Thursday 10 March 2022 saw a number of representatives of the National Railway Heritage Awards – Andy Savage (Chairman), Clive Baker (Chairman of the Judges), Gavin Johns (Chairman of the Adjudicators), Jerry Swift (Secretary) and Duncan Sooman (Judge) – make their way to the Scottish Borders in order to see the plaque awarded to Stow station at the 2021 National Railway Heritage Awards formally unveiled.
The restoration of the station building was given one of two Network Rail Community Awards at the official ceremony held at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in London on Wednesday 1 December 2021. The building, which had survived the closure of the Waverley route in 1969 only to be threatened by the proposed reopening of the northern section of the line almost four decades later had been saved by a strong local campaign with the building’s restoration – funded by a number of agencies – starting in January 2020. The restored and extended building – entered by the Stow Community Trust – is now in use by the local community.
The unveiled plaque with, from left, Nick Bethune, the architect who led the campaign to save the building from demolition at the time of the line’s reopening, Andy Savage, Chairman of the NRHA, Helen Corcoran, retired Chair of the Stow Community Trust, Councillor Sandy Aitcheson, and Jo Noble, of Network Rail Property Scotland.
The restored station building at Stow on the reopened northern section of the Waverley route. Closed in January 1969, when the reopening of the line from Edinburgh to Tweedbank was originally proposed, there were no plans for the station at Stow to reopen. A vigorous local campaign resulted in that decision being reversed but led to a new threat to the historic building – demolition as part of the reopened station’s car park. A second campaign led to the building being saved and both restored and extended to create a new building for community use – a worthy joint winner of the Network Rail Community Award at the 2021 National Railway Heritage Awards.