To coincide with the Railway 200 celebrations, Chebsey Parish Local History Society is staging an exhibition of railway photographs at Chebsey Parish Hall on the 11th and 12th October, 2025. The exhibition will feature the collection of photographs, taken in the 1950s and ‘60s, belonging to Mr Stephen Charles Hemsworth, the last Stationmaster at Norton Bridge Station. These photographs chart the progress of railway modernisation for electrification in one small part of the London Midland Region of British Rail. As well as Mr Hemsworth’s collection, photographs in the exhibition will cover other decades and themes appropriate to the local area and we will also be selling our books on local history.
This anniversary is particularly relevant as the village of Norton Bridge itself owes its existence to the early modern railway system. It grew from being just an intermediate station on the Grand Junction Railway, opened in 1837, to a locally important railway junction and small village – a story told in our publication ‘ The Railway Hamlet. A History of Norton Bridge’.
There is no charge for the exhibition which is open each day from 10.30 am to 4.00 pm. Tea and cake will also be freely available (donations welcome).