Black Route - The Old Trentham Park Branch Line and Trentham Village
Stop 1 Trentham Village
Little is left of what was known as Trentham village. Most of this scene from the early 1900s had disappeared by the mid 1960s.
The key buildings were designed by Thomas Roberts, the Trentham estate clerk of works and surveyor, in what was known as English domestic revival style in the 1860s-1890s,
as requested by the third and fourth Dukes of Sutherland.
Trentham Village looking south c1908
When education was introduced for all children in 1870 the existing local schools were reconstituted as Trentham Church of England School.
A new building, originally for boys, was financed by the Duke of Sutherland in the familiar Trentham half-timbered style on the Stone Road, next to the Mausoleum.
It opened in 1877. A girls' school was added in 1896 and it was further extended in 1902 to accommodate infants.
Entering via an open porch at the front of the building, a door opened onto a corridor to the right of which were two classrooms divided by sliding doors.
This was the infants' accommodation. On the left of the main corridor was a further classroom for older children.
The school was originally lit by gas and heated by open fires, with outside toilets. By 1960, the school was no longer adequate for the increased population.
It was closed in 1962 and the children relocated to The Priory Church of England School in Hanford.
The disused building was demolished in 1965 as part of the road widening scheme for the A34.
Trentham School c1930
Trentham School c1960
The Institute was erected in 1894 on the site of the old Trentham Inn. Aimed at the educational improvement of villagers by its benefactor, the 4th Duke of Sutherland,
it was used for various activities during its lifetime.
Its facilities included a billiard room, a stocked library, reading room and classrooms,
a kitchen and refreshment bar, the latter being open to the public. There was also a workshop for handicrafts, together with quarters for a tenant caretaker.
Prior to the Second World War, the premises were also an important RAF Volunteer Reserve Training Centre.
A number of these units were set up across the country and their purpose was to provide a pool of trained men who, when qualified, could be posted to RAF squadrons.
When war was declared in Sept 1939 they were classed as mobilised. Considered important enough to have a Wing Commander as Commanding Officer,
nearly 200 personnel were under training at Trentham early in 1939, including 20 pilots, 64 wireless operators / air gunners, 10 observers and 100 ground staff.
During WW2 the Trentham Centre continued to be used for administration and ground crew training, maintaining links with Meir Aerodrome.
Afterwards, it trained personnel in use of radar, a number progressing to early warning stations such as Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker near Nantwich.
The RAF finally left Trentham in the 1950s and the Institute was demolished in April 1960.
Trentham Institute c1918
The Institute and Hunt stables when offered for sale in 1950s
The Hunt stables building, with its distinctive timbering, occupied a prominent position on the Stone Road.
The North Staffordshire hunt had moved to Trentham in 1862 by courtesy of the 3rd Duke of Sutherland, who was a great supporter of the hunt
and its employees were maintained at the Duke's expense. Up to 60 hunters were stabled there and a pack of 50-60 hounds kennelled nearby.
In the 1890s the hunt met four times a week, often with His Grace the 4th Duke of Sutherland in attendance. Col.
Dobson of Seighford Hall was master of the hunt from 1907 and is credited with keeping the hunt together during the First World War.
The 1911 Census recorded six resident grooms in addition to the head groom and his family. In 1930 Miss Rosamund Harrison of Maer Hall took up the mastership of the hunt.
She moved the kennels to their present site at Hill Chorlton.
The Hunt Stables c1911
Beyond the approach to the station a girder bridge spanned the Stone Road. It was erected in preparation for a proposed extension of the light railway line to Newcastle under Lyme,
connecting to an existing mineral line at Pool Dam, but this was never built, partly due to the incidence of the Great War.
Locally known as the Bridge to Nowhere, it was rolled into place in September 1914 and remained there until the time of the Second World War, when it was dismantled for scrap metal in 1941.
One of the brick abutments carrying advertising boards was not demolished until February 1971.
The bridge over the Stone Road c1912
Stop 2 Trentham Park Branch Line
From 1905 after the Sutherlands left Trentham Hall, free public access was granted to Trentham Park and Trentham Gardens was opened to paying visitors.
This meant there was a need for regular reliable transport to serve increasing numbers of visitors with more convenient access to the Gardens' entrance on Park Drive.
Plans were quickly drawn up by North Staffs Railway Company for what was to be the last line it built and the necessary land was purchased from the Duke of Sutherland.
Royal assent was granted on 21 August 1907 and construction began in 1908. The mile long line cost £16,067 to build and was opened on Easter Monday 21 March 1910.
Trentham Park station had one platform and a modest single-storey building housed a booking office, flanked by a ladies' waiting room,
a general waiting room and conveniences for men and women. An awning covered part of the platform. Access to the station was by an approach path from the main Stone Road,
opposite the Whitmore Road junction. This path passed two semi-detached houses owned by the North Staffs Railway company, which still remain.
The station master lived at the Station House.
Passengers would have streamed across the Stone Road for the 5 minutes' walk to the park or gardens. They would have passed the North Staffs Hunt stables, the Institute,
the school, headmaster's house and turned right opposite the Mausoleum to walk down Park Drive and over the bridge to the entrance gate.
The branch line catered for visitors rather than residents. There was often a brisk service in summer, but it was meagre at other times.
As bus transport became more accessible, regular passenger services were cut in 1927 and the branch declined.
