The Rowsley Association

By Glynn Waite.
Published by Pynot Publishing

ISBN 978-0-956706-3-4 : softback £4.50 (plus 75p postage)

24 pages (including covers); 60 illustrations. Includes 7 pages of reminiscences, etc. similar to those contained in the Rowsley Railway Miscellany publications.

By Glynn Waite.
Published by Pynot Publishing

ISBN 978-0-9562706-0-3 : softback £11.95 (plus £1.35 postage)

Glynn Waite was born at Cromford in 1943. Over the years he has researched the history of railway operations in the area – and the Midland Railway in general – in considerable detail. Glynn had made contributions to many railway publications and was the editor of the Midland Railway Society's Journal from 1996 to 2006. In recent times he has written a number of publications about Rowsley and in 2007 the well-researched work Charles Burling : Railway Signalman of Cromford.

Glynn is a member of the Arkwright Society’s Steering Committee that has been overseeing the renovation of the Downside building at Cromford Station. All profits from the book’s sale will be donated to that project.

Copies of the book may be obtained from the author - Glynn Waite, 113 Green Oak Road, Totley, Sheffield. S17 4FS.
Email Glynn.Waite@btinternet.com

The following review by Professor George Huxley appeared in the Midland Railway Society’s Newsletter in September 2009:

Cromford station lies upon the route of the Midland main line – now, alas, sundered – linking Derby with Manchester by way of Ambergate and Chinley. The extant station buildings have architectural merit, and, thanks to the efforts of a private owner and of the Arkwright Society, they are now in a happier state of repair. The structures are the imposing Station Master's house, the upside waiting room, and the 'new' down side station building of about 1875. There is also a handsome footbridge.

In Glynn Waite Cromford station has found a befitting chronicler. Not only is he a railwayman by profession and an accomplished historian of railways; he is also a Cromford man. This handsome publication is worthy of his careful researches. Mr Waite has contrived to include much instructive detail in the story he tells. There are clear plans and maps and some finely evocative illustrations. A few examples will indicate that his is a significant contribution to the local history of the Derwent Valley.

The original line from Amber Gate (thus spelled) to Rowsley was the work of the grandly named Manchester, Buxton, Matlock, and Midland Junction Railway. The provisional directors included both George Hudson and Joseph Paxton. The Midland's determination to reach Manchester is emphasized, and the potential threat from the L&NWR owing to joint ownership of the MBM&MJR is explained. The Midland's strategy even allowed for the construction of a new line northwards from Wirksworth to near Rowsley on an alignment to the west of Matlock Bath. There are excellent discussions of train times up to the present and of fares and passenger numbers reflecting the vicissitudes of the British economy. Signalling is not neglected - there is, for example, an account of working hours at Cromford Sidings' box. Attention is drawn, in an appendix, to accidents during the making of Willersley Tunnel. Other hazards such as landslips are recorded. We learn incidentally about a monster potato grown in 1908 by the Cromford Station Master and are alerted to the determination of both the Midland and the LMS to promote excursion traffic. Mr Waite, indeed, is constantly aware of social history. He also records evidence of administrative barbarism; in BR times a canopy was removed from the front of the main station building though the structure had been listed (p.56). Losses of Cromford railwaymen who went to war in 1914 to 1918 are respectfully recorded. There are delightful photographs of trains passing Cromford, some hauled by Compound 4-4-0s; this aged reviewer admires most of all the picture of a 3F 0-6-0 with a Down pickup goods passing the two upper-quadrant Distant signal arms sharing a post at the south end of the Down platform; it brought back happy memories of the LMS before 1939.

Members of the Society will find joy in this superb work. Warmly commended.

The following review by Julie Bunting was published originally in The Peak Advertiser of 10th August 2009:

One does not have to be a railway buff to recognise that Cromford station is a true gem - in 1970 the setting provided memorable opening scenes for the film The Virgin and the Gypsy, based on the novel by D.H. Lawrence.

Fortunately, this photogenic station with its unique Grade 2 listed buildings has good friends, including a private owner and The Arkwright Society, whose ongoing Station Project will benefit from all profits from this new publication by the highly regarded railway historian, Glynn Waite.

