This building provided accommodation for the horses used at the nearby Petteril Bridge Goods Depot. Horses played an important role in railway operations, even as late as the 1960s in some parts of the UK. They pulled the carts that collected and delivered 'goods' (i.e. parcels and other items of rail freight) and they were also used for shunting railway wagons within goods sheds, goods yards and sidings.
As an indication of the scale of the Midland Railway's equine operations, in 1906 the Company owned a total of 5,413 horses which consumed 600 tons of 'provender' (feed) per week.[1]
Footnotes
[1] Source: A pamphlet published by the Midland Railway Temperance Union in 1907, accessed via the collection of the Midland Railway Study Centre, Derby (item reference RFB13075).