A Brief History
Cromford station was opened by the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock & Midlands Junction Railway in 1849. It was originally intended as a temporary site pending agreement on a more permanent location to the south, and only simple wooden buildings were initially erected.
The Upside Waiting Room, believed to be the original station building, was built constructed in approximately 1860 to a design by GH Stokes; the building was designed in a French Chateau style and bears witness to Stokes’ work in France where he had previously worked with his father-in-law Joseph Paxton. The design followed that of the Station Master’s house, completed some five years earlier in 1855.
The building has a clock tower and ornate chimneys (capped in the 1960’s by British Railways for safety reasons), and is constructed of solid stone dressed in a herringbone type pattern. Evidence of telegraph cabling has been discovered at the site and this, the very ornate building design, existence of a clock tower and the fact that the station buildings on the downside were built much later, in 1874, have brought historians to the conclusion that it was indeed the original station building.
After the erection of the (present) station buildings in 1874, the original became the upside waiting room; in accordance with the etiquette of the day, there were ladies and gentlemen’s waiting lounges, the ladies having a WC adjoining, the Gents WC being at the rear of the building. The rooms were heated by open fires and probably contained fairly comfortable seating. The Butterley Company erected the ornate footbridge in 1885. Prior to this, passengers crossed the line via a foot crossing at the south end of the platforms (just out of site in the photograph below).
The station building architecture is very elaborate and it is believed that it was designed this way to impress important visitors to the nearby Willersley Castle as well as serving the many country estates belonging to the gentry. Cromford Station main building, footbridge, the upside waiting room and Station Master's House were Grade II Listed on 15th June 1971.