The Midland Railway Company was formed in 1844 and in 1861 the company extended the Erewash Valley Line to Chesterfield, a line which passed at the side of West House Farm in Blackwell Parish. Between 1851 and 1861 six huts had been erected on the farm to house itinerant railway labourers who were driving the line north, and building The Tibshelf & Teversal Branch. The workers had been moved on by 1871.
During the 1880s the company established a locomotive depot to support the increased traffic from the locally expanding collieries, and built houses for their workers, establishing the village of Westhouses.
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Westhouses and Blackwell Station
The Tibshelf & Teversal Branch