A major new illustrated work on the history of railways in North Staffordshire has gone on sale.
Local author Basil Jeuda launched his book, The North Saffordshire Railway in LMS Days Volume II, at a special signing day at Kingsley & Froghall Station on Sunday April 1.
It is the second of three volumes which trace what happened to the former North Staffordshire Railway (“The Knotty”) after it was absorbed by the London Midland & Scottish Railway in 1923 and until the 1948 Nationalisation when British Railways was established.
“The NSR was centred on Stoke and served a vast area, its boundaries being Macclesfield, Ashbourne, Derby, Burton, Market Drayton, Crewe, and Sandbach,” said Basil. “It owned the Trent & Mersey Canal, the Caldon Canal and other minor canals. It also owned five hotels, had its own Locomotive Works and leased a large quarry.”
This volume covers several major railway lines, including the Churnet Valley (from North Rode to Uttoxeter), aspects of Crewe Works, the lines from Crewe to Harecastle and Lawton to Sandbach, and the lines from Stoke to Cheadle, Derby, and Burton. The author looks at the origins of each line and focuses on the 1923 to 1947 period, the decline of existing industries and the rise of new ones, changes in and competition for passenger and goods traffic, and the impact on the local railway system of the Second World War. Also covered is the involvement of Railway Air Services at Meir aerodrome.
The book is profusely illustrated with nearly 500 photographs and plans, very many of which are previously unpublished. The author is widely known as a transport and industrial historian, author, and lecturer; he lives in Macclesfield and this is his sixteenth book.
The North Saffordshire Railway in LMS Days Volume II, is published by Lightmoor Press and costs £22.50.
Photograph: Author Basil Jeuda with his new book. (Photo by Dave Gibson)