Godley East was a railway station in the Godley area of Hyde,

Tameside The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after the River Tame, which flows through the borough, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Droylsden, ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, on the Woodhead Line.

Early history

On 17 November 1841, Godley was the temporary terminus of the

Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway The Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway was an early British railway company which opened in stages between 1841 and 1845 between Sheffield and Manchester via Ashton-under-Lyne. The Peak District formed a formidable barrier, and ...

's (SAuLMR) line from Manchester Store Street. The station was located close to the Hyde and Mottram Road and was sometimes referred to as "Godley Toll Bar". It closed on 11 December 1842 when the line was extended to . A permanent station was opened after the

Cheshire Lines Committee The Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) was formed in the 1860s and became the second-largest joint railway in Great Britain. The committee, which was often styled the Cheshire Lines Railway, operated of track in the then counties of Lancashire a ...

(CLC) opened the Stockport, Timperley and Altrincham Junction Railway as far as on 1 February 1866 and the SAuLMR, by now renamed as the

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsb ...

(MS&LR), opened a line from to Godley via Apethorne Junction. The station, which was named as "Godley Junction", had four platform faces: two on the Manchester line and two on the CLC route. The CLC platforms were only ever lightly used. The station and sidings were controlled by a single mechanical signal box which was located at the east end of the 'up' (Hadfield) platform. The connection to Woodley gave the MS&LR access to the

Port of Liverpool The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of t ...

without the need go via Manchester. This resulted in Godley becoming the point where freight traffic from as far away as

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

met with traffic going to and fro over

the Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Commonl ...

Exchange siding An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British ra ...

s were laid on both the MS&LR and the CLC sides of the station; those on the CLC side were known as Brookfold Sidings. Brookfold Sidings had their own

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

and signal box. A CLC traffic office was based at Godley and, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the London and North Eastern Railway had an operational headquarters at the rear of the Up main line platform which controlled operations as far east as

Wath Wath may refer to: Places in England * Wath, Cumbria, a U.K. location * Wath (near Ripon), a village in Harrogate district, North Yorkshire * Wath, Ryedale, a village in North Yorkshire * Wath-in-Nidderdale, a village near Pateley Bridge in Har ...

and

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

Electrification

The

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

of the Woodhead line in 1954 gave Godley a strategic importance as it was the point where steam and then diesel workings over the former CLC system met with electric services via Woodhead. A traction change-over siding was installed and loops on each side of the line ran from Godley Junction to a point to the east. These loops were controlled by their own signal box known as "Godley East". On 1 April 1969, the turntable was taken out of use. The station was renamed from ''Godley Junction'' to ''Godley'' on 6 May 1974. By the late 1970s, traffic had declined on the Woodhead line and the sidings at Godley had become overgrown. Nearby, Manchester City Council erected high-rise housing estates which were served by a newly opened station at . On 20 July 1981, the connection to Woodley closed along with the Woodhead line between Hadfield and Penistone. Track lifting followed in 1985–6.

Closure

On 7 July 1986, a new station called was opened on the site of the original Godley Toll Bar station, and the original station was renamed Godley East. Thereafter, a

Parliamentary train A parliamentary train was a passenger service operated in the United Kingdom to comply with the Railway Regulation Act 1844 that required train companies to provide inexpensive and basic rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act req ...

ran to Godley East - a Saturdays only 12:38 to train. The station formally closed on 27 May 1995.

Present day

The main platforms remained intact in 2015, although largely overgrown. The platforms on the Hadfield line are fenced off; however from the cycle track which now runs along the former line to Woodley and Stockport, the remains of the other platforms are visible. The derelict footbridge was removed during the late 2000s. The turntable pit is still in existence and remains in remarkably good condition and free of debris."Godley Junction turntable pit"
England, Gerald, ''Geograph.org''; Retrieved 15 November 2016

References

{{coord, 53.4486, -2.0495, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Disused railway stations in Tameside Former Great Central Railway stations Former Cheshire Lines Committee stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1841 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1842 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1866 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1995