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Maudland Bridge railway station was once the Preston terminus of the
"Preston City Link Canal Trust"
accessed 13 June 2007
Wharncliffe Books, Barnsley
. * Suggitt, G. (2003, revised 2004) ''Lost Railways of Lancashire''
Countryside Books, Newbury
* Till, J.M. (1993) ''A History of Longridge and its People''
Carnegie Publishing, Preston
{{City of Preston culture Disused railway stations in Preston Former Preston and Longridge Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1856 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1885
Maudland Bridge railway station was once the Preston terminus of the Longridge Branch Line
The Preston and Longridge Railway (P&LR) was a branch line in Lancashire, England. Originally designed to carry quarried stone in horse-drawn wagons, it became part of an ambitious plan to link the Lancashire coast to the heart of Yorkshire. The ...
, in 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 Lancash ...
, England. It was located on Maudland Road, between a bridge over the Lancaster Canal
The Lancaster Canal is a canal in North West England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria ( historically in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River Ribble was never complete ...
and Cold Bath Street. The Maudlands district of Preston gets its name from the medieval St. Mary Magdalen's leper hospital, which once stood near the present-day St Walburge's Church.
History
In 1850, theFleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway
The Preston and Longridge Railway (P&LR) was a branch line in Lancashire, England. Originally designed to carry quarried stone in horse-drawn wagons, it became part of an ambitious plan to link the Lancashire coast to the heart of Yorkshire. The ...
(FP&WRR) built the Miley Tunnel to connect two existing lines, the Preston and Longridge Railway
The Preston and Longridge Railway (P&LR) was a branch line in Lancashire, England. Originally designed to carry quarried stone in horse-drawn wagons, it became part of an ambitious plan to link the Lancashire coast to the heart of Yorkshire. Th ...
at Deepdale, and the Preston and Wyre Joint Railway
The Preston and Wyre Railway was promoted to open up agricultural land in the Fylde in Lancashire, access a new port at what became Fleetwood and the Lancaster Canal at Preston, Lancashire, Preston: it opened in 1840. An associated company built ...
(P&WR) at . The plan was to link Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 census.
Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830s, when the principal lando ...
on the Fylde
The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills ...
coast to Skipton
Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Ai ...
in the West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
. However the plan collapsed in 1852, and so the tunnel was initially used for goods traffic only.
In 1856, the FP&WRR revived and diverted passenger trains via the tunnel to a new Maudland Bridge station. By 1867 the line was owned jointly by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways. It was the third-largest railway system based in northern ...
and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). In 1885, the track layout at Maudland was altered to allow Longridge trains to run on the adjacent LNWR West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
to Preston railway station
Preston railway station in Preston, Lancashire, England, is an interchange railway station on the West Coast Main Line, half-way between London Euston and Glasgow Central (206 miles from London Euston, 194 miles from Glasgow Central). It is s ...
, and Maudland Bridge was closed. A goods station, to replace the demolished P&WR Maudland station, was built nearby.
Although the line through Maudland Bridge station closed to passengers in 1930, it continued to be used for goods until the 1990s. Some of the tracks, now rusty and overgrown, still exist, although the station itself (which was situated on the northern side of Maudlands Street opposite where the University of Central Lancashire's Foster and JB Firth buildings are now located) is long demolished.
Accidents
The disused Miley Tunnel has been the site of several accidents in recent years. Two young men were injured in separate incidents in 1998 and 2000, each falling over into the tunnel off a wall near Moor Lane. On Christmas Day 2002, a drunken youth fell to his death at the same point.Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
erected fences six weeks later.
In October 2003 another drunken man fell onto the disused line at Maudland Bank but escaped serious injury.
The future
In 2003, the Preston City Link Canal Trust was formed with a plan to reopen part of theLancaster Canal
The Lancaster Canal is a canal in North West England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria ( historically in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River Ribble was never complete ...
to a new marina to be constructed in the vicinity of the former Maudland Bridge station. One option being considered is to reopen the Longridge line as far as Deepdale or Ribbleton, the line passing by viaduct over the new marina.accessed 13 June 2007
Notes
References
* Hunt, D. (2003) ''The Wharncliffe Companion to Preston — An A to Z of Local History''Wharncliffe Books, Barnsley
. * Suggitt, G. (2003, revised 2004) ''Lost Railways of Lancashire''
Countryside Books, Newbury
* Till, J.M. (1993) ''A History of Longridge and its People''
Carnegie Publishing, Preston
{{City of Preston culture Disused railway stations in Preston Former Preston and Longridge Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1856 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1885