Heywood railway station serves the town of
Heywood in
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 ...
, England. The original station was opened in 1841 (by the
Manchester and Leeds Railway
The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a British railway company that built a line from Manchester to Normanton where it made a junction with the North Midland Railway, over which it relied on running powers to access Leeds. The line followed the ...
). It was resited in 1848 when the line was extended to Bury. It closed on 5 October 1970. It re-opened on 6 September 2003 as an extension of the
East Lancashire Railway
East Lancashire Railway is a heritage railway line in North West England which runs between Heywood, Greater Manchester and Rawtenstall in Lancashire. There are intermediate stations at Bury Bolton Street, , Summerseat and Ramsbottom, with ...
from Bury Bolton Street. The boundary between the ELR and the national rail network is located a short distance east of the station, at Hopwood.
£300 million had been pledged to link Heywood back to the National Rail Network in 2009, which would have seen services direct to Manchester via
Castleton, but this scheme was subsequently shelved due to lack of funding. The ELR still has ambitions to run trains through to Castleton though to allow direct interchange with National Rail services there. This would form part of a larger scheme to regenerate the area and create additional tourist attractions such as a proposed Heywood Culture Park.
The original station was situated immediately opposite the terminal wharf of the
Heywood Branch Canal
The Heywood Branch Canal was a branch of the Rochdale Canal from Castleton which led to Heywood. It opened in 1834 and carried traffic until 1937. It was abandoned in 1952, along with most of the Rochdale Canal, and although the Rochdale Canal ...
. The East Lancashire Railway station is situated slightly further to the east, nearer to the former Heywood railway wagon works.
[Ordnance Survey, 1:2500 map, 1929 and 2011]
References
Further reading
*''The Manchester and Leeds Railway'' by Martin Bairstow
External links
''Transport & Travel on Road, Canal & Railway''Castleton and Heywood Masterplan''Study by Mouchel & Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council to develop tourism potential of the two areas.
Heritage railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1841
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1970
Heywood, Greater Manchester
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