The story involves endless aspects of local life and the changes seen since Cromford station was opened 160 years ago by the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock & Midland Junction Railway. This was an era of fierce competitiveness between railway companies, giving rise to various plans for a line along the Wye Valley to Buxton via Rowsley and Bakewell. In 1869, the Midland Railway proposed a railway from Wirksworth to Rowsley, running some distance west of Cromford station, but this became unncessary when two years later the Midland became sole owner of the existing line, enabling them to achieve the Buxton goal.

Day excursionists (Matlock Bath was the next station down the line) and merchandise from John Smedley's mill at Lea Bridge were to contribute to the financial success of Cromford station. In 1872 – when the Midland 'startled its competitors by allowing 3rd Class penny-a-mile passengers on all its trains' – over 24,000 passengers were booked in, not to mention £226 from 'Parcels, Horses, Dogs, etc.' Passengers peaked at 35,960 In 1901 and passenger traffic eventually survived the 'Beeching Axe' in modern times.

Cromford Station - A History is generously illustrated with photographs, tickets, timetables and fascinating local news cuttings. Written by Glynn Waite and published by Pynot Publishing priced £11.95, the book is in stock or available to order through local outlets.

By Glynn Waite.
Published by Pynot Publishing

ISBN 978-0-9552251-4-7 : softback £9.99 (plus £1.25 postage)

Glynn Waite was born at Cromford in 1943. Over the years he has researched the history of railway operations in the area – and the Midland Railway in general – in considerable detail. Glynn had made contributions to many railway publications. He was the co-author of Rowsley : A Rural Railway Centre, the editor of Rowsley Railway Miscellany (see below) and the editor of the Midland Railway Society's Journal from 1996 to 2006.

Copies of the book may be obtained from the author - Glynn Waite, 113 Green Oak Road, Totley, Sheffield. S17 4FS.
Email Glynn.Waite@btinternet.com

The following review is by Dave Harris, Secretary of the Midland Railway Society and co-ordinator of the Midland Railway Study Centre at Derby.

Many railwaymen keep diaries, usually to enable them to check that their pay packet is correct. Many, especially relief signalmen, go further, using a diary or notebook to record their work, often in quite intricate detail. What makes Charles Burling’s notebooks special - quite apart from their survival as a kind of family heirloom - is that Charles’ son Frank was the Godfather of a certain Glynn Waite.

Unfortunately for all concerned, it was only after Frank’s death that Glynn learned that his father was a signalman on the Midland Railway. Had the opportunity arisen for Glynn to talk to Frank about his father’s life as a railwayman, this would have been an entirely different publication.

As it is, it’s a shining example of extensive and meticulous research - with a bit of detective work thrown in. Rather than simply reproduce Charles’ notebooks in facsimile, Glynn has chosen to analyse every detail they contain and present the reader with a context to the entries. Drawing on his own extensive knowledge of the railway on which Charles worked, as well as the collections of several libraries and institutions, Glynn has created a wide-ranging glimpse into the life of a railwayman in the early part of the Twentieth Century.

Charles Burling started his railway career at the turn of the century, and though his first posting was Wombwell near Barnsley, he very soon began his long association with the Cromford area of Derbyshire. This was the rural mainline railway at its most typical and, with Glynn’s help, his notebooks paint a vivid picture of a way of life that we can only wonder at.

The notebooks record what was happening around him, from mundane personal details to wider world events. In a time and place where there were few strangers, the lives (and, sadly, deaths) of many people are chronicled. Of course the Great War was to change everything, and the notebooks reflect how even in the Derwent Valley, so far from the trenches, life was affected.

Meanwhile, Charles was a union man, and so it is inevitable that his notebooks refer to the issues facing railwaymen of the period. Again, Glynn has worked hard to provide the reader with the background to Charles’ entries - along the way providing an explanation of the signlabox classification system and how this developed.

