Drew Family Diaries

Drew Family Diaries provides details of the Drew and Parkin families by providing notes on diaries kept by Sheila Drew nee Parkin and her father Charles Gordon Parkin

East Kirkby Railway Station

Station Road?

My grandfather, Gordon Parkin always referred to Station Street. Anyone I have asked about it has responded that it was always called that. However, on a map I have, from around 1900, it is labelled Station Road. In addition, Station Road extended across Four Lane Ends onto what is now Diamond Avenue.

Origin of the Name

Regardless of whether it started off as Station Road, Station Street was named after East Kirkby Railway Station which was also known as the Midland and LMS Station. Indeed, while that station was open, the demarcation between Urban Road and Station Street was the level crossing close to the station.

Station Street Level Crossing.

There are photographs of the Station Street level crossing in the book “Kirkby-in-Ashfield: An Interesting Township” by Bill Clay-Dove (p39) and in the Kirkby and District Conservation Society booklet “A Brief History of Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Portland Park” (p43). There are contrasting photos of what the transition from Urban Road to Station Street was like when the level crossing was in place and now in the Kirkby Heritage Centre book “Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Annesley and Kirkby Woodhouse Then and Now Volume 2“. The level crossing is identified as a favourite place for trainspotters in Jonathan Evans’ book “The Mystery of Ernie Taylor’s Abdomen” (p79).

This image of the Station Street crossing appears on Kirkby-in-Ashfield People Facebook Group. It also appears on the Steaming back to Kirkby website

Station Street crossing in the early seventies. Image from the Steaming back to Kirkby website where it is credited to the Notts Free Press collection

Photo of the Station Street rail crossing. This appears on the Kirkby-in-Ashfield People Facebook Group. It is said to date from 1972

View towards Station Street rail crossing. This photo is from Kirkby-in-Ashfield People Facebook Group. In a comment on that photo, Barry Walker noted, “as a child I used to love running and going over the bridge instead of waiting for the gates across Station Street to open and standing on and getting engulfed in the smoke as the train went underneath – I can still remember that distinctive smell of steam and coal smoke from the trains – and of course the station was to the side of the bridge.” The set of slides and video on the Steaming Back to Kirkby website gives a good idea of what this was like

Station Street level crossing in June 1950 from the Notts Free Press. Cutting posted on Kirkby-in-Ashfield People Facebook Group and used with permission. Peter Herbert noted that the photo was taken from the footbridge and that “*as kids we used to stand on the bridge and wait for a train going through and get covered by the train smoke. Can smell it now.*” The set of slides and video on the Steaming Back to Kirkby website gives a good idea of what this was like/ Dave Sankey commented that his mother used to get mad and say “*get them bloody clothes off & get in that bath. I can hear her now*.”

August 2023 view of where Station Street level crossing was located. There is a very similar 2017 picture in the Kirkby Heritage Centre book “*Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Annesley and Kirkby Woodhouse Then and Now Volume 2*” (p15). The difference is that the Original Factory Shop is now B&M.

East Kirkby Railway Station

Looking up Portland Street/Factory Road “then”, East Kirkby station would have been to the left. “Now” this appears to be residential accommodation.

Steam passenger train waiting to depart Kirkby Midland Station for Nottingham in the 1950s. This image is from Kirkby Heritage Centre from the Steaming back to Kirkby website

Steam passenger train waiting to depart Kirkby Midland Station for Worksop in the 1950s. This image is from Kirkby Heritage Centre from the Steaming back to Kirkby website

This sign is in the Museum of Making in Derby. I understand that it is an LMS station sign so probably originates from East Kirkby station

Description of East Kirkby railway station in Edith Searson’s book(let) “*I Also Remember*“

Return ticket between Kirkby East and Mablethorpe

Steaming Back to Kirkby Wesbite

There is a range of excellent historical material concerning East Kirkby Railway Station on a page called “Why is it Called Station Street” on the Steaming back to Kirkby website. This includes brilliant photos of the station, the nearby crossing and footbridge, and other relevant memorabilia, such as a railway ticket to Mansfield and flyers for trips to Dudley and Cleethorpes. There are also some details of the new railway station and Robin Hood Line which opened in November 1996. There is also a great set of narrated photos, an audio by George Peat of taking Mr Roe’s racing pigeons to the station and a video of Newstead and District Racing Club transporting their pigeons on a race day.

Three Railway Stations

“Then”, Kirkby in Ashfield had three railway stations – Kirkby Bentinck, Kirkby in Ashfield Central and Kirkby in Ashfield East. They all closed in the 1960s, Kirkby in Ashfield Central in 1962, Kirkby Bentinck in 1963 and Kirkby in Ashfield East in 1964. A new station, at a different location opened in the 1990s and is the current station.