Mansfield Railway
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The Mansfield Railway was an eleven-mile railway line in
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
, England. It was built to serve collieries opening in the coalfield around
Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...
, and ran between junctions at
Clipstone Clipstone is a village in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England. The population of the civil parish was 3,469 at the 2001 United Kingdom census, 2001 census, increasing to 4,665 at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 c ...
and
Kirkby-in-Ashfield Kirkby-in-Ashfield is a market town in the Ashfield District of Nottinghamshire, England. With a population of 25,265 (according to the 2001 National Census), it is a part of the wider Mansfield Urban Area. Kirkby-in-Ashfield lies on the ea ...
on the
Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its Great Central Main Line, London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company ...
(GCR). It opened in 1916 and was worked by the . Passenger stations were opened on the line, although, at the date of opening, road bus competition was already dominant. The passenger service was withdrawn in 1956 and the line closed in stages as collieries ceased work, completely ending operation in 2003.


Prior railways

Railways had existed in the immediate area of Mansfield for many years. The first proper railway had been the
Mansfield and Pinxton Railway The Mansfield and Pinxton Railway was an early horse-drawn railway in the United Kingdom. It was completed in 1819, to make a transport link between Mansfield and the Cromford Canal at Pinxton. An important traffic was coal inward to Mansfield ...
of 1819, built for the purpose of conveying coal from Pinxton Basin on the
Cromford Canal The Cromford Canal ran from Cromford to the Erewash Canal in Derbyshire, England with a branch to Pinxton. Built by William Jessop with the assistance of Benjamin Outram, its alignment included four tunnels and 14 canal lock, locks. From Crom ...
. It was a horse-drawn edge railway.Vanags, John, ''The Mansfield and Pinxton Railway'', The Old Mansfield Society, Mansfield, 2001, , pages 17 and 23 The
Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...
established a presence in Mansfield in 1849.Anderson, P Howard, ''Forgotten Railways: volume 2: The East Midlands'', David St John Thomas, Newton Abbot, 1985, , page 206 The Midland company was widely believed to exploit its monopoly position in setting mineral traffic rates beyond what was reasonable, and considerable hostility developed on the part of coal-owners. The
Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway The Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway (LD&ECR) was built to connect coalfields in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire with Warrington and a new port on the Lincolnshire coast. It was a huge undertaking, and the company was unable to raise ...
(LD&ECR) obtained authorisation for a branch line to Mansfield, but the was perpetually in financial difficulty and abandoned the plan.Cupit, J, and Taylor, W, ''The Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway'', Oakwood Press, Abingdon, 1988, , pages 11 to 15 In 1907 it was absorbed by the Great Central RailwayCupit and Taylor, page 38 but attempts to persuade the and the
Great Northern Railway Great Northern Railway or Great Northern Railroad may refer to: Australia * Great Northern Railway (Queensland) in Australia * Great Northern Rail Services in Victoria, Australia *Central Australia Railway was known as the great Northern Railway ...
at different times to build a line to, or through Mansfield met with failure. In the early years of the twentieth century the coalfield was being developed and new pits with considerable promised output were being made ready. Local coal-owners decided the only course was to build a railway themselves.Anderson, Paul, and Cupit, Jack, ''An Illustrated History of Mansfield's Railways'', 2000, Irwell Press, , pages 63 to 70


Mansfield colliery

The Mansfield colliery ( Crown Farm) of the Bolsover Colliery Company was producing 1.2 million tons annually at the time of building of the line. Rufford colliery (at
Rainworth Rainworth is a village in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England. It is split between the local government districts of Newark and Sherwood and Mansfield.OS Explorer Map 270: Sherwood Forest: (1:25 000): To th ...
) was producing 750,000 tons.Francis, J, ''The Mansfield Railway'', in the Railway Magazine, September 1915


