Lamb's Cottage was a short-lived, original railway station on the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway to the southeast of
Astley village in what was then the county of
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, England. The station was east of what later became
Astley station and in 2015 was Astley signal box and level crossing carrying Rindle Road.
History
Lamb's Cottage shows on the OS map surveyed in 1845 and published in 1848 at the point where a footpath running NW to SE crosses the railway. The footpath remained in place in 2015.
The station was in the general area of
Chat Moss which was then very sparsely populated. It remained sparsely populated in 2015. A narrow gauge tramway can be seen on the 1848 map running north north west from the
River Irwell
The River Irwell ( ) is a tributary of the River Mersey in north west England. It rises at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup and flows southwards for to meet the Mersey near Irlam. The Irwell marks the boundary be ...
at Boysnope, terminating at Lamb's Cottage station's eastern neighbour,
Barton Moss (1st) station, shown on the map as "Barton Station". This tramway was part of an early scheme to bring in manure and human excrement to "improve" the Moss. Later schemes greatly expanded this enterprise, which had the intended effect of turning land from unproductive to very fertile.
In 1908 work started to sink
Astley Green Colliery
Astley Green Colliery was a coal mine in Astley, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It was the last colliery to be sunk in Astley. Sinking commenced in 1908 by the Pilkington Colliery Company, a subsidiary o ...
and to build a line southwards to the Liverpool to Manchester line to take its coal to customers. This involved using Stephenson's method of floating the ballast and tracks on wood and brush. The line was completed by 1914, making a triangular junction on Lamb's Cottage's station site, obliterating what little evidence remained.
The station site on a 1948 OS Map via ''npe maps''
/ref> That line and junction continued in use until 1970 and has since been lifted.
Modern times
By 2015 no trace of the station survived. The Stephensons' masterpiece had been electrified and provided a service in their spirit.
References
Sources
*
*
*
External links
The station via ''Disused Stations UK''
* ttp://maps.nls.uk/view/102344081 The station on an 1849 OS map via ''National Library of Scotland''br>The station site on an 1888-1913 OS map via ''National Library of Scotland''The line and mileages via ''railwaycodes''The impact on lowland ''mires'' via ''DEFRA''
* ttp://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/compositekermit/Railways/The%20Liverpool%20to%20Manchester%20Railway%20(1830).htm Chat Moss railways via ''Unrecorded''
{{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 1830
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1842