The railway station at Belper was opened in 1840, and it was a line surveyed by George Stephenson for the North Midland Railway company. It serves the town of Belper, and is located on the Midland mainline from Derby to Leeds. The original intention of the railway station was for it to proceed along the western bank of the river, which is opposite the town, but the infamous Strutt family of Belper, of the cotton mills fame and fortune, had become the primary landowner and wished it to be out of sight and feared it would interfere with the water supply.

The railway therefore was built through a long cutting at enormous and very unexpected expense, with 12 bridges in the space of a mile. The edges of the cutting were lined with the grit stone, the famous stone of the Dark Peak, and it is now a grade 2 listed building.

After it leaves the Milford tunnel, the train crosses the river Derwent before actually entering Belper, making it a very scenic journey into the little town. North of Belper, the engineers paid the penalty of following the River valley with two long bridges having to be erected over Belper Pool, two more after that, before reaching Ambergate.

The original station was built on the South side of Belper, just before the cutting and was designed by Francis Thompson, an architect, particularly well known for his railway work, in an Italianate design. The coach would run regularly to it from the Lion Hotel in Bridge Street. However this proved unpopular, so that the Midland Railway built a new station in 1878 within the cutting, at the town centre, next to King Street. This had platforms with access ramps that each of the two lines and they both had waiting rooms in the standard Midland Railway design.

The booking office at the station and other facilities were at street level and since the new station lacked any sidings, the old station remained in use for many years for the processing of goods traffic. Originally the station was a start on the Midland Railway’s main line from London St Pancreas to Manchester Central, which travelled throughout the heart of the Peak District, but when this line was truncated to its present terminus at Matlock in the 60s, the station became unmanned and in 1973 the station buildings were demolished.

The bridge carrying King Street over the line was widened to make room for a number of shops and supermarkets, which is now unfortunately closed. In 2005. The station was refurbished with new shelters, seats, rubbish bins by a consortium of local volunteers and work experience trainees.

During June 2009 an automatic ticket machine was installed on the Derby bound platform, which enables passengers to buy or collect tickets before they boarded. Journey time to Derby from here is approximately 11 min and 21 min to Matlock. If there is any rail disruption, then buses will either pick up or set you back down in the vicinity of the Lion Hotel in Bridge Street. It’s a nice little line to have run about on if you are a Railway enthusiast to see the sights and sounds in and around the Belper area.