History

The beginning

​Gedling station was built by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) and opened to goods traffic in 1874. Passenger services began to use the station on 1 February 1876. 

It was built as part of the GNR Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension on what became commonly known as ‘the back line’.

The station building 

The design of Gedling Station followed a standard GNR pattern. Further stations down the line also kept to the same architectural blueprint.
​​
The stations built at Daybrook, Basford North, Newthorpe and Kimberley (later Kimberley East), and others, were virtual carbon copies of Gedling.
​
Each was made of a single storey booking office, waiting rooms and toilets with a two-storey Station Master’s house. The roofs were steeply pitched, with tall, distinctive chimneys, and were finished in slate.

The stations all had red brick walls finished with blue brick embellishments and gable ends emphasized by broad decorative bargeboards.

The line

The line ran from Nottingham London Road Low Level Station through Netherfield, before taking a left-handed loop at Colwick towards Gedling. The track then rose steeply towards Mapperley, where it passed through a tunnel 1,132 yards long before descending to Daybrook. Continuing to Basford & Bulwell and Kimberley East it then progressed through to Derby Friar Gate Station and onwards to Eggington Junction.

GNR trains also branched off at Awsworth Junction to travel along the Leen Valley Line to Pinxton.

The main purpose of the GNR Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension was to give the Great Northern Railway access to coalfields in Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and South Derbyshire, while also tapping into the brewing industry of Burton-on-Trent.

The line later became part of the London & North Eastern Railway and then the London Midland Region of British Railways.

Courtesy of http://www.disused-stations.org.uk

The passengers and Gedling Colliery

Passenger services at Gedling began on 1 February 1876, enabling the residents of Gedling Village to travel to Nottingham or Derby and to minor stations in between.

During the summer months the line was used for seaside railway excursions. These tours would often begin in the heart of other mining communities, picking up passengers along the route before stopping at Gedling, and then steaming off to the East Coast via the Grantham Junction of the GNR.

The line became very busy following the opening of Gedling Colliery in 1898. Trains not only carried coal but also the colliers, who travelled to and from work on elderly worn-out carriages known as ‘Paddy Mails’.

The station and the colliery 

In the years following World War II Gedling Colliery became known as ‘The pit of all nations’, with men from over 20 different countries working there. By the 1960s 10% of Gedling Colliery’s workforce came from the Caribbean.

Gedling colliery closed on 7 November 1991, having extracted 70 million tons of coal. 

131 miners had lost their lives during the 93 years in which the colliery was in operation.