This is the only Italianate railway station in Staffordshire, a notable example of a vanishing class of building. We were indeed grateful to the County Council for conveying it to us in 1970. The railway has gone; but in its heyday the platforms took 12-coach excursion trains from the Potteries.

Its architect was probably H.A. Hunt, an architect-engineer who designed other stations on this line, which opened in 1849. Built by the North Staffordshire Railway (the ‘Knotty’) to a befitting standard for the Earl of Shrewsbury, then owner of Alton Towers, it stands in marvellous surroundings, both beautiful and interesting. Alton Castle, reconstructed by Pugin, rises out of the trees across the valley of the Churnet. Alton Towers itself, with its famous garden, lies immediately behind.

In 2008, nearly forty years after we took the Station on, we integrated the waiting room building into the Landmark accommodation. You will now cook in a small private waiting room, the main waiting room being reserved for a suitably long table around which to while away your time in front of a fire, amid remnants of the days of railway glory. A double bedroom has been made in the ticket office, while the rest of you will sleep in the stationmaster’s house.

During our original work on the house, a disused flue was found to have been blocked with porters’ waistcoats; and the plumbing we installed produced at first a strange chuffing sound – doubtless the yearning of this house for the sound and smell of great engines wreathed in steam.

View our history sheet for this Landmark. 

Sleeps: 8