Description:The station was on the main Trent Valley Line (TVR) between Stafford and Rugby and the building was designed by John Livock, the TVR Co.’s consultant architect. Construction was commenced by the TVR Co. and completed in 1846-47 by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) which absorbed the TVR Co. in 1846. The building contractor was Thomas Brassey. A local newspaper reported the cost of the building being £10.00, which has yet to be verified. The building is in an Elizabethan style with bay windows and also has the tall chimney stacks typical of John Livock’s railway architecture. Upstairs, it contained the living accommodation for the Stationmaster (on the left) and the station Foreman (on the right), and there was a cellar. This magnificent building was demolished in 1908 when the LNWR needed the land to widen the TVR to four tracks and the only part of the structure which remains is the cesspit/sewer, now under the car park of Station House. The replacement, a much more austere building, was opened in December 1909 and demolished in the early 1970s, to be replaced by a small bus shelter.
This photograph shows the station decorated for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in June 1897 The original name of the station was ‘Rugeley’, being changed to; ‘Rugeley (Junction for Hednesford, Cannock and Walsall)’ after 1870 when Rugeley Town Station was opened, and changed again to ‘Rugeley Trent Valley’ around 1917.
Information provided by Robin Mathams and Dave Barrett, The Trent Valley Railway History Project.