Stoke Railway Station, Station Road

Railway Station, Stoke\| Buildings of Stoke-on-Trent


Buildings of Stoke-on-Trent	[ Web Site Index ]

click for more on
Winton Square

Stoke Railway Station
Winton Square, Station Road
Shelton, Stoke

In the late 1830's the railway station serving North Staffordshire was at Whitmore. In 1846 the newly formed North Staffordshire Railway Company purchased part of the Stoke Church glebe land known as Winton's Wood.

A new station designed in the Elizabethan & Jacobean style by H. A. Hunt of Parliament Street, London was built at a cost of £31,438. Stoke Railway Station and the complex at Winton Square was the most important building work undertaken by the railway company.

Stoke Railway Station 1848
'The Railway Station at Stoke, Staffordshire.'
Showing an elaborate building in brick and stone in the Elizabethan style,
with gables, chimneys, finials and a portico of eight arches.
Artist: George Buckler.

© William Salt Library
Staffordshire Past Track
http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk/copyright.asp

Stoke-on-Trent Railway Station - Winton Square

photo: © Noel Walley - November 16th 2004

date	event
April 1845	The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) Company was incorporated in April 1845 with a share capital of £2,350,000 in £20 shares (117,500 shares) and issued its first prospectus from offices at 1 Old Palace Yard, Westminster, London. The Staffordshire Potteries Railway was absorbed into the new company so as to avoid 'powerful opposition or ruinous competition if both lines had been passed'.
Jan 1846	Owing to the obvious competition that the railway would provide for the Trent and Mersey Canal, the NSR and the Trent and Mersey Canal (T&M) Company came into agreement that the NSR should pay £30 a share for all the T&M shares, and from January 15, 1846, the whole canal including the Cauldon branch, Cauldon Quarries, and the plateway, was leased to the NSR.
1846	The newly formed company purchased Winton's Wood (part of the Stoke church glebe land)
Sept 1846	To start the construction work, there was an official 'cutting of the first sod' ceremony. The site chosen for the ceremony was a field in Etruria. There was a roped - off enclosure for directors and the remainder of the field was reserved for invited guests. There was a mile long procession headed by John Lewis Ricardo, Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent and chairman of the NSR Company. On his arrival, the crowds broke through the roped off area and Ricardo was pushed and shoved. During the actual cutting he buckled the silver spade and had difficulty removing the sod. Finally, his hat blew away.
	designed in the Elizabethan & Jacobean style by H. A. Hunt of Parliament Street, London.
Feb 1847	By February 1847 there were 1,318 men and 60 horses working on the line between Macclesfield and Colwich and they had removed 80,000 cubic yards of earth, driven 843 yards of tunnel heading and erected 12,000 yards of fencing.
July 1847	The tender for the building of the station at Stoke was awarded to John Jay of London Wall
April 1848	Work continued apace and by April 3, 1848 the first goods trains were run. Passenger services started on April 17, 1848 and the first passenger train left the temporary station at Wheildon Road, Stoke hauled by locomotive No. 1 'Dragon' heading for Norton Bridge. Profits for the first two months were £1,668 'exceeding expectations'.
Oct 1848	A few months after the opening of the first line, the imposing permanent station in Winton Square, Stoke was opened on October 9, 1848. Stoke station then became the headquarters of the NSR.
1849	annoyed at the cost, some of the shareholders set up a committee of enquiry, however the report of the committee exonerated the directors.

The board room of the North Staffordshire Railway Company
was located over the central booking office

North Staffordshire Railway Company badge

Sources:
Victoria History of the County of Stafford, Vol VIII
Andrew Dobraszczyc notes
William Salt Library
Wikipedia

Stoke Railway Station is a listed building