Today – 27th September 2025 – is the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the first modern railway line in the world. To celebrate this momentous occasion I thought that I would post some photographs of our own Rowsley Railway Station opened in 1849.

The above photo was taken when the station was part of a railway goods yard, but it shows the original positioning of our own Old Station House that Joseph Paxton built for the Station Master in relation to the original station building which is now in the middle of the Peak Village Shopping Centre. The Old Station House is on the extreme right of the picture and was built so that the Station Master would be able to stand on his terrace and view the station when he was at home.

Here is a close up of the Station building and original railway line:

And this is how the building looks today:

This was the original railway station at Rowsley, in use for just 12 years from 1849 and the end of the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock & Midland Railway while discussions took place with the local landowners – the Dukes of Devonshire and Rutland – about where the line would go next. The station was positioned in anticipation of the line continuing along the Derwent Valley passing Chatsworth House on the way. However, eventually it was decided to continue the line to Bakewell and Buxton along the Wye Valley passing Haddon Hall on the way. This meant that the station was in the wrong place and a new station was built on the other side of what is now the A6, opening in 1862. This was the station that continued operating until 1968 when Beeching closed the line. It was known as Rowsley for Chatsworth, because it was the closest station to Chatsworth House.