Wingfield Station

Wingfield Station

A railway station built in 1839-40 to the designs of Francis Thompson for the North Midland Railway. The building is constructed of finely jointed, tooled ashlar gritstone laid to courses with ashlar dressings and a slate roof covering.

The station sits on the east side of the railway and is rectangular on plan with central projections on both the east and west sides. A small square parcel building stands to the north.

The main station is single-storey, designed in an original picturesque Classical style. It comprises five bays, with a taller advanced central bay and lower flanking ranges. Each element has a shallow pitched roof with wide-spreading bracketed eaves and paired moulded stone octagonal chimney stacks on bases. The roof over the north range has lost its slate covering, as has the rear slope of the south range.

The east-facing principal elevation features a central bay with plain corner pilasters and a central doorway with tall narrow flanking lights, all within flush ashlar frames. The door has four panels with the two upper panels taller, and a rectangular overlight. The two-bay flanking ranges have corner pilasters and unframed window openings with stone sills supported by square modillions at either end. The windows are six-light casements with narrow glazing bars and margin lights, though not all original glass survives. The left return has recessed blocked window openings of unclear original status, while the right return has an unframed doorway with a six-panel wooden door.

The rear (west) elevation, facing the railway tracks, follows a similar composition to the façade but with a tripartite window in the middle bay featuring central bordered casements. This window is surmounted by an ornamental sculpted swag which formerly framed a clock. Station name lettering was once carved in gilt above, and later appeared each side of the swag, though the outlines of capital letters remain visible on the stonework. The return walls have timber doors with two lower panels and glazed upper sections with slender glazing bars; the left return door has been boarded up. The flanking ranges are lit by windows matching the façade style, though those on the north range have been boarded up.

The interior opens from the front entrance into the booking hall, to the right of which is a wide cambered arch opening with remnants of a panelled soffit leading to what was presumably the ticket office. Two small rooms to the right are presumed to be private staff quarters, and two rooms to the left of the booking hall are thought to have been waiting rooms. Little original joinery, fixtures, fittings, plasterwork or finishes survive except for moulded internal frames around the main doors and windows, and moulded cornicing in the booking hall and one waiting room which also retains deep skirting boards and a panelled door. Three relatively plain moulded fireplace surrounds remain, one retaining its original decorative square opening while the others have later brick insets.

The forecourt on the east side is paved in large stone flags, now overgrown and resurfaced in places, notably alongside the north of the building.

To the north stands a small single-storey building in an equally dilapidated state, constructed of coursed and tooled ashlar gritstone of a reddish hue with a shallow slate-clad pyramidal roof and wide-spreading eaves. The east and west sides each feature a large double-leaf six-panelled door. The interior consists of a single space with a king-post roof with purlins, stone-flagged floor and exposed stone walls.

Attached to the north-west corner of this building is a short length of coped ashlar wall running parallel to the track. Turning at right angles to the east of the wall is a short flight of stone steps, much overgrown, which provided access to the raised loading area.

Attached to the south-west corner is a square pier of ashlar stone with a moulded plinth and stepped cap. Also attached on the south side is a short length of coped ashlar wall terminating in a pier in the same style. These elements originally formed part of the boundary wall extending northwards from the station building alongside the railway.