Sheffield Wicker railway station

Wicker Station [Sometimes, before the opening of Sheffield Midland station, Wicker was referred to as the Midland Station. See, for example, cite book |title=A Complete History of the Great Flood at Sheffield on March 11 & 12, 1864 |last=Harrison |first=Samuel |year=1864 |pages=pp. 83–84 , which uses both terms interchangeably] (later Wicker Goods Station) was the first railway station to be built in Sheffield, England. It was located to the north of the city centre—at the northern end of the Wicker, in the fork formed by Spital Hill and Saville Street. It was opened on 31 October 1838 as the southern terminus of the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway, which ran from this station north to Rotherham Westgate Station.

In 1840 it was connected to the North Midland Railway at Rotherham Masborough railway station. Carriages from Sheffield would be attached to North Midland trains for onward travel. A southbound curve was added 1869.

Wicker Station became obsolete as a passenger station on 1 February 1870 when the Midland Railway opened a direct route from Chesterfield to just north of Wicker Station, involving gradients of 1 in 100, a viaduct and three tunnels. One, the Bradway Tunnel, is 2,027 yards long. Railway workers refer to it as the "New Road", as opposed to the "Old Road" of the original North Midland line.

It was replaced by Sheffield Midland Station on this new route, which is now part of the Midland Main Line.

Wicker Station remained open as a goods station until 1965 and has now been demolished. The site is currently occupied by a car dealerships and was, until 2006 when the Spital Hill / Saville Street corner was remodelled as part of the Sheffield Northern Relief Road, the home of Amanda King's " [http://public-art.shu.ac.uk/sheffield/kin43.html Made In Sheffield] " sculpture. This work has been removed from the site.

References and notes

Bibliography

*Fox, Peter, (1990) "The Midland Line in Sheffield", Sheffield: Platform 5 Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-872524-16-8
*Pixton, B., (2000) "North Midland: Portrait of a Famous Route," Cheltenham: Runpast Publishing

ee also

*Sheffield Midland station
*Sheffield Victoria Station