Although it remained a focus for excursion traffic around holiday periods, coinciding with the gardens widening their appeal through added attractions
like the Art Deco ballroom in 1931 and the swimming pool in 1935.
During WW2 the line became of national strategic importance when the Central Clearing House for the national banks was relocated from London to
Trentham and over 900 employees were evacuated here. The close proximity of the station was one reason Trentham was chosen as it was needed to receive and despatch
millions of letters on bank related business. In both world wars it was also the terminus for ambulance trains discharging wounded servicemen
to be taken to various war hospitals in the area. One night the station was the location for a train carrying Prime Minister Winston Churchill who slept on board.
One of the roads nearby is named Churchill Avenue in honour of this famous visitor.
Trentham Park Station was renamed Trentham Gardens on 7 October 1946 and continued to handle excursion traffic for the next decade, finally closing in 1957.
By 1960 the nearby former vicarage had been sold and demolished and parcels of land alongside the old branch line sold off for building.
Old postcard showing the route and principal features of the branch
Stop 3 The Priory
In 1807, under instruction from Earl Gower, a substantial new parsonage, was built for the incumbents of Trentham Parish Church
and located behind the Mausoleum, which was under construction. Successive parish clergy lived there.
From 1908 to 1910 Archdeacon Malcolm Graham occupied the vicarage, but found it too big for his needs,
so the Duke of Sutherland built a new vicarage for him on the higher ground of Trentham Ley.
The old vicarage was renamed The Priory, when it was purchased by Adolph Wenger in 1911.
He was a Swiss born industrialist and manufacturer of colours for the pottery industry.
The purchase of more land, extending from Longton Brook to the railway branch line and from Stone Road to New Inn Lane,
saw the house surrounded by 25 acres. There were extensive gardens with fountains and a tennis court and grazing for cows, pigs and horses.
Adolph Wenger lived there until his death in 1954. The house was sold after the death of his widow Isabelle in 1959 and was demolished to make way for new houses,
bungalows and shops, built on the former footprint of the house and grounds. Originally called the Priory Estate, it included Wenger Crescent, which was named after him.
Close up of The Priory
Part of the Priory gardens
Stop 4 New Inn Lane Bridge
A 30-foot-long double arched bridge spanned New Inn Lane at a height 16ft 6ins. It carried the line from the embankment opposite to the final stretch of the line running down to Trentham Park station. It was demolished in 1972.
On the left-hand side of the bridge was Hanford Halte, which was just a wooden platform approached by steps from the road. Presumably aimed to serve passengers to and from Hanford, it must have been little used, as it closed two years later in April 1913.
New Inn Lane Bridge c1968
New Inn Lane Bridge demolition April 1972
Stop 5 New Inn Mill
New Inn Mill, one of the oldest buildings in Trentham has been in existence for over 500 years. Now barely visible through the tree canopy,
it was the location of two water mills situated on Longton Brook. Originally a corn mill, it changed to milling flint before 1750 to meet
the growing needs of the pottery industry. There is evidence of the famous millwright and canal engineer James Brindley supplying a new
invention to the mill in 1748. Flint milling was hard on the wooden equipment and the mill wheels wore out every ten years.
The course of the mill leat can still be seen today. The buildings, including the house and the granary where the flint was dried, have changed little over the centuries.
Farming was probably always part of the miller's job and eventually New Inn Mill became a farm for beef and dairy cattle. The Brassington family moved into the Mill in the 1890s.
In the 1919 Auction of the Sutherland estates, Mrs William Brassington bought the property in a private sale before the public auction for £3,250. It remains a family home.
New Inn Mill farmhouse and the Brassington family c1912
Rear view of the mill buildings prior to the building of Redcar Road c1970
Stop 6 Railway Canal Bridge
The steel girder bridge had a span of 25 feet 6 ins and rose 9 feet above the Trent and Mersey canal. Some of the embankments which carried the line to
and from the bridge can still be seen on both sides of the canal. From here, after a short straight stretch, the line followed a curved route, now Chessington Crescent,
towards joining the main line towards Stoke. If passengers arrived from the south, they had to alight at the mainline station and take a footpath to Trentham Junction station,
which was little more than a platform.
From there they would catch the next train to Trentham Park.
Railway Bridge c1950
Trentham Junction c1955
Stop 7 Brough Lane
Brough Lane was named after William Brough. He occupied a small holding, where Ash Green Primary School is now located and was a porter at Trentham station for many years.
Close by was Bickerton's grocer's shop, established in 1896. It had a stable in the back yard as well as a two-storey building where corn was stored.
Inside the shop there were large chests of loose tea, bacon flitches waiting to be sliced, a sack of sugar,
slabs of butter and cheese which would be weighed and wrapped for the customer,
plus a long row of biscuit tins with glass lids for customers to choose their biscuits and ask for them by weight.
It closed in the late 1960s and became and remains a domestic residence.
Further along Brough Lane the semi-detached houses were built in the early 1900s.
The one with the telegraph pole outside indicates the location of Trentham's telephone exchange.
Hem Heath Post Office and Bargain Booze now occupy a building which looks almost identical to when it was built.
It was originally a post office and general store and proprietors have included the names Trantoms Ltd, Littler, Jackson, Taylor, Bedson, Heald, Holtom and Ellis.
Bickerton's Shop with George Bickerton c1927
Brough Lane and Hem Heath Post Office c1910