As far as the intricacies of his job as a signalman are concerned, the notebooks record only the few out-of-course happenings such as carriage doors being observed un-latched or signal lamps out. Recognising a need to redress the balance for the reader, Glynn has put together a wealth of detail concerning the operation of the signal box at Cromford Sidings and the passing trains Charles would have looked after.

Reflecting the almost scatter-shot nature of the subject matter within the notebooks, Glynn has separated the detail relating to Charles’s career from events on the wider railway around him, placing them in separate sections. Making use of no less than 19 appendices, which provide background detail on incidents mentioned only in passing in the notebooks, he has managed to squeeze an inordinate amount of information into the 69 pages. Employing an A4 format with soft covers that will be familiar to members of the Midland Railway Society, the book is copiously illustrated with little or no redundant space.

This is a publication that will appeal to anyone with an interest in social history, whether specific to the Derbyshire area, the Midland Railway and its men, or even the wider subject of the embryonic union movement.

Compiled and edited by Glynn Waite.
Published by Pynot Publishing

ISBN 978-0-9552251-1-6 : softback £7.50 (plus £1 postage)

Glynn Waite was the last Chief Clerk at Rowsley Shed. He has researched the history of railway operations at Rowsley - and the Midland Railway in general - in considerable detail. Glynn was the co-author of 'Rowsley : A Rural Railway Centre' and has written / edited all of the Rowsley Association publications. He was the editor of the Midland Railway Society's Journal from 1996 to 2006.

Copies of the book may be obtained from the author for £8.50 including postage - Glynn Waite, 113 Green Oak Road, Totley, Sheffield. S17 4FS.
Email Glynn.Waite@btinternet.com

Compiled and edited by Glynn Waite.
Published by Pynot Publishing

ISBN 978-0-9552251-9-2 : softback £7.95 (plus £1 postage)

Glynn Waite was the last Chief Clerk at Rowsley Shed. He has researched the history of railway operations at Rowsley - and the Midland Railway in general - in considerable detail. Glynn was the co-author of 'Rowsley : A Rural Railway Centre' and has written / edited all of the Rowsley Association publications. He was the editor of the Midland Railway Society's Journal from 1996 to 2006.

Copies of the book may be obtained from the author for £8.95 including postage - Glynn Waite, 113 Green Oak Road, Totley, Sheffield. S17 4FS.
Email Glynn.Waite@btinternet.com

by Glynn Waite and Laurence Knighton.

ISBN 0-9537486-2-6 : softback £6.50: hardback £8.50 (post free!)

Glynn Waite and Laurence Knighton are respectively Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Midland Railway Society. They were both born locally and have studied the development of railways in the Rowsley area over many years - in fact, Glynn was the Chief Clerk at the engine shed when it closed in 1966. They have used material from their extensive archives to produce this 128-page detailed history of railways in the Rowsley and Darley Dale area from their origins in the 1840s to the present day. The book contains 250 illustrations, many of which have not been previously published. Details of staff, train services and other features that do not fit easily into a chronological account of the area, are contained in 23 appendices. One of these deals with special trains and special passengers, which were regular features 100 years ago when Royal Trains brought King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra to Rowsley en route to Chatsworth for the famous house parties.

That, however, was the 'glamour' side of Rowsley, for until the mid-60s there was also a large engine shed and marshalling yard. The book tells how the rural peace was disturbed by the coming of the railway in 1849 and how, from the 1870s, it became by far the biggest employer in the area. At its peak just after the Second World War there were approximately 550 staff based at Rowsley. It also shows how quickly this dedicated workforce was disbanded and the railway closed down. In recent years part of the line has re-opened and there are plans for extensions. But one thing is certain - we will never again see the concentration of activities and labour that were so common on the railways of yesteryear, and which are described in some detail in the book.

Copies of the book can be obtained from the authors post free - Glynn Waite, 113 Green Oak Road, Totley, Sheffield. S17 4FS. Email Glynn.Waite@btinternet.com

The following review is by Julie Bunting, and was published originally in The Peak Advertiser.

