A brass plaque on the side of the ticket office at Rothley Station on the GCR heritage line commemorating the opening in November 1990. The plaque reads:
GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY
Dame Margaret Weston DBE
Opened the re-instated
railway line between Rothley
and Leicester North
on Thursday 15th November 1990"Rothley Station was constructed as part of the ninety-two mile “London Extension” of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway. In 1897, the company adopted the now familiar name “Great Central Railway”, and the new line opened to passenger traffic on 15th March 1899. The station was built to the standard London Extension country station layout with a single island platform between two running lines, with pedestrian access provided via a staircase from the road bridge which crosses the line. On the platform, the waiting rooms, booking office, and toilet buildings were provided. A modest goods yard, with goods shed and coal store was on the east side of the station.
We have attempted, as far as possible, to restore the station as it would have appeared in 1912 – two years before the outbreak of the First World War. In those days the railway station was an important feature of village life. The nearby villages of Rothley and Cropston had grown significantly, with well-to-do commuter housing having been built nearby since the opening of the railway. In addition to a regular passenger service, the station also provided goods facilities and deliveries of milk, agricultural goods, machinery, and parcels were common place.
Lighting on Rothley station is provided entirely by restored gas lamps in all buildings, and also on the platform itself. This creates a unique ambience which can be enjoyed by passengers on evening dining trains and at certain special events. Interestingly, the station was never equipped with electricity during its operational life as part of the national railway network, and an electricity supply was only installed when the preserved Great Central Railway came into existance in the 1970s. During winter months, heating is provided by roaring coal fires in the waiting room and tea room. In the car park you'll find Ellis tea room, (a converted goods store shed) and next to it you'll find a picnic area and garden railway which runs most weekends.Opposite the platform is the station signal box, an original GCR structure relocated from Wembley!"
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"Dame Margaret Kate Weston, DBE, FMA (born 7 March 1926) was the Director of the Science Museum, London, UK.
Margaret Weston was born in Oakridge, Gloucestershire, the daughter of a headmaster and educated at Stroud High School.
In 1955, at the age of 28, she achieved the status of Chartered Electrical Engineer. She spent much of her life at the Science Museum in London, starting in 1955 and rising to Director at the end of her career from 1973-86, succeeding Sir David Follett. She oversaw a significant expansion of what is now known as the Science Museum Group.
On her first day as Director, Weston was in York, announcing the city as the home of the National Railway Museum (NRM opened in 1975) She oversaw the acquisition of Concorde 002 for the Science Museum, which is now housed at the Fleet Air Arm Museum Yeovilton. She described how the Museum acquired Concorde, saying, "
I had a telephone call – it was all telephone calls in those earlier days, not e-mails – and the man didn’t give his name or his department. But he just said, do you want Concorde 002? It's coming to the end of its test service. And I said, well I want to preserve it but I have no place to put it. But yes I'll take it."
Concorde 002 was the second prototype of this Anglo-French aircraft. It was assembled in Britain and made its maiden flight from the British Aircraft Corporation's plant at Filton, Bristol on 9 April 1969. Its last flight was made to the Fleet Air Arm Museum Yeovilton in July 1976.
Dame Margaret was instrumental in establishing the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (now the National Media Museum) in Bradford, which opened in 16 June 1983. In 1984 she was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. She chose the subject "The Science Museum and Change - Over the last Thirty Years".
Dame Margaret is the Patron of the Heritage Railways Association and the Stroudwater Textile Trust."
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