St Erth to Etwall 1959/60

[Requeststop]

Currently researching a family holiday from 1959/60 in Etwall Derbyshire. I found some photographs with my Mothers family up there. It included a trip to Dove Holes from Etwall.

I recall travelling by train. Summertime 1959/60, leaving very early in the morning. It would have been August.

I was wondering if anyone could give me the probable route we would have taken, and possible cost for 2 Adults, and two children aged 8/9 and 3/4.

Secondly, what route would we have taken from Etwall to Dove Holes during those years.

I recall a marvellous sunny day at Dove Holes, picnicking by a river, with my parents and my aunt and uncle and baby cousin. The discovery of photo's have brought the journey and the outing back to mind.

Any help with be gratefully received.

 

[Bevan Price]

Assuming that you mean the Etwall a few miles west of Derby, and you used "normal" passenger services to Dove Holes station (Buxton to Stockport line), the most probable route would be via Derby & Buxton, possibly also changing at Millers Dale. You might have caught a train from Egginton Junction to Derby, or maybe got to Derby by bus.

A possible alternative is an excursion ("Adex") train, although Dove Holes is an unlikely destination for such trains. Etwall station (between Derby Friargate & Egginton Junction) closed for normal passenger services in 1939, but according to Wikipedia, it remained available for excursion traffic until 1964. The route might then have been via Uttoxeter, Ashbourne & Buxton - the line via Ashbourne lost passenger services from 1954, but remained open for freight & excursion traffic until 1963.

A third alternative might have been to travel from Derby to Peak Forest station, and then longish walk (or bus) to Dove Holes village.

 

[30907]

Currently researching a family holiday from 1959/60 in Etwall Derbyshire. I found some photographs with my Mothers family up there. It included a trip to Dove Holes from Etwall.

I recall travelling by train. Summertime 1959/60, leaving very early in the morning. It would have been August.

I was wondering if anyone could give me the probable route we would have taken, and possible cost for 2 Adults, and two children aged 8/9 and 3/4.

The title mentions St Erth. Are you looking for times etc from there? And did you travel on a Saturday?

There was a through Penzance to Manchester via the North and West route (Severn Tunnel, Maindee Curve at Newport, Hereford and Crewe) which left St Erth at 6.12 and got to Crewe at 4.5 on Saturdays, after which you could have taken a local to Tutbury or Derby, but I don't have a timetable. On Mondays to Fridays it left at 7.44 and was even slower.
Alternatively, you could have left the train at Bristol TM and picked up a train on the Midland route via Birmingham to Derby which would I think have been quicker and cheaper (as fares were per mile then).

 

[oddiesjack]

Dove Holes seems an unlikely destination for a picnic, and can't really think of a suitable river either. Is it possible that you mean Dovedale - a far more popular day out destination? Confusion between the two is not uncommon, for example there is an old picture postcard of Dovedale which is labelled "Dove Holes, near Chapel-en-le-Frith"

 

[Taunton]

Looking at the 1959 departures from Taunton, there is a 1045 through train from Penzance to Sheffield (departing Taunton 1624, so having taken about 2 hours more up to that point alone than you do nowadays) on Summer Saturdays, which stopped at both Burton and Derby, from which you would complete the final bit by road. People at those times generally preferred "through trains" to connections in unfamiliar places. The stock appears to be the return working of a Friday overnight service down from Sheffield.

 

[30907]

The OP refers to leaving very early, which doesn't fit with 11am off St Erth.
It's interesting that well into the diesel era there was no weekday through service from Cornwall to Derby and beyond....

 

[Taunton]

Indeed, the main through service from Cornwall, the "Cornishman", was a wholly WR affair and ran only to Wolverhampton Low Level. In 1959 it would have had chocolate/cream carriages. The principal service beyond, the "Devonian" (generally the "Devvy" among the porters on Taunton station) to Bradford, only started from Paignton. Cornwall at the time had very little all-year trade from the north, and was principally a holiday place. Plymouth would contribute some sailors in uniform on pretty much every train, out of season there wasn't a lot else.

There were actually more services on Summer Saturdays on the Taunton-Bristol line that came through from Newquay rather than Penzance, including ones to Sheffield, York, and even Newcastle.

If the original poster took either of the trains described on an August Saturday, I may well have taken your locomotive number as you passed Taunton!