Although
promoted by the Urban Electric Supply Company, the Glossop Tramway was the idea
of one of its employees, local engineer, Charles Knowles.
Authority
for the tramway was given under the Glossop Electric Tramways Order of 1901 and
provided for a single-track line running from Hadfield Station on the Great
Central Railway's Manchester to Barnsley line, through Glossop to the terminus
at the Queen's Arms Hotel in Old Glossop. A ½-mile branch line from the main
line at Norfolk Square in the centre of Glossop ran to Whitfield. The line
weaved around a number of mills along its 4½ mile length, although the two
terminal points were less than half this distance apart as the crow flies.
The
initial fleet consisted of seven Milnes open-top double-deckers, joined later by
a BEC single-decker, and finally a second-hand ERCTW single-decker from
Sheffield.
Although
extensions to join the Manchester system were considered, in the end the system
remained as it was and, because of the effects of World War 1, it became run
down. The Whitfield branch was closed in 1918 and although the tramway was
offered for sale to Glossop Council, it was never purchased and closed down at
short notice on the 24th December 1927. The service was replaced by the
motorbuses of the North Western Road Car Company.