TODAY BROADWAY, TOMORROW LEEK!
In January, the Telegraph published a list of ‘The most magnificent rail journeys you can do in a day’. Amongst the 15 journeys listed were the scenic delights of Fort William to Mallaig, the Devil’s Nose in Ecuador, New Zealand’s Coastal Pacific line, Australia’s Kuranda Scenic Railway, (with a line that rises over 1000ft through the Barron Gorge National Park) and rather unexpectedly, the Churnet Valley Railway in Staffordshire.
Although significantly shorter than other lines in question, the Telegraph praised the nostalgia and bucolic setting, using the Churnet Valley’s nickname of ‘Staffordshire’s Little Switzerland’.
Yet the Churnet Valley Railway is not normally one of the first lines to spring to mind when thinking of railway journeys within the UK. So what is it that makes it so special?
Originally opened in 1849 as part of the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) – nicknamed the ‘Knotty’ after the knot atop the NSR crest – the line was part of a network that wound through the scenic countryside of North Staffordshire; the Churnet Valley line unsurprisingly largely following the Churnet River. The construction of the line was one of the first instances of a section of canal being converted into a railway, as the Froghall-Uttoxeter section of the Caldon Canal was closed to be replaced by the railway. Carrying passenger and freight traffic, the completed line ran between Macclesfield and Uttoxeter and boasted – amongst other features – a rather grandiose station for the Earl of Shrewsbury to use from his Alton Towers estate.
The moniker ‘Staffordshire’s Little Switzerland’ was actually a marketing ploy dreamed up by local hoteliers as the NSR began to promote excursion traffic in the late 1800s. It’s not hard to see why; the steep valley sides are wooded and the river winding through the valley floor very picturesque. Travelling by rail was a rather civilised way to see the beautiful countryside, without even the slightest chance of muddying one’s boots. In the spirit of encouraging more tourism, the NSR ran excursion specials to Alton Towers when the Earl of Shrewsbury held summer