ROWSLEY - A RURAL RAILWAY CENTRE
by Glynn Waite and Laurence Knighton

Describing themselves as career railwaymen, Glynn Waite and Laurence Knighton are, respectively, Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Midland Railway Society, publishers of this highly informative book. Both authors have also contributed to the Rowsley Association's magnificent collection of railway photographs, used liberally in Rowsley - A Rural Railway Centre , a book dedicated to 'the railwaymen and railwaywomen of Rowsley who created a spirit that refuses to die'.

At its commercial peak, just after the Second World War, 550 railway staff were employed at Rowsley and many readers will remember the once bustling depot which closed in the 1960s. It is impossible to separate the history of Rowsley from the railway and, remarkably, around 130 people still get together for an annual commemorative reunion.

It was the great George Stephenson who 160 years ago surveyed a route on behalf of the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock & Midlands Junction Railway. Running south of Buxton it was to join the Midland Railway at Ambergate via 'the Valleys of the Wye and Derwent to or near Ashford, Bakewell, Chatsworth, Winster, Matlock, and Cromford'. Importantly, the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfields would be linked to the industrial north via Rowsley.

By 1861 nearly 2,000 men and 140 horses were employed in construction of the line; in the event it was the Midland which achieved the goal of reaching Manchester. Modifications had to be made to the original prospectus, partly to allow for differing ducal opinions which almost denied Bakewell a mainline connection. Joseph Paxton, a director of the MBM & MJR, designed Rowsley's station building, now the attractive centrepiece of Peak Village.

In June 1863 the entire line between Rowsley and Buxton was open to both goods and passenger traffic. The Rowsley depot received valuable revenue from the despatch of local milk churns; textiles from Calver Mills reached the goods yard by road, and stone merchants set up outlets for the easy export of Peakland stone and lime.

Rowsley was the station for Chatsworth and welcomed dignitaries such as Mr & Mrs Gladstone, the Russian Ambassador and members of the British and foreign royal families. In 1908 three hundred MPs disembarked from 'specials' at Rowsley for the funeral of the Duke of Devonshire. Waite and Knighton have tracked down a ticket of 1895 for the Prince of Wales' dog which arrived by train from Sandringham, a telegram relating to the conveyance of a Daimler to the Duke of Devonshire in 1912 and, more prosaically, a memorandum from a signalman to the Station Master - working less than 200 yards away - reporting that 'The Clock in this Box is out of order & will not go'. On one occasion the Station Master was admonished over the one-minute delay of a passenger train!

Absolutely everything had to be documented, providing so many fascinating diversions that this book extends far beyond its inestimable worth to railway enthusiasts. The authors have brought together years of research to produce a permanent record which will be the envy of lost railway centres around the country.

The following review appeared in the Journal of the Historical Model Railway Society.

Rowsley was one of those mainline railway outlets like Woodford and Hinton where the town attached was small but the railway presence was big. It was the principal freight yard and locomotive depot on the much lamented Midland Railway main line through the Peak District of Derbyshire from Ambergate to Chinley. Its strategic location on a solitary mainline carrying heavy freight traffic had only the Buxton branch and the legendary Cromford & High Peak line to divert attention, if it were possible to divert attention from such a magnificent railway in spectacular territory with spectacular engineering and spectacular operation.

Much of the text of this book is devoted to the history of the line and particularly to Rowsley itself; from planning stage to its untimely closure in 1968. Each phase is well illustrated with photographs of the period. Numerous diagrams and reproductions of timetables, engine and crew rosters and tabulations of personnel bring an intensely human aspect to the publication, something that is missing in many railway history books. There are many reproductions of such often ignored but vital railway subjects as tickets, parcel labels, correspondence, letterheads, bills and posters, all of which refer to the station, locomotive depot or Sidings.

The greatest impact this book has are the many photographs of railwaymen (and railwaywomen). Often ignored, it is unlikely that such a substantial assembly has been seen before in a book about a single town. The authors deserve every credit for locating such a collection of photographs. One looks at the published rosters of enginemen and shed staff and there they are, almost in person. The authors dedicate the book to the railwaymen and women of Rowsley; their memory has been magnificently. preserved.