Gazette 14 April 2005
An Alnwick rail historian has seen his account of the demise of the Coquetdale railway put into print by an enthusiast's magazine. Making use of previously unpublished material, David Anderson has delved into the history of the now defunct 13-mile Rothbury rail line.
His brief illustrated history, making use of many original black and white and colour photographs, is published in the rail magazine Steam Days.
The article focuses on the passenger and goods trains which plied the line. In fact, very few passengers used the Rothbury line, which opened in 1867. The Morpeth to Rothbury journey took a leisurely one hour and ten minutes.
The railway line to Rothbury ran through superb scenery after branching off the main North Eastern Railways line at Morpeth. From there, a North Britain Railways line branched off to Meldon, Angerton, Middleton North and then Scots Gap before it branched to Ewesley, Longwitton and Rothbury. From Scots Gap the line continued to Knowesgate, Woodburn, Reedsmouth and Riccarton, before heading down to Hexham. It stopped within easy reach of Lord Armstrong’s house at Cragside and gave the Army easy rail access to Otterburn.
The line formed part of the Northumberland Central Railway and led to the expansion of Rothbury when the line was put into the town.
Fire damaged the original 1872-built Rothbury engine shed and it was rebuilt as a simple brick building with room for two engines and a lean-to office.
The line fell victim to the Beeching cuts and closed to passengers in 1952 and to freight in 1966.
One photograph shows the last Rothbury to Morpeth train, with a goodbye party, just before it headed out on Saturday, September 13, 1952.
An industrial estate now occupies the site of the old station in Rothbury.
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December 29 1961 GUESTS at the County Hotel, Rothbury, had an unexpected thrill on Christmas Eve. Instead of Santa Claus climbing down the chimney there were firemen poking their helmeted heads through the windows of the bar premises. The reason was that a fire had broken out in the main fuse box in a cupboard of a downstairs room opening off the public bar. Within a few moments, shortly after 7 o'clock, all the fuses had burned out ending in a huge flash, and the fire ended as dramatically as it had begun. The whole hotel was plunged into darkness and every light in the village flickered ominously as the siren went and the fire engines came dashing up the street.
The fire was under control almost as soon as it began thanks to the prompt action of the hotel manager, Mr Frank Barber, and his neighbour, Mr James Anderson, of the County Hotel Garage. Mr Barber, assisted by Mr Paul, his father-in-law, carried buckets of sand through the darkened building to the smoke-filled room where the fuses were burning and Mr Henderson finished off the job by applying a special type of dry powder extinguisher, since no water could be used because of the electric power.
"It was quite a small fire, just in the electric circuits" said Mr Robert Bolam, the Rothbury Fire Brigade chief. "There was no damage at all to the hotel but it might have been very serious, especially with the hotel full of visitors for Christmas. |
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