Description: The remains of Grassmoor station on the ex-Great Central Railway Chesterfield Loop, which diverged from the GCR main line at Staveley and then ran via Staveley Works, Brimington, Chesterfield Central, and Grassmoor to rejoin the main route at Heath.
This view is looking south and shows Grassmoor Station signal box in the distance with Grassmoor Colliery and coking plant on the horizon.
The station, which opened in 1893, was the first on the Loop to close, losing both its passenger service and goods facilities in 1940, after which it was mostly demolished. The building seen here is merely a truncated fragment of that originally situated on the Down (northbound) platform and survived to provide toilet facilities for the local permanent way gang and yard staff.
The Chesterfield Loop was closed completely south of Chesterfield Central in 1963 with track lifting commencing in September of that year. The coking plant at Grassmoor Colliery ceased operation in July 1960 (it appears to be still in use in this view), while the mine itself, which had been combined with nearby Williamthorpe Colliery in 1950, continued to be active until about 1967.
Picture the Past is grateful to J Richard Morton for much of the information included above, some of which is derived from his article 'A Bit More on the Derbyshire Lines' that appeared in issue No 180 (June 2014) of Forward, the Journal of the Great Central Railway Society.