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Sheffield Midland Train Station


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Sheffield Midland Train Station

Thread all about Sheffield Midland Railway Station.

 

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Screenshot 2020-04-09 at 00.26.29.jpg

Sheffield Midland Railway Station

Sheffield's main train station now, the Sheffield Midland Railway Station was certainly ahead of it's time when it opened up. 

Take a look above at how it used to look..

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From wikipedia:
 

Quote

 

The station was opened in 1870 by the Midland Railway to the designs of the company architect John Holloway Sanders.] It was the fifth and last station to be built in Sheffield city centre.

The station was built on the 'New Line', which ran between Grimesthorpe Junction, on the former Sheffield and Rotherham Railway, and Tapton Junction, just north of Chesterfield. This line replaced the Midland Railway's previous route, the 'old road', to London, which ran from Sheffield Wicker via Rotherham.

The new line and station were built despite some controversy and opposition locally. The Duke of Norfolk, who owned land in the area, insisted that the southern approach be in a tunnel and the land known as The Farm landscaped to prevent the line being seen. Some years later the tunnel was opened out into a cutting. Sheffield Corporation was so concerned about the eastern side of the city being cut off from the city centre that it insisted that public access be preserved across the railway site.

The station and Pond Street Goods Depot opened on a damp and cold day without any celebrations. There were originally different passenger entrances for each class. The original station buildings have been preserved and are between island platforms 2 to 5.

The station was given two extra platforms and a new frontage in 1905 at a cost of £215,000 (equivalent to £23,260,000 in 2019). The enlargements consisted of creating an island platform out of the old platform 1 and building a new platform 1 and a new entrance. These works were overseen by the Chief Architect to the Midland Railway Charles Trubshaw.

Offices were built at the north end of the 300 feet (91 m) long carriageway rooftop. A large parcels office was built to the south of the main buildings. Two footbridges connected the platforms, the one to the north for passengers, the one to the south for station staff and parcels. The tracks were covered by two overall roofs. The older and larger spanned platforms 5 and 6, and an identical structure can still be viewed today at Bath Green Park railway station; the other platforms 1 and 2. Wartime damage put the roofs beyond economic repair; hence, they were removed in the autumn of 1956 and replaced by low-level awnings.

 

 

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Aerial View- City Centre and Park including Sheaf Street leading to Midland Station, centre, Granville Street behind, Shrewsbury Road leading to South Street Park, Shrewsbury Hospital, extreme right and Tram Car Depot, Leadmill Road, bottom left

 

Air photo taken before 1956. Some of the overall roof can be seen still in place covering platforms 5 to 8. The roofs covering Platform 1 and 2 had been removed by this time. Pond street goods is busy. Note the turntable on Suffolk Road. The station boasted four footbridges here. Plus two overbridges accross the station.

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Screenshot 2020-04-09 at 14.53.46.jpg

That's such a great aerial shot of Sheffield Midland Train Station I thought I'd zoom in and wow!! 

So many changes since this pic was taken!!

Ps - is the white building at the very bottom of the picture The Leadmill?

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I wonder if there are any pictures from the early 1900s, before the rebuild when platform 1 and the frontage we know were added.

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1 hour ago, Sheffield History said:

Screenshot 2020-04-09 at 14.53.46.jpg

That's such a great aerial shot of Sheffield Midland Train Station I thought I'd zoom in and wow!! 

So many changes since this pic was taken!!

Ps - is the white building at the very bottom of the picture The Leadmill?

I reckon it is the Leadmill. It still has a whitish end, as well.

A similar (sort of) angle from Google Maps:

leadmill on google maps.jpg

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Wow! Incredible photos.

The scenes at Park Hill are amazing and some real detail there about buildings long lost

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Did it ever have a hotel?

Most rail stations In major city’s had a hotel at the side of them (like The Royal Victoria Hotel) but with this station being in the then arse end of town, it didn’t prove a popular place to stay. 

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10 hours ago, Wisewood-Owl said:

Did it ever have a hotel?

Most rail stations In major city’s had a hotel at the side of them (like The Royal Victoria Hotel) but with this station being in the then arse end of town, it didn’t prove a popular place to stay. 

Howard Street, corner of Eyre Lane, looking down to Midland Station Hotel

Date Period:1900-1919

https://www.picturesheffield.com/s17707

s17707.jpg

 

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Truswells Brewery built the Midland Station Hotel in 1878.  In July 1879 it was ready to let, the tenant being responsible for all the furnishing. It had 23 bedrooms. The bar licence was transferred from the Cherry Tree Inn. Henry Thomas Edward Holmes, the Secretary of Truswells had his temporary licence for the hotel granted in August 1879. The first proprietor was George Wood, who had it open for guests in time for the Christmas trade of 1879.

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4 minutes ago, Wisewood-Owl said:

Thank you

I think it must have been demolished when they extended the front of station in 1905

Map circa 1890

midlandH c.1890.jpg

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Yes, the railway company bought the Hotel from Truswells in order to demolish it.  George Wood remained the proprietor right to the end, almost 24 years, and he moved to the Royal Hotel at Highfields after leaving the Midland Station. Demolition took place during August 1903.

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The station was opened, without ceremony, on 1 February 1870 and the first down train to arrive was the 06.15 from St.Pancras. The local press commented; " We have witnessed more fuss over the opening of a drinking fountain". Contemporary descriptions describe "rock faced wall stones...tool dressed and in the style of architecture...Grecian with Gothic headings>An iron and glass roof above the four 700ft x 30ft platforms was supported on 42 columns and a 105ft footbridge was provided. Two open docks were built at the north and a single covered dock at the southern end. Three signal boxes were built.Two expresses and four fasts were sent to London daily and 79 trains passed through the station daily.

Taken from:Rail Centres No11 Sheffield by S.Batty, Ian Allen,1984.

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The church bells were rung in celebration at 7 a.m. and then again every time a train arrived at the new station.  A large number of people went to the Wicker Station and were astonished to find it closed, apparently some who knew about the change still went to the old station through force of habit.

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Hello,

I've recently joined the site. My name is Josh and I'm currently editing a program which features Sheffield Midland as one of its main stories. The series is called Architecture the Railways Built and series 1 can be viewed online:

https://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/the-architecture-the-railways-built/watch-online

I wanted to reach out to the community here to see if anyone has any other interesting facts, testimonials or information on the history of the station. 

I am in touch with Picture Sheffield regarding some stills usage but I was also curious whether some of the fantastic stills - particularly those from pre-1905 renovation or anything of the construction of the station and culverting of the rivers could be sourced for usage in the program. 

Please feel free to reply to this thread or if you want to contact me directly joshbloom@brownbob.com 

 

Many thanks, 

 

Josh 

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