Clowne Railway Station Restoration April 2023 Update

We're back in the Derbyshire town of Clowne to look at how they are progressing with the one of the old railway stations that is undergoing some restoration work.

Don't forget to watch last month's update -    • Clowne Disused Railway Station Restor...  

This is the former Clowne South, ex LNER or LDECR station, which closed in the 1960s. Sat derelict for generations, the Clowne Local History Society have been working at the station and tunnel site to make the area more usable for the local community.

The project started in 2022 to clear away the vegetation that had built up around the site of the old platforms at the entrance to the tunnel. The station building on top of the tunnel remains and is still in use today as a beauty salon, but the ramps are closed off, derelict and in a poor state of repair.

The centre piece of the restoration will be a fabricated steam locomotive mounted in the tunnel mouth to show an engine emerging from the tunnel into the station.

The station was opened in March 1897 as Clown, by the Lancashire Derbyshire & East Coast Railway on the company's Beighton Branch between Langwith and Sheffield. The station building booking office was situated on top of the tracks with ramps to the platforms either side. In 1939 before WW2, passenger serivces over the line ceased leaving the stations existence in question. Before this time the LD&ECR was taken over by the Great Central Railway.
In 1951 the station was renamed Clowne South to distinguish is from it's neighbour on the MIdland Railway - Clowne & Barlborough station. Which sat only a few yards away.
The line and station remained open for excursions and freight traffic before 1964 when the station was closed completely.

The station was eroded. Local development erased the surrounding infrastructure piece by piece until the station site and tunnel entrance was left overgrown and a hotspot for anti-social behaviour. The station building remained in use thanks to it's street frontage and would later become a bank, bridal shop, photography shop and most recently a beauty salon. The station masters house sits aside the station and is now a business centre.

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