In 1851 the population of Weston was just under 400 in over seventy dwellings, but over the next twenty years the population fell by about a hundred, ten houses disappeared and another five were empty. Even allowing for the six houses that were in the way of the new railway this was a substantial change on the previous agricultural life. A cutting assisted in dividing the village in half as well as changing the routes of local roads to join with the four new bridges. New houses were constructed in the village for the station master and the head porter as well as a row of six workman's houses outside the village near the parish border with Swarkestone. These new buildings replaced the lost thatched cottages, but more thatches were lost later when sparks from the locomotives set alight