Pendlebury railway station was a station serving the town of

Pendlebury Pendlebury is a town in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,069. It lies north-west of Manchester city centre, north-west of Salford and south-east of Bolton. Historically in Lancash ...

in the

City of Salford The City of Salford () is a metropolitan borough within Greater Manchester, England. The borough is named after its main settlement, Salford. The borough covers the towns of Eccles, Swinton, Walkden and Pendlebury, as well as the villages ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, England. It was closed in 1960 by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways.

History

The station started life as part of 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 ...

's Pendleton and Hindley line that grew into (and still exists today as) the

Manchester Victoria Manchester Victoria station in Manchester, England is a combined mainline railway station and Metrolink tram stop. Situated to the north of the city centre on Hunts Bank, close to Manchester Cathedral, it adjoins Manchester Arena which was ...

Wigan Wallgate Wigan Wallgate railway station is one of two railway stations serving the town centre of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. The station serves two routes, the Manchester-Southport Line and the Manchester- Kirkby Line. It is 16 miles north-w ...

line. Heading from

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

towards

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

, the preceding station was at

Irlams o' th' Height Irlams o' th' Height is a suburb of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It is located on top of the Irwell Valley, on higher ground than Pendleton, hence the reference to ''The Height''. The first part of the name derives from the Irlam fami ...

(closed in 1956), and the following station was at Swinton (still open). Pendlebury station was closed in 1960. The existing lines still widen where the island platform existed (removed in 1978). By 1922, ownership had passed from the

, to the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

, and upon

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 1949 it became property of

ways. It was located on Bolton Road (

A666 The A666 is a major road in Greater Manchester and Lancashire, England. Route The road runs from its junction with the A6, and A580 at the Irlams o' th' Height boundary with Pendlebury near Manchester, through Pendlebury, Clifton, Kearsley, ...

), opposite St. Augustine's Church and the former (appropriately named) Station Hotel pub which is nowadays the ''Trattoria''

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

restaurant. The railway station was about 760 yards east of the present-day Swinton railway station. The station was located just before the entrance to a tunnel underneath Bolton Road. From the site of the station the tunnel goes as far as Swinton Hall Road where it comes out and into a cutting on its way towards Swinton. A 1909

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

map shows no buildings on top of the tunnel's location, suggesting that it was not stable to be built upon at this time. In the Black Harry Tunnel collapse of 1953, part of the tunnel collapsed. Two houses fell into the resultant large void in Temple Drive, Swinton. Five people in the houses were killed. The ''Swinton and Pendlebury Journal'' of 7 October 1960 reported that the last train to call at Pendlebury railway station was the 23:21 from

on the previous Saturday (1 October 1960) - there were 6 people aboard one of whom was a 37-year-old shopkeeper Mr Jackson, proprietor of 419 Chorley Road, Swinton. Mr Jackson reportedly bought the last ticket ever issued at Pendlebury station from the porter Mr D. White - a single to Swinton. Mr Jackson also reportedly travelled to

on 3 March 1956 to purchase the last ticket issued there. A pub, the Station Hotel, was located on the opposite side of the road. The building still exists but has been refurbished into the ''Trattoria''

restaurant. Some of the yellow brickwork of the station is still visible on Bolton Road.

Station layout

The layout was four tracks wide, with an island platform serving two of the tracks being connected to Bolton Road via a footbridge. Several sets of points lay at the eastern end of the station. The

Clifton Hall Tunnel Clifton Hall Tunnel, also called (locally) the Black Harry Tunnel, was a railway tunnel passing beneath much of Swinton and Pendlebury, in Greater Manchester, England. It was located on the Patricroft and Clifton branch of the London and North ...

(sometimes called the '' Black Harry Tunnel''), part of the London and North Western Railway's Clifton Branch, ran underneath the eastern end of the station. The is a sign at the eastern end of the old platforms indicating to railway workers where the line of the old tunnel is.

Cultural links

The artist

L.S. Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity ...

lived at 117 Station Road (B5231), Pendlebury, about a mile from the station. Lowry recalled an inspirational moment at the station which transformed his view of the industrial landscape around him: "One day I missed a train from Pendlebury – placeI had ignored for seven years – and as I left the station I saw the Acme Spinning Company's mill… The huge black framework of rows of yellow-lit windows standing up against the sad, damp charged afternoon sky. The mill was turning out… I watched this scene — which I'd looked at many times without seeing — with rapture…" This experience led Lowry to incorporate elements of local textile mills and factory chimneys into many of his works, and elements of the Acme Mill can be seen in two of his iconic paintings: ''

Coming from the Mill ''Coming from the Mill'' is an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1930 by British painter Laurence Stephen Lowry. Artist Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887–1976) often painted his surroundings in Pendlebury, Lancashire in the United Kingdom, whe ...

'' (1930) and ''The Mill, Pendlebury'' (1941). In 1953, Lowry painted ''The Railway Platform'', an

oil on canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

depicting a scene of railway passengers standing on the platform at Pendlebury station. The painting sold in 2015 for £1.6 million at auction. Lowry was filmed at Pendlebury station in documentary films made in the late 1950s, including a 1957

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

documentary produced by John Read.

References

{{Closed stations Greater Manchester Disused railway stations in Salford Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1888 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1960