Westleigh railway station

Westleigh
General information
Location	Leigh, Wigan England
Coordinates	53.4985°N 2.5268°W / 53.4985; -2.5268
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

LNWR lines to Bolton
Deansgate Goods Bolton Crook Street Goods Bolton Great Moor Street Original alignment shown in grey Rumworth and Daubhill Daubhill ( original and incline ) Plodder Lane Shed Plodder Lane Chequerbent Chequerbent ( original and incline ) Little Hulton Manchester–Southport line (LYR) to Wigan Wallgate Walkden High Level Atherton Bag Lane Walkden Low Level Hindley Green Howe Bridge Manchester & Wigan Rly to Wigan North Western Plank Lane Tyldesley Loopline Atherleigh Tyldesley Westleigh Ellenbrook Leigh Bolton and Leigh Railway Kenyon & Leigh Junction Rly Worsley Leeds & Liverpool Canal Bridgewater Canal Monton Green Pennington junctions to Bury Pennington Eccles East Lancashire Road Liverpool–Manchester lines Kenyon Junction Bridgewater Canal Liverpool–Manchester lines Some stations omitted in dotted sections

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.

History

The 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. Following amalgamations, from 1846 it was owned by the London & North Western Railway.

Structure and operations

1911 map showing the station's location (centre right) to the west of Leigh and south of Westleigh

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.

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. 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.

In the 1930s up to 20 trains per day operated between Kenyon Junction and Bolton via Westleigh. 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.

Holiday excursion trains and Rugby League specials called at the station up to 1958.

References

Bibliography

• 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

• 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

• 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