Desborough railway station


Desborough railway station was built by the Midland Railway on its extension from Leicester to Bedford and Hitchin.

History

The station opened on 8 May 1857 as Desborough. It was renamed on 1 October the same year as Desborough for Rothwell.
On 20 May 1899, Elizabeth Palmer and her five-year-old child, Dixon Palmer, were hit by a fish train whilst crossing the line at the station to get to the opposite platform and killed instantly. By August 1899 the Midland Railway Company had received instructions from the Board of Trade to erect a footbridge over the line.
In response to a requisition from the ratepayers of Rothwell, the Midland Railway Company decided to inaugurate a bus service between Rothwell and Desborough station in 1899. The station subsequently was renamed Desborough and Rothwell.
It closed in 1968. The station building still stands, but the goods yard area is now built-over, mainly given over to a Co-Op store and car park and Albany Sheds.