Sandon railway station was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

opened by the

North Staffordshire Railway The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a Great Britain, British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shro ...

to serve the village of

Sandon, Staffordshire Sandon is a village in the civil parish of Sandon and Burston, in the Borough of Stafford, Stafford district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is about northeast of Stafford. The village is in the River Trent, Trent Valley on the A5 ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. For some time it was called Sandon and Salt to avoid confusion with

Salt and Sandon railway station 'Saltand Sandon railway station was a former British railway station opened by the Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway to serve the village of Salt in Staffordshire in 1867.Jones P (1981) ''The Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway,'' Salisbury: The Oakwood ...

opened by the

Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway The Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway was authorised by an act of Parliament on 29 July 1862,Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, ISBN 978 1785893 537, pages 532 and 533 to build a ...

in 1867. Although in a country area and in some distance from the village it served, the station building was in an ornate Jacobean style with ornate gable ends and, on the entrance side, a substantial ''

Porte-cochère A porte-cochère (; ; ; ) is a doorway to a building or courtyard, "often very grand," through which vehicles can enter from the street or a covered porch-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which originally a ...

''. This was for the convenience of

Dudley Ryder, 2nd Earl of Harrowby Dudley Ryder, 2nd Earl of Harrowby (19 May 179819 November 1882), styled Viscount Sandon between 1809 and 1847, was a British politician. He held office under Lord Palmerston as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1855 and as Lord Privy Se ...

, who was about to have a new

Jacobethan The Jacobethan ( ) architectural style, also known as Jacobean Revival, is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the Engli ...

country house built in nearby Sandon Park. There was a decorated timber awning and, on the opposite platform, a small but similarly elegant waiting-room. The platforms and station buildings were built on the down, Stoke, side of the bridge of the present B5066 road, and at the other end was a long siding accessed from both running lines by trailing crossovers, with a short spur back to the station. To simplify shunting, authority had been given by the company managers to use a tow rope which was kept beneath the signal box. Further along the line was a private siding belonging to the Earl to service his gasworks which was also controlled by Sandon box. It was a busy main line but few trains called at the station. Under the

1923 grouping 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 ...

it became part of the

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 LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

. By 1938 there were only two trains on weekdays and four on Saturdays. The LMS closed the station to passengers on 6 January 1947 and

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways closed it to goods on 5 September 1955. The station buildings gradually deteriorated until the Sandon Estate bought them in 1970. They were renovated in 1985 and are now a private home. The line is still open as a diversion of the

Trent Valley Line The Trent Valley line is a railway line between Rugby and Stafford in England, forming part of the West Coast Main Line. The line is long and is named after the River Trent which it follows. It was built to provide a direct route from London ...

between Rugeley Trent Valley via Colwich Junction and

Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

See also

References

Further reading