Midland Railway Peak District & Derbyshire – 1903

Midland Railway poster Peak District & Derbyshire poster – 1903

Depending on your point of view, this is vintage reproduction of a 1903 Peak District and Derbyshire railway poster is either a wonderful piece of railway history or totally unimpressive. Totally unimpressive, confusing and meaningless is apparently how Norman Wilkinson described this pictorial style of railway poster. Wilkinson produced hundreds of railway posters for the London and North Western Railway, the Southern Railway, and the London Midland and Scottish Railway companies. He claimed to be both “the father and mother of the ‘artistic’ poster on English railway stations.” Wilkinson was unimpressed with the pictorial posters that had gone before. In his 1969 autobiography, A Brush with Life, he described them as “an uninspired jumble of small views of resorts… with a good deal of meaningless decoration…” and “quite unintelligible at a distance”.

Wilkinson may have made some valid points, but with time the turn of the century, pictorial posters, offer a nostalgia that cannot be found in some later poster designs. This poster, created in 1903 for the Midland Railway promotes ‘Tourist Resorts in the Peak of Derbyshire. The skill of the artist in this painting is every bit as good as anything Wilkinson produced. The ‘small views’ as he described them, now offer us scenes of a bygone era. At the top of the Peak District poster, the unknown artist offers us a magnificent image of a Midland Express crossing the Headstone Viaduct, over the River Wye in the Monsal Dale. The Buxton to Matlock railway line was a victim of Beechings Axe in the early 1960s and the viaduct now forms part of the Monsal Trail. The viaduct was given Grade II listed status in 1970. Other scenes of the Derbyshire Peak District that are illustrated are;- Peveril Castle, the Mouth of Peak Cavern, Eyam Cross and the historic cottages and Leadmill Bridge over the River Derwent at Hathersage. Text at the top of the poster reads “Holiday Resort Series No.4” and below “Programme gratis on application, John Mathieson, General Manager, Derby”. If this is “Holiday Resort Series No.4” it begs the question what do the other three look like?

More information about this Peak District poster can be found on the science museum group website.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears, or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and poster for just £22.