following amalgamations in 1844. The fact that the Midland also operated the much larger Masborough station could have relegated Westgate to being a backwater, but Westgate was much more central, and the standard service pattern on the Midland line after 1870, was for some Sheffield–Nottingham, Sheffield–Derby and Sheffield–Manchester local trains to start back from Westgate and run through Sheffield Midland, calling at all stations; this kept Westgate a busy and important station right up to its closure. Closure By the middle of the twentieth century, trains to Westgate still passed over the 1830s vintage wooden bridge to call at the supposedly temporary wooden station buildings. It was the need to replace the by now decrepit bridge that prompted BR to close the station on 4 October 1952. At the end of its life, passengers were not allowed on to the portion of platform on the bridge and trains were not allowed to stand on the bridge. Freight continued for a few years until the bridge was in no fit state to carry any trains and was demolished. The station lay derelict for nearly two decades, with the wooden buildings being used to store dismantled market stalls (the site of the town's market was opposite the station at the time), until 1970 when the site was cleared and new Post Office sorting centre built. In the late 1960s the remaining part of the railway alignment was severed by a new road, but west of this the branch still remains serving C F Booth's scrapyard, albeit now at ground level rather than on an embankment. References Bibliography External links Aerial photo from the mid-1950s shows the derelict Westgate station bottom left, after its closure to passengers but before its closure to freight. Disused railway stations in Rotherham Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1838 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1952