I noted how Arthur Cadlick Pain, in a feature about the Hemyock branch back in the January 2022 Steam World, had promoted the concept of light railways, built along river valleys, as a way to improve the fortunes of rural folk. Light railways provided relatively cheap access where transport links were poor and towns and villages were hemmed in by hills or mountains with, perhaps only one difficult road in and out. These places suffered from the difficulty of getting their produce out and the high cost of bringing materials in.
Railways came late to much of North Staffordshire. It was rugged country much like the neighbouring Derbyshire Peak District. The unusual operating methods of the Cromford& High Peak, with its ropeworked inclines and tight curves, were a graphic demonstration of the difficulties faced.
For the inhabitants of scattered moorland settlements across the Staffordshire border, such as Warslow, Grindon and Hulme End, in the valley of the twisting Manifold river, the nearest rail links to the outside necessitated reaching Leek, Cheddleton or Consall on the North Staffordshire Railway’s Churnet Valley route.
The Light Railways Act of 1896 threw them a lifeline, however, and an address by the Reverend W. Beresford in November 1895 inspired wealthy local interests to support a scheme for the Leek, Caldon Low and Hartington Light Railways. From Leek to Waterhouses this would be a standard
