Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway

The Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway was created by Act of Parliament in 1862, to run between Stafford and Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, England. It opened for traffic in 1867. It was nicknamed the Clog and Knocker.

It was purchased for £100,000 by the Great Northern Railway in July 1881 as a means of reaching Wales. The latter thus gained a through route from Grantham via the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway and the GNR Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension. From Stafford it would reach Shrewsbury by the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company line which had opened in 1849 and continue over the Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway.

Passenger services ended on 4 December 1939. The through line closed on 5 March 1951 a stub survived at Stafford to serve the RAF Stafford 16 Maintenance Unit, that closed on 1 December 1975.

In the early 1840s a number of schemes were put forward to link Stafford and Uttoxeter by rail. Two in particular were planned to extend as far as Derby. Notice of the first of these was placed in 1845. Called the Derby, Uttoxeter and Stafford Railway it was part of plans for a cross-country line from the Eastern Counties to Holyhead. However, another scheme called the Grand Junction and Midland Union Railway was proposed at the same time. This would proceed from the Trent Valley Railway, then under construction, at Carlton Mill north of Rugeley. This would link with the Birmingham and Derby line of the Midland Railway at Burton on Trent. The Trent Valley line was opened in 1847 without the connection to Burton, and the other project was abandoned.

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