Rothbury: Rothbury. NE 0.4.4T 67295 about to leave for Morpeth.
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 06/04/1950

Rothbury

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Rothbury (1870-1952)

Opened on the Northumberland Central Railway.

Description

This was the terminus of the Northumberland Central Railway in the east of Rothbury and close to the markets. It was the largest station on the line. It was a single platform terminus with a loop which terminated at a turntable from which the locomotive shed was accessed.

The station building was replaced around 1899, the canopy very much North British Railway in style, the building of timber and brick less so. A signal box opened in 1893.

The turntable was in the west of the site. The single road Rothbury Shed was south of the west end of the loop and approached from the turntable to its west. The platform was on the north side of the loop, with the station building at the west (town) end of the platform. Opposite the platform were two loops and a siding on the south side. North of the station was a goods yard (three sidings and a small goods shed) approached from the east. The signal box was located at the east end of the station between the lines at the point where the goods and passenger lines separated. To the east were headshunts.

The signal box opened in 1893, around the time the station layout was altered. The box was stone built and typical of the North British Railway in Northumberland. The box survived until 1963 when the railway closed.

To the north of the station was the market with some stances much closer to the station.

The station closed to passengers in 1952 and the locomotive shed closed, goods being worked by locomotives from Blyth. The line survived for goods until 1963.

The site has been obliterated and is now an industrial estate which runs east along the line for some distance. Station cottages, modified, remain to the south of the station. The Station Hotel, to the south west of the former station and over Station Road, is now the Coquetvale .

Local

The home of the industrial William Armstrong, National Trust - Cragside , is north of the station.

The market is north of the former station
Hexham and Northern Marts

The shed of Bells of Rothbury is on the site of the former engine shed.

Rothbury historically was on the north side of the River Coquet, the opening of the railway encouraged development on the south bank and opening of the market here.

Tags

Station terminus

External links

NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map
10/02/2022




Chronology Dates

  /  /1870Northumberland Central Railway
Line opened from Scot's Gap (Wansbeck Railway) to Rothbury.

Books


North British Railway in Northumberland, The

The Northumberland Central Railway
The Rothbury Branch (Locomotion Papers)