Atherton Bag Lane railway station served an area of
Atherton,
Greater Manchester in what was then
Lancashire, England. It was located on the
Bolton and Leigh Railway line which ran from
Bolton Great Moor Street to
Leigh Station and the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal and later to
Kenyon Junction.
History
The
Bolton and Leigh Railway (B&LR) opened Bag Lane station as one of the original stations on the line on 11 June 1831. The B&LR became part of the
Grand Junction Railway in 1845 which became part of the
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom.
In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...
(L&NWR) in 1846.
The original "spartan" single platform station was constructed on the East side of the single track line in the centre of Bag Lane village, opposite the Railway Inn.
The station was renamed Atherton in 1847.
The station was rebuilt in 1880 when the line was doubled. The new station having two platforms with canopies. The platforms were accessed by an underground passage from a new road, Railway Street. There was an adjacent goods station capable of handling "Live Stock, Horse Boxes and Prize Cattle Vans". The goods yard was equipped with a 10 ton crane.
The L&NWR became part of the
London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) during the
Grouping in 1923.
The station was renamed Atherton Bag Lane on 2 June 1924 to distinguish it from the
Atherton Central on the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.
It passed on to the
London Midland Region of British Railways on
nationalisation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
in 1948 and was closed by the
British Transport Commission six years later.
The line closed to all traffic in the late 1960s and in 1970 the road was re-laid over its original path.
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
External links
The station on a 1948 OS map via ''npe maps''The station via ''Disused Stations UK''The station and line via ''railwaycodes''
{{Closed stations Greater Manchester
Disused railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan
Former London and North Western Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1831
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1954
Atherton, Greater Manchester