Rotherham Westgate railway station

Rotherham Westgate
Westgate Station c1840
Location
Place	Rotherham
Area	Rotherham
Coordinates	53°25′45″N 1°21′30″W / 53.429220°N 1.358450°W / 53.429220; -1.358450Coordinates: 53°25′45″N 1°21′30″W / 53.429220°N 1.358450°W / 53.429220; -1.358450
Grid reference	SK427926
Operations
Original company	Sheffield and Rotherham Railway
Pre-grouping	Midland Railway
Post-grouping	LMSR London Midland Region of British Railways
Platforms	1
History
31 October 1838	Opened
4 October 1952	Closed to passengers
1970	Demolished
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Rotherham Westgate railway station was the eastern terminus of the five-mile-long Sheffield and Rotherham Railway, the first passenger-carrying railway in the Sheffield/Rotherham area. In central Rotherham on the eastern bank of the River Don, it was a single-platform terminus that opened on 31 October 1838 and closed on 4 October 1952.

The original station building was a substantial stone affair on Westgate, from where passengers had to cross the tracks on a level pedestrian crossing to access the platform. At the end of the 19th century, this situation was remedied by giving the station access to Main Street and building a temporary wooden station building there with direct access to the platform. This became known by the townsfolk as the "Rabbit Hutch" and was subject of some local complaint as not being fit for a town as important as Rotherham. The old station building became the GPO and a labour exchange, and finally passed back into railway hands as a line control office.

The river was crossed by a 300-foot (91 m) wooden bridge with seven arches over which the station platform extended, and then the line passed over the River Don Navigation on a three-arched bridge, the centre arch of which was 36 feet (11 m) long and made of iron. This section of canal was owned by the South Yorkshire Railway Company, which became part of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1864, and in order for its line from Mexborough to Sheffield to pass under the Westgate line, the canal below Ickles lock was diverted to join the river, and part of the Eastwood Cut below Rotherham lock was diverted to the east in the same year. The original canal bed was then filled in, and the tracks were laid along its course. It was in this section that, in 1871, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway built Rotherham Central. The line ran immediately south of Millmoor,the former ground of Rotherham United, leading to its southern stand being named the 'Railway End'.