Westleigh or West Leigh was a station in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England on the Bolton and Leigh Railway line. Westleigh was situated within the historic county of Lancashire. Its station opened in 1831 and closed in 1954.[1][2]
Westleigh | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Location | Leigh, Wigan England |
| Coordinates | 53°29′55″N 2°31′36″W / 53.4985°N 2.5268°W |
| Grid reference | SD651003 |
| Platforms | 2 |
| Other information | |
| Status | Disused |
| History | |
| Original company | Bolton and Leigh Railway |
| Pre-grouping | London and North Western Railway |
| Post-grouping | London Midland and Scottish Railway |
| Key dates | |
| 13 June 1831 | Station opened as "Leigh" |
| 1 August 1876 | Renamed "West Leigh" or "Westleigh" |
| 29 March 1954 | Station closed |
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History
editThe Bolton and Leigh Railway reached Leigh in 1830 and was extended by the construction of the Kenyon and Leigh Junction Railway, which received Royal Assent in 1829, to Kenyon Junction by 1831 creating a junction with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The station at Westleigh was named Leigh when it opened for passengers in 1831 and its name changed in 1876.[1] Following amalgamations, from 1846 it was owned by the London & North Western Railway.
Structure and operations
edit
The station was certainly popular, Sweeney reports that 3,393 tickets were issued at Leigh during the holiday week of 1852. Special trains were run to Newton races and in 1859 fast excursion trains picked up passengers at Leigh on the way to Holyhead to see Brunel's Great Eastern steamship.[3]
West Leigh had both passenger and a goods stations. The passenger station had two platforms. The goods station was on the west side of the line and had a 2 ton capacity crane.[4] Sweeney reports the goods yard closed in 1864 when the yard at Bedford Leigh station opened but it is still listed in by the Railway Clearing House in 1904.[3][5]
In the 1930s up to 20 trains per day operated between Kenyon Junction and Bolton via Westleigh.[6] 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. They were closed by the British Transport Commission six years later in 1954 when the line to Bolton Great Moor Street closed.[7]
Holiday excursion trains and Rugby League specials called at the station up to 1958.[2]
References
editCitations
edit- ^ a b Butt 1995, pp. 141 & 246
- ^ a b Westleigh, disused-stations.org.uk, retrieved 23 November 2015
- ^ a b Sweeney 1996, p. 53
- ^ Old Ordnance Survey Maps: Leigh (North) 1892: Lancashire Sheet 102.03 (Map). 1:4340. Cartography by Ordnance Survey. Alan Godfrey. 2012. ISBN 978-1-84784-653-2.
- ^ RCH (1904) 1970, p. 569
- ^ Sweeney 1996, p. 55
- ^ Sweeney 1996, p. 11
Bibliography
edit- Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
- The Railway Clearing House (1970) [1904]. The Railway Clearing House Handbook of Railway Stations 1904 (1970 D&C Reprint ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles Reprints. ISBN 0-7153-5120-6.
- Sweeney, D.J. (1996), A Lancashire Triangle Part One, Triangle Publishing, ISBN 0-9529333-0-6
Further reading
edit- Holland, Bert (2001), Plodder Lane for Farnworth, Leigh: Triangle Publishing, ISBN 0-9529333-6-5
- Smith, Paul; Turner, Keith (2012), Railway Atlas Then and Now, Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7110-3695-6
External links
edit- The station on a 1948 OS map via npe maps
- The station on an 1888 OS map overlay via National Library of Scotland
- The station and line via railwaycodes
| Preceding station | Historical railways | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pennington Line and station closed |
Bolton and Leigh Railway London and North Western Railway |
Atherleigh Line and station closed | ||