In the early nineteenth century, when news broke of the building of the North Midland Railway, it was clear that George Stephenson would follow the gentle gradient of the Rivers Rother and Don, bypassing Sheffield. Stephenson known for his railway building techniques never built lines with gradients higher than 1 in 130. Despite representations by Sheffield people, who engaged Joseph Locke to state their case, and from Charles Vignoles and George Hudson to convince Stephenson to bring the NMR to Sheffield, the NMR was built via the Rother valley, to the east of Sheffield.