Musgrave railway station was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

situated on the Eden Valley Railway and located between Penrith and Kirkby Stephen East,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The railway line and station were built by the Eden Valley Railway (EVR). The line opened for mineral traffic on 8 April 1862 and for passengers on 9 June 1862. The station served the villages of

Great Musgrave Great Musgrave is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Musgrave, in the Eden district of Cumbria, England. It is about a mile west of Brough. In 1891 the parish had a population of 175. Great Musgrave sits atop a hill nea ...

and Little Musgrave and also nearby Brough. The EVR was worked from the outset by the

Stockton and Darlington Railway The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Darl ...

(S&DR) which absorbed the EVR on 1 January 1863.Awdry, p. 128 The S&DR was in turn absorbed by the North Eastern Railway (NER) on 13 July 1863. On the Railway grouping of 1923 the working was taken over by the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

. Under

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

on 1 January 1948 British Railways took over, but closed the station to both passengers and goods traffic on 3 November 1952.

Great Musgrave Bridge

In May 2021, the space under the road bridge at Great Musgrave, north of the former railway station, was filled with 1600 tonnes of aggregate and concrete by

Highways England National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards used by all fo ...

, ostensibly for safety reasons. The bridge spanned a five-mile section of trackbed which local rail enthusiasts hoped to restore, linking the Eden Valley and Stainmore railways to create an 11-mile tourist line between Appleby and

Kirkby Stephen Kirkby Stephen () is a market town and civil parish in Cumbria, North West England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies on the A685, surrounded by sparsely populated hill country, about from the nearest larger towns: Kendal and Penrith. ...

. Accused of 'vandalism', Highways England was forced to apply for retrospective planning permission for the Musgrave works, with

Eden District council Eden may refer to: *Garden of Eden, the "garden of God" described in the Book of Genesis Places and jurisdictions Canada * Eden, Ontario * Eden High School Middle East * Eden, Lebanon, a city and former bishopric * Camp Eden, Iraq Oc ...

receiving 913 objections and only two expressions of support, and government intervention to pause HE's plans to infill dozens of other Victorian bridges across England. Advised by planning officers to reject the application, the council's planning committee unanimously refused retrospective planning permission on 16 June 2022. Restoration of the Musgrave bridge to its former condition would cost an estimated £431,000, in addition to the £124,000 spent on the initial infilling work. Work began in August 2023 to remove the infill material. After the Great Musgrave outcry, National Highways developed a new way to assess the abandoned rail bridges and tunnels it controls, with decisions reviewed in collaboration with experts from heritage, environmental and active travel sectors.

Passenger facilities and services

A stationmaster's house and brick-built station building were provided on the single platform. There was a single goods siding. In July 1922 the NER operated five trains in each direction on each weekday, starting from Penrith which called to drop and pick up passengers and parcels. One of the up trains continued via Kirkby Stephen to Barnard Castle and Darlington. The other up trains terminated at Kirkby Stephen, three providing a connection into Tebay to Darlington trains.

References

* * * *

External links

* http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/m/musgrave/index.shtml Disused Stations site record for Musgrave {{Closed stations Cumbria Disused railway stations in Cumbria Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1862 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1952 1862 establishments in England

History

Great Musgrave Bridge

Passenger facilities and services

See also

References

External links