Place Desborough Pre-grouping Midland Railway Original company Midland Railway | Area Borough of Kettering 8 May 1857 Opened as Desborough Platforms in use 2 | |
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Post-grouping London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1 October 1857 Renamed Desborough for Rothwell Similar Church Brampton railway st, Gretton railway station, Billing railway station, Lamport railway station, Harringworth railway station | ||
Desborough railway station was built by the Midland Railway on its extension from Leicester to Bedford and Hitchin.
History
The station opened on 8 May 1857 as Desborough. It was renamed on 1 October the same year as Desborough for Rothwell.
On 20 May 1899, Elizabeth Palmer and her five year old child, Dixon Palmer, were hit by a fish train whilst crossing the line at the station to get to the opposite platform and killed instantly. By August 1899 the Midland Railway Company had received instructions from the Board of Trade to erect a footbridge over the line.
In response to a requisition from the ratepayers of Rothwell, the Midland Railway Company decided to inaugurate a bus service between Rothwell and Desborough station in 1899. The station subsequently was renamed Desborough and Rothwell.
It closed in 1968. The station building still stands, but the goods yard area is now built-over, mainly given over to a Co-Op store and car park and Albany Sheds.