Tyldesley Loopline | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Tyldesley Loopline was part of the London and North Western Railway's Manchester and Wigan Railway line from Eccles to the junction west of Tyldesley station and its continuance south west via Bedford Leigh to Kenyon Junction on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The line opened on 1 September 1864 with stations at Worsley, Ellenbrook, Tyldesley, Leigh and Pennington before joining the Liverpool and Manchester Railway at Kenyon Junction.
The London and North Western Railway Bill received royal assent in July 1861 and the first sod was cut at Worsley by the Earl of Ellesmere in the September. [1] During construction, a Roman road was uncovered at Worsley. The railway was just over 16 miles long with 88 bridges, a sandstone cutting at Parr Brow, Tyldesley and a 22-arch viaduct which took the railway through Leigh and over the Bridgewater Canal. The work was expected to have been completed by May 1863 but lasted until the summer of 1864. [2]
Stations between Tyldesley and Wigan at Chowbent, Hindley Green and Platt Bridge opened on the same day. A branch line leaving the Tyldesley to Eccles line at Roe Green Junction with stations at Walkden, Little Hulton and Plodder Lane was authorised in 1865 and opened in 1870. The line was extended to Great Moor Street in Bolton in 1874. Monton Green station [3] between Eccles station and Worsley station [4] opened in 1877 to serve new housing. In 1876 Bedford Leigh was renamed Leigh & Bedford and in 1914 was again renamed to Leigh. Chowbent was renamed Howe Bridge in 1901. [5]
Stations on the line became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923, and the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.
Coal, and the many collieries that were being developed in the area, was the chief motivation for building a railway in the area and the railway's supporters included many local colliery owners and industrialists. These included the Earl of Ellesmere owner of the Bridgewater Collieries, the Fletchers of Fletcher, Burrows and Company and millowner Caleb Wright. [1] Collieries linked to the railway include Astley and Tyldesley Collieries' St George's, Nook and Gin Pit Collieries which were connected at Jackson's sidings, Bedford Colliery in Leigh was connected at Speakman's sidings on the Pennington branch and the Shakerley, Yew Tree and Cleworth Hall Collieries belonging to the Tyldesley Coal Company had a connection at Green's Sidings to the east of Tyldesley station and Ramsden's Shakerley Collieries had its own sidings. [6] Mosley Common Colliery was connected at Ellenbrook and mines connected to the Bridgewater Collieries system including Sandhole Colliery joined the line between Roe Green and Worsley at Sanderson's Sidings. [7]
The Tyldesley Loopline closed following the Beeching cuts on 5 May 1969 and Leigh, Tyldesley, Monton Green and Worsley stations were closed. [8] The former trackbed which passes through the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan area was reserved in the Unitary Development Plan in case the rail route could be reinstated. A guided bus route [9] running along the former trackbed to Ellenbrook was proposed [10] but was not universally popular. [11] Salford City Council used the railway trackbed outside the Wigan boundary for recreational purposes turning it into a rail trail. [12] The Leigh-Salford-Manchester Bus Rapid Transit opened in April 2016. Its 4.5-mile guided busway section from Leigh via Tyldesley to Ellenbrook operates along the old rail alignment. Of Transport for Greater Manchester’s (TfGM) £122m overall spending on the bus route to Manchester Central Hospitals via the city centre, £68m was spent on the guided busway track and associated infrastructure. [13]
Boothstown is a suburban village in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. Boothstown forms part of the Boothstown and Ellenbrook ward, which had a population at the 2011 Census of 9,599. The village is within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, west of the City of Salford, bordered to the north by the East Lancashire Road A580 and to the south by the Bridgewater Canal. Historically, it was a hamlet partly in Worsley township in the parish of Eccles, and partly in Tyldesley in the parish of Leigh.
Astley is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is crossed by the Bridgewater Canal and the A580 East Lancashire Road. Continuous with Tyldesley, it is equidistant from Wigan and Manchester, both 8.3 miles (13.4 km) away. Astley Mosley Common ward had a population of 11,270 at the 2011 Census.
Tyldesley is a market town in Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, 8 miles (12.9 km) southeast of Wigan and 9 miles (14.5 km) northwest of Manchester. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, the Tyldesley built-up area subdivision, excluding Shakerley, had a population of 16,142.
