Wicker railway station (later Wicker Goods railway station) was the first

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 Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

to be built in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

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 ...

. It was to the north of the city centre, at the northern end of the

Wicker Wicker is the oldest furniture making method known to history, dating as far back as 5,000 years ago. It was first documented in ancient Egypt using pliable plant material, but in modern times it is made from any pliable, easily woven material. ...

, in the fork formed by Spital Hill and Savile Street. It was opened on 31 October 1838 as the southern terminus of the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway, which ran north to Rotherham Westgate railway station. In 1840, the line was connected to the

North Midland Railway The North Midland Railway was a British railway company, which opened its line from Derby to Rotherham (Masbrough) and Leeds in 1840. At Derby, it connected with the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at wha ...

Rotherham Masborough railway station Rotherham Masborough railway station was the main railway station for Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England from the 1840s until 1987, when most trains were rerouted via Rotherham Central. It had four platforms, with a large sandstone stati ...

. Carriages from Sheffield would be attached to North Midland trains for onward travel. A southbound curve was added in 1869. On 1 January 1847, a half-mile connecting line from the Wicker to the Bridgehouses station of the

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsb ...

had been constructed in order to increase goods traffic and enable wagon transfers. This short steeply graded line, enclosed within a tunnel for almost its entire length was known locally as the ''Fiery Jack''. Wicker was replaced as a passenger station by Sheffield Midland Station on 1 February 1870 when the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

opened a new direct route from Chesterfield to just north of Wicker, now part of the

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield in the East Midlands ...

. Railway workers refer to this route as the "New Road", as opposed to the "Old Road" of the original North Midland line. It has gradients of 1 in 100, a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

and three

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

s, including Bradway Tunnel, long. Wicker remained open as a

goods station A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are l ...

until 1965 and has now been demolished. The site is currently occupied by a

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues an ...

Extra supermarket, having previously contained car dealerships and was, until 2006 when the Spital Hill / Savile Street corner was remodelled as part of the Sheffield Northern Relief Road, the home of Amanda King's
Made In Sheffield
' sculpture, now removed.

References and notes

Bibliography

*Fox, Peter, (1990) ''The Midland Line in Sheffield'', Sheffield: Platform 5 Publishing Ltd. *Pixton, B., (2000) ''North Midland: Portrait of a Famous Route,'' Cheltenham: Runpast Publishing Wicker Railway Station Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1838 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1870 {{Yorkshire-Humber-railstation-stub

See also

References and notes

Bibliography