Stairfoot 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 ...

on the

South Yorkshire Railway The South Yorkshire Railway was a railway company with lines in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Initially promoted as the South Yorkshire Coal Railway in 1845, the railway was enabled by an act of 1847 as the South Yorkshire Doncaster and ...

's main line between

Mexborough Mexborough is a town in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. Situated between Manvers and Denaby Main, it lies on the River Don close to where it joins the River Dearne, and the A6023 road runs through the town. It is contiguous ...

and

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

. It was situated between Wombwell Central and

. The station was intended to serve the communities of Ardsley and

Stairfoot Stairfoot is a Ward (electoral subdivision), ward in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. It is perhaps so named because it lies at the bottom of a valley in between the undulations of two small hills on the old road from Barnsley to Doncaster. St ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

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 ...

. The original station, which was called Ardsley, was situated close by the point where the Doncaster - Barnsley main road (A635) joins with the Rotherham - Barnsley road (A633) and was opened on 1 July 1851. It suffered a temporary closure between 1856 and April 1858 and was closed on 1 December 1871, being replaced by a new station on an adjacent site built in the "Double Pavilion" style favoured by 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 ...

. The station was the scene of an

accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researcher ...

on 12 December 1870, when a goods train divided, the rear section rolling backwards towards the platforms and colliding with stationary passenger train, killing 15 passengers and injuring 59 more. In due course the area around Stairfoot became a complex set of railway junctions and fly-overs. Joining the South Yorkshire Railway's line was a junction to the

Barnsley Coal Railway The Barnsley Coal Railway was a short railway which, when fully opened, ran between Stairfoot Junction, on the Mexborough to Barnsley line of the South Yorkshire Railway (SYR) and a triangular junction at Nostell on the line of the West Riding ...

, built in two sections to reach the

West Riding and Grimsby Railway The West Riding and Grimsby Railway was a railway company that promoted a line between Wakefield and Doncaster, in Yorkshire, England. There was also a branch line connection from Adwick le Street to Stainforth, which gave access towards Grimsb ...

's main line at Notton, to the south of Wakefield. There was also a connection to the

Hull and Barnsley Railway Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in a ...

at Cudworth, whilst at a higher level the road and rail junctions were crossed by 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 am ...

line between

Wombwell Wombwell () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The town in the 2011 census was split between a ward called Wombwell, as well as small parts that fell under two other wards called Darfield (specifically ...

and Cudworth. The station, which suffered heavily from bus competition, closed on 16 September 1957.

External links

Stairfoot station on navigable 1947 O. S. map

References

Disused railway stations in Barnsley Former South Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1851 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1957 {{Yorkshire-Humber-railstation-stub