Place Ashby-de-la-Zouch Pre-grouping Midland Railway Platforms in use 2 | Grid reference SK355162 Original company Midland Railway | |
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Area North West Leicestershire Post-grouping London Midland and Scottish Railway 1 August 1849 Station opened as Ashby Address Ashby-de-la-Zouch LE65 1BB, United Kingdom Similar Asfordby railway station, Bardon Hill railway station, East Langton railway st, Brooksby railway station, Old Dalby railway station | ||
Ashby de la Zouch railway station was a railway station at Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire on the Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line. The Midland Railway opened it in 1849 and British Railways closed it in 1964.
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The station is a small Neoclassical building, with side pavilions and Doric columns in keeping with the nearby Royal Hotel of 1826. It is a Grade II* listed building.
History
The Midland Railway opened the station on 1 August 1849 as part of its new line between Swannington and Burton-on-Trent. The station was built partly on the remains of the horse-drawn Ticknall Tramway, which previously connected Ticknall lime quarries with the Ashby Canal.
In 1874 the Midland extended its Derby to Melbourne line to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, partly using the route of the former Ticknall Tramway. The junction with the Leicester to Burton-on-Trent line was just west of Ashby station, so for a time the branch was served by a separate station a short distance from the 1849 building.
Ashby station forecourt was also a terminus for the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge Burton and Ashby Light Railway, a tramway between Ashby and Burton upon Trent, built by the MR and closed on 19 February 1927. Tram lines for the Burton and Ashby Light Railway are still visible in the forecourt.
The line became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway under the Grouping of 1923. In the nationalisation of transport in Britain in 1948 the line passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways. British Railways withdrew passenger services and closed Ashby station on 7 September 1964.
Reopening proposals
In the 1990s BR planned to restore passenger services between Leicester and Burton as the second phase of its Ivanhoe Line project. However, after the privatisation of British Rail in 1995 this phase of the project was discontinued. In 2009 the Association of Train Operating Companies published a £49 million proposal to restore passenger services to the line that would include reopening a station at Ashby.