Ashton Park Parade railway station was a station on the line between Guide Bridge and Stalybridge in

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 England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. This station served the town of

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

, now served only by Ashton Charlestown, north of this former station.

Location

The down platform of Ashton Park Parade station was located on what is now a grass site to the south of Ashton's Park Parade Bypass and before the