Mansfield Railway opening

The result was the promotion of the Mansfield Railway, led by the
Duke of Portland Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ...
, who owned considerable coal-bearing estates in the district. Parliament authorised the route in the ( 10 Edw. 7 & 1 Geo. 5. c. xli) on 26 July 1910: it was to run from a junction with the Great Central Railway at Clipstone to another junction with the same company at Kirkby in Ashfield.Dow, George, ''Great Central, volume 3: Fay Sets the Pace: 1900 - 1922'', Ian Allan, London: 1965, , page 236Grant, Donald J, ''Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain'', Matador Publishers, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, , page 361 The Great Central Railway agreed to work and maintain the line for 60% of gross receipts, on condition that it would have exclusive use of the line; this was ratified by an agreement of 28 October 1910. Construction began in 1911, between Mansfield Colliery and a junction with the at Clipstone. The first coal train left Mansfield for
Immingham Immingham is a town and civil parish in North East Lincolnshire, England, on the south-west bank of the Humber, Humber Estuary, northwest of Grimsby. It was relatively unpopulated until the early 1900s, when the Great Central Railway began de ...
on 6 June 1913, and regular mineral traffic began ten days later.Dow, page 239 The line was extended through Mansfield to a large goods depot constructed on the approach to Nottingham Road: the extension opened on 2 June 1914. A further act was obtained on 8 July 1914, authorising a west curve at Clipstone, as well as short branches to Clipstone and Rufford collieries. The Clipstone Colliery branch was opened on 13 June 1916, together with a half-mile spur to Clipstone Camp, an army depot. The Camp branch was built by the War Office; there was a platform for embarking troops, horses and stores. A passenger service operated between the camp and Mansfield.Anderson and Cupit, pages 64 and 65 The Clipstone Camp branch was taken over by the Great Central Railway on 17 December 1917; it shared part of the route of the line to Clipstone Colliery. The had begun operating the passenger service on 1 October 1917, but it was discontinued on 10 July 1920.Michael Quick, ''Railway Passenger Stations in England, Scotland and Wales: A Chronology'', the Railway and Canal Historical Society, Richmond, Surrey, fifth (electronic) edition, 2019, page 122 The remainder of the main line, from Mansfield to Kirkby South Junction, opened for goods on 4 September 1916. Clipstone west curve opened on 18 March 1918; a branch to Rufford Colliery, two miles in length, opened on 8 July 1918.Burgess, Neil, ''Nottinghamshire's Lost Railways'', Stenlake Publishing, Catrine, 2017, , page 39Kingscott, Geoffrey, ''Lost Railways of Nottinghamshire'', Countryside Books, Newbury, 2004, , page 129 to 131 The route of the line posed engineering difficulties, due to difficult ground conditions and also the necessity of building through the expanding built-up area of Mansfield.


In operation

Sidings at Clipstone were used to assemble coal trains for onward movement over the ; coal trains from collieries to that location formed a heavy traffic on the line. Through trains conveying fish from
Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town in Lincolnshire, England with a population of 86,138 (as of 2021). It is located near the mouth on the south bank of the Humber that flows to the North Sea. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes dir ...
and steel from
Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town in Lincolnshire, England, and the county's third most populous settlement after Lincoln, England, Lincoln and Grimsby, with a population of 81,286 in 2021. It is the administrative centre and largest settleme ...
were also prominent. The goods yard facilities at Mansfield were on a very large scale, occupying a broad swathe of land between Nottingham Road and Littleworth. Regular passenger services over the Mansfield Railway commenced seven months after the line had been completed: the first train from Nottingham to
Ollerton Ollerton is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ollerton and Boughton, in the Newark and Sherwood district, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England, on the edge of Sherwood Forest in the area known as the Dukeries. The p ...
via Mansfield ran on 2 April 1917. The area was already well provided with stations on the nearby Great Northern and Midland routes, and road bus competition was already making itself felt. There were three trains each way, and all of them made London Marylebone connections at Nottingham Victoria. Stations were built at Kirkby in Ashfield, Sutton in Ashfield and Mansfield Central, although the word Central never appeared on its nameboards.Dow, page 296


Grouping of the railways

In 1923 most of the main line railways of Great Britain were compulsorily reorganised into one or other of four new large companies, in a process known as the "grouping", mandated by the
Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an act of Parliament enacted by the British government, and was intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grou ...
. The Mansfield Railway was absorbed by the new
London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It ope ...
(LNER), and the Great Central Railway was a constituent of the . The neighbouring Midland Railway was a constituent of the new
London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...
(LMS).


