The first station master John Lambert was arrested in 1877 on a charge of conspiring with Edwin Westerman, superintendent of the permanent way, Thomas Errick, inspector of the permanent way, and George Mason Tickle, brick manufacturer, in the theft of 4,000 bricks, the property of the Midland Railway Company. The case was heard at the Manchester Assizes before Mr. Justice Lush. John Lambert was allowed by the Midland Railway to combine his position as stationmaster at Cumwhinton with that of coal merchant. The charge against him was that instead of sending his coal by the money-earning trains of the company, he sent them by the ballast train, which earned the railway company no revenue. The jury found that the station master, who had been guilty of irregularities, had not they thought committed a punishable offence and he was discharged.
