Leen Valley lines of the Great Northern Railway
In the 1980s plans were formulated to reopen a passenger train service from Nottingham to Mansfield; this was to be mainly on the former Midland Railway route, but a short section of the former GNR line was used around Kirkby-in-Ashfield.
[1] There was considerable colliery activity in the coalfields to the north and west of Nottingham, and for the time being the Midland Railway was dominant in serving the pits.
This exacerbated dissatisfaction on the part of coalowners, who saw that the Midland was exploiting its monopoly of carriage of coal to their disadvantage, and they encouraged the provision of competing railway facilities.
The new line was to circle round the north of Nottingham and head west, connecting in Kimberley and Ilkeston on the way to Derby and Burton on Trent, with a fork to link in Pinxton.
During the final stages of the construction of the Derbyshire lines, the GNR was receiving representations from the Leen Valley collieries.
[3][4][5] Construction was put in hand immediately: on 5 November 1880 a contractor named Lovatt undertook the work for £89,077 and to complete by 1 January 1882.
From Leen Valley junction the line ran for 6 miles 53 chains to Newstead, and was double track throughout when completed.
Leen Valley junction signalbox was commissioned on 9 May 1881 and in July coal traffic from Bestwood Colliery began over a single line.
[8] The MS&LR Chairman, Sir Edward Watkin, had for some time been known to want to extend the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway to London.
On the face of it the scheme looked like a harmless approach to get access to the collieries, but the GNR Board suspected that this was a move towards a London extension.
Nevertheless, it was obvious that the MS&LR would try again the following year, and the GNR board reviewed their strategy: should they continue to oppose the scheme, or go along with it and try to get the best accommodation out of it?
[11] The MS&LR extension southwards from Beighton reached an end-on junction with the GNR Leen Valley line at Annesley, north of Newstead, on 24 October 1892.
[11][5] Meanwhile, the fresh MS&LR extension bill passed most stages by June 1892 but, held up when Parliament was dissolved, did not become an Act until 28 March 1893.
[12][13] Work continued with financial support from the GNR, through a further deep cutting, and a bridge under the Midland Railway, where there was a difficult operation on a Saturday night to install the bridge before the first Midland train on Sunday morning; the line continued by the Erewash headwaters to Sutton-in-Ashfield, a distance of four miles.
Some land came from Lord Carnarvon, then the line went through another limestone cutting into the Meden Valley, through Skegby to Pleasley colliery.
[5] Meanwhile, the board decided to operate a passenger service when the line opened, and in April gave a contract to Pattinsons for stations at Sutton, Skegby and Teversal for £14,742.
Sutton station, with street-level booking office and covered stairways down to the platforms, was on an elaborate scale, the most centrally situated in the town.
[5][12] The opening was celebrated by special trains from King's Cross, and Nottingham, bringing guests to a lunch at Skegby, at which Mr Capel presided.
[14] The original powers for the Leen Valley Extension Line included a branch to the colliery at Langwith, north of the LD&ECR, but in October 1895 the GNR arranged to join the LD&ECR east of Langwith station instead, forming a slightly shorter route, and giving a direct run towards both Chesterfield and the Beighton line; there was a branch to the colliery off that line, with running powers there over the section of the LD&ECR; that company obtained reciprocal running powers to Shirebrook colliery.
The line reached Shirebrook Colliery (on the branch south of the station), on 26 November 1900, and on 29 May 1901, Langwith Junction for coal and general goods.
The Shirebrook passenger trains were extended to Langwith, and over the LD&ECR to Chesterfield from 1 February 1903, but soon withdrawn, and not restored until LNER days.
The GNR suggested use of the Leen Valley extension instead of the southern part, but the promoters said they didn't want another concern between them and the GCR.
Passenger traffic had always been a financial liability and the LNER[note 1] withdrew services between Shirebrook South and Nottingham Victoria on 14 September 1931.
The Leen Valley Extension, in conjunction with the former LD&EC branch from Beighton to Langwith Junction, remained an important diversionary route when the main line was closed for engineering work.
In order to eliminate the level crossing at Kirkby in Ashfield and release land for building, a diversion was brought into operation on 4 April 1972.
This involved constructing a short spur between the Pye Bridge line and the former Great Northern route south of Kirkby, reinstating a short length of the Leen Valley Extension through the town, and laying another spur from the site of Summit Colliery to the Mansfield line at Kirkby Hardwick.
South of Langwith, an east-north spur between the LD&ECR and Midland Railway routes opened on 11 November 1974, enabling the remaining part of the Beighton branch from Shirebrook North to Whaley Thorns to be closed.
Goods facilities at Mansfield were withdrawn on 2 June 1975, and the remaining railways in the district were now entirely dependent on coal traffic for their survival.
The first section from Nottingham to Newstead opened in 1993, extending to Mansfield Woodhouse in 1995, Kirkby in 1996 and finally through to Worksop on the former MS&LR line from Lincoln to Sheffield in 1998.
