valley Railway.
The on-train catering offers an impressive range of alternatives, from breakfast to curry night, and there is a tea-room at Kingsley & Froghall. Prices range from £15 for pie-and-mash to £80 for a murder-mystery experience: Steam Train Dining Experiences – Churnet Valley Railway.
This is a heritage railway that’s going places.