Monton is a village in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It is contiguous with nearby Eccles, Salford and Swinton.
Walkden is a town in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, six miles northwest of Salford, and seven miles of Manchester.
Winton is an area of the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, which in 2014 had a population of 12,339.
The Manchester and Wigan Railway refers to a railway in North West England, opened in 1864 and closed to passengers on 3 May 1969, which was part of the London and North Western Railway before the Grouping of 1923. This route was an alternative to the surviving route through Swinton, Walkden and Atherton.
Ellenbrook is a suburb of Worsley, in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. Ellenbrook is 6.8 miles (10.9 km) west of Manchester, 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Salford and 4.6 miles (7.4 km) south of Bolton. Historically a part of Lancashire, it is close to Astley, Mosley Common and Walkden, by the East Lancashire Road.
Monton Green railway station is a closed station in Eccles.
Tyldesley railway station is a closed railway station in Lancashire. It was situated within the historic county of Lancashire.
Leigh was a railway station in Bedford, Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom on the London and North Western Railway. Leigh was in the historic county of Lancashire. Its station opened as Bedford Leigh in 1864, was renamed Leigh & Bedford in 1876 and Leigh in 1914. The station closed in 1969.
Roe Green is a suburban area of Worsley, in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was anciently a hamlet built around what is now the village green. It is the largest of the City of Salford's conservation areas, selected because of its village green, an unusual feature in the region. Roe Green is adjacent to junction 13 of the M60 motorway.
Kenyon Junction was a railway station at Kenyon near Culcheth in Warrington, England. The station was built at the junction of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Kenyon and Leigh Junction Railway. It was situated in the historic county of Lancashire. The station opened in 1830 as Bolton Junction and closed to passengers on 2 January 1961 before closing completely on 1 August 1963. The junction fell out of use when the line serving Leigh was closed in 1969.
Pennington railway station served Pennington, Leigh, Greater Manchester, England on the Bolton and Leigh Railway. It was situated within the historic county of Lancashire.
The Astley and Tyldesley Collieries Company formed in 1900 owned coal mines on the Lancashire Coalfield south of the railway in Astley and Tyldesley, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. The company became part of Manchester Collieries in 1929 and some of its collieries were nationalised in 1947.
Tyldesley Coal Company was a coal mining company formed in 1870 in Tyldesley, on the Manchester Coalfield in the historic county of Lancashire, England that had its origins in Yew Tree Colliery, the location for a mining disaster that killed 25 men and boys in 1858.
Bedford, a suburb of Leigh, Greater Manchester is one of three ancient townships, Bedford, Pennington and Westleigh, that merged in 1875 to form the town of Leigh. Historically, Bedford was in Lancashire.
Bedford Colliery, also known as Wood End Pit, was a coal mine on the Manchester Coalfield in Bedford, Leigh, Lancashire, England. The colliery was owned by John Speakman, who started sinking two shafts on land at Wood End Farm in the northeast part of Bedford, south of the London and North Western Railway's Tyldesley Loopline in about 1874. Speakman's father owned Priestners, Bankfield, and Broadoak collieries in Westleigh. Bedford Colliery remained in the possession of the Speakman family until it was amalgamated with Manchester Collieries in 1929.
Manchester Collieries was a coal mining company with headquarters in Walkden formed from a group of independent companies operating on the Manchester Coalfield in 1929. The Mining Industry Act of 1926 attempted to stem the post-war decline in coal mining and encourage independent companies to merge in order to modernise and better survive the economic conditions of the day. Robert Burrows of the Atherton company Fletcher Burrows proposed a merger of several independent companies operating to the west of Manchester. The merger was agreed and took place in March 1929.
New Manchester or The City was an isolated mining community on the Manchester Coalfield north of Mosley Common in the Tyldesley township, England. It lies west of a boundary stone at Ellenbrook which marks the ancient boundary of the Hundreds of Salford and West Derby, the boundary of Eccles and Leigh ecclesiastical parishes, Tyldesley, Worsley and Little Hulton townships and the metropolitan districts of Wigan and Salford. The route of the Roman road from Manchester to Wigan and the Tyldesley Loopline passed south of the village. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's Manchester to Southport line passed to the north.
