the railway network and penton station

Copyright Carole Somerville (2003)

The railway network, at the beginning of the 20th Century, provided an important link between towns and villages, country and cities. Travel by rail was an exciting experience. Station masters wore top hats and frock coats and other officials wore bowlers and dark suits.

  In the 1850’s, it was proposed that a line should be taken from Hawick down Liddesdale, through Newcastleton, Penton, Longtown and on to Carlisle. When these new proposals were published, the Chairman of North British, Richard Hodgson embarked on a crusade of the Border towns, singing the praises of this proposal. Inhabitants of these towns had everything to gain from the scheme and it was supported wholeheartedly.

  In September, 1859, construction of this railway began. It required some complex engineering work to enable the railway to pass south from Hawick, and through some of the bleakest and most isolated countryside that any railway, anywhere in Britain was to encounter.

  The first station south of Hawick was near Stobbs Castle. Further south was the Shankend viaduct which still stands today. The line continued to wind its way round fells and through valleys down to Riccarton where prior to the railway there was no settlement and after the railway, there was no settlement. During, however, there developed a small community which will be featured in a later edition of the Gazette. Down, the line would go, passing through Newcastleton, then alongside Liddel Water until reaching the Anglo-Scottish Border where Kershopefoot would be the first station once into England. Here a signal box and siding were constructed but these are now all gone.

  The route continued south for another five miles and ran through Penton. At Penton Station there was a grand Station Master’s house and this still exists today. The station was well used for the transport of goods and materials. In 1876 for instance, from the diary of the Manager at Kingfield, workers from the Estate would be regularly at the station, either to pick up goods like flour and meal or to take potatoes. They would regularly take Mr and Mrs Mounsey, the then owners of Kingfield to and from the station in what they called the ‘wagonet’. Also mentioned in that same diary is ‘Riddings Station’. Prior to receiving this name, it was known originally, in 1857 as ‘Canobie Junction’, at this time without the ‘n’ in Canonbie. It was also known as ‘Langholm point-road’.

Even in the mid-1900s the railway was a popular form of transport. Robert Moor remembers always using the 7.30 a.m. train to Carlisle, returning on the 4 p.m. The morning train was always packed when a lot of workers went from Nicholforest to the M.U. Also the children from Kershopefoot (and at the time, there were a lot of them) would journey by train to Penton to attend Warwicksland School. He remembers too that Kingfield Estate would send milk and potatoes down south, by train.

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