Stoke-on-Trent's railway staff - Railway Work, Life & Death

Railways in & around Stoke-on-Trent – and their workers

As part of 2025’s Railway 200, we’ve worked with New Vic Borderlines, Foxfield Railway and North Staffordshire Community Rail Partnership to make some of Stoke-on-Trent’s past railway staff better known.

A steam tank engine approaches the photographer's position, running bunker-first, passing bottle kilns. A moody sky hovers above. — Passenger train on a local service passing the bottle kilns of the Wedgwood Pottery, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, about 1939.
Courtesy National Railway Museum: 1997-7409-LMS-9006

It’s part of New Vic Borderlines’ ‘Tracks through Time’ initiative, seeking to diversify the railway stories – past and present – being told about Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. As our contribution, we’ve researched railway staff who lived and worked in the area before 1939, most of whom feature in the Railway Work, Life & Death project database.

They were often people overlooked in historical study – the working classes, people with disabilities, women. Using evidence found in accident records and more, we’re able to put names to railway work, and share people’s life stories.

Recovering everyday lives

The railway staff we’ve researched were everyday people – they didn’t do anything spectacular, but they led interesting lives nonetheless. Those lives give us a real glimpse into the past as it was experienced by many. We can now share the stories of:

Alfred Rigby – slip and checker lad

Arthur Dean – signal lampman

Arthur Hollis – goods guard

Edward Briggs – goods guard

Georgina and Edward Lovegrove – gatewoman and platelayer

Henry Wildsmith – pointsman

J Skinner – temporary cook

Norman Ibbs – signal linesman

Stoke-on-Trent’s First World War railwaywomen

Thomas Birks – brakesman

Thomas Palfreyman – platelayer

Thomas Worrall – carriage cleaner