The Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament on 29 July 1862, to build a line between the towns of Stafford and Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, England. It opened for traffic in 1867. It opened on 23 December 1867. Construction cost had much exceeded estimates, and income was poor, so that the company was always in financial difficulty. It was placed in receivership in 1875. The Great Northern Railway (GNR) had running powers to Uttoxeter and was persuaded to acquire the company, which it did in 1881. The GNR spent a considerable sum on improving the line, but it never made money and it was closed to passengers on 4 December 1939. Goods traffic ceased in 1951, except for a short stub to RAF Stafford; this too closed in 1975.
Before the Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway
Prior to the establishment of railways, Stafford was an important manufacturing town; especially dominant was the footwear industry, supported by ancillary manufactures; in addition salt was extracted, and to a lesser extent gypsum. Later a number of heavy engineering works were established in the town The intervening land between Stafford and Uttoxeter was high quality grazing land, devoted to cattle farming. Uttoxeter itself had numerous smaller-scale manufacturing activities, but later became the home of J C Bamford, a large-scale maker of, at first, agricultural machinery, and later construction and excavating machines. On 4 July 1837 the Grand Junction Railway opened, forming a north–south trunk link through Stafford. The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) was formed on 16 July 1846, consolidating the GJR with other trunk lines, connecting London and Manchester and Liverpool. The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was incorporated in 1845, its scope being amplified in 1846. It was a compact and dense system centred on Stoke-on-Trent. In 1848 the line between Stoke-on-Trent and Uttoxeter and on to Burton upon Trent was opened, and in the following year the line from Macclesfield was opened. The two lines converged at Uttoxeter Junction station. Thus Stafford and Uttoxeter were well served by railway connections. Proposals began to be put forward for an east–west line across the intervening agricultural terrain, and after a number of unfulfilled projects, ideas for a Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway began to take shape. In support of the line were the interests of the growing shoe-making industry in Stafford and the Leighton Ironworks in Uttoxeter, of the Bamford family.