New colliery lines

The development of the collieries in the district continued after 1923 and several new colliery connections were made. As the former Mansfield Railway (now ) and the former Midland Railway (now ) lines were close together here, but still in competitive ownership. Both companies wanted to make the connections, and collaborated in making some of them jointly as far as possible. Such a line was made to
Bilsthorpe Colliery Bilsthorpe Colliery was a colliery in north Nottinghamshire. From when work started in 1925 to the pits closure in 1997, 77 people died at the pit. History The pit began in July 1925 with two shafts. The mine was completed in 1928. On 1 March ...
in 1928. The got access to an area that was within the area of influence, and the may have benefitted far more from the construction. Mansfield had concentration sidings where coal wagons were formed into trains for the transit to Immingham and elsewhere; in 1927 they were considered to be overwhelmed and an additional reception road and fifteen new sidings were sanctioned, as well as new coaling and watering facilities.


Trains and depots

Mansfield Central had fourteen passenger trains a day to Nottingham Victoria, and twelve return, in 1939, with extra trains on Saturdays. A Leeds–Bournemouth express was also routed this way during the 1930s. In the autumn of 1955 there were eight northbound and seven southbound passenger trains over the Mansfield Railway, but they had become increasingly loss-making and the decision was taken to withdraw them, on 2 January 1956. Kirkby and Sutton goods yards were to close at the same time. Scheduled summer Saturday holiday trains continued until 8 September 1956, and seasonal excursions to east coast resorts continued for several years. Nevertheless Mansfield goods depot closed on 13 June 1966 and the line south of Crown Farm Colliery (two miles east of Mansfield) closed on 7 January 1968. Virtually all traces of the route through Mansfield were eradicated in the 1970s. Crown Farm Colliery closed in March 1988, and Bilsthorpe in March 1997. Clipstone Colliery closed in 2003.


Stations

Three stations were built on the line:
Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...
,
Sutton-in-Ashfield Sutton-in-Ashfield is a market town in Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of 36,404 in 2021. It is the largest town in the district of Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, Ashfield, four miles west of Mansfield, from the Derbyshire border and ...
and
Kirkby-in-Ashfield Kirkby-in-Ashfield is a market town in the Ashfield District of Nottinghamshire, England. With a population of 25,265 (according to the 2001 National Census), it is a part of the wider Mansfield Urban Area. Kirkby-in-Ashfield lies on the ea ...
. They all had "Central" added informally, to reduce confusion with neighbouring stations, though the word "Central" never appeared on station nameboards. A passenger service of three trains per day, calling at all stations between Nottingham Victoria and began on 2 April 1917. By 1939 this had expanded to 14 trains per day between Nottingham Victoria and Mansfield Central, with some going on to Ollerton. There was even a Sunday service of four trains per day. By the time passenger services were withdrawn on 2 January 1956 the service had been reduced to seven trains per day between Nottingham Victoria to Mansfield Central, four of which went on to . Stations reopened for Summer weekend excursion traffic to , , and for several more years.


After 1960

Long distance freight used the line into the 1960s, notably a Grimsby to Whitland express fish train. Coal traffic remained the mainstay. Mansfield Concentration Sidings ("Con", locally) handled and distributed countless wagons of coal to all parts over the years. The line South of Crown Farm Colliery, Mansfield closed on 7 January 1968. Mansfield Central Station and associated earthworks in Mansfield were removed in 1972. The last use of any part of the line appears to have been in 2003.Rail Chronology Website: East of Mansfiel

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References


Further reading

A significant study of the signalling on the line was published in three parts in 2011-12, in ''Forward'', the journal of the Great Central Railway Society. * * *{{cite journal , last=Booth , first=Chris , editor1-first=Bob , editor1-last=Gellatly , date=June 2012b , title=Signalling on the Mansfield Railway Part 3 , journal=Forward , volume=172 , publisher=Bob Gellatly for the Great Central Railway Society , location=North Anston, Sheffield , issn=0141-4488


External links


Detailed descriptions of colliery lines from "RAIL CHRONOLOGY: East of Mansfield"
Rail transport in Nottinghamshire Closed railway lines in the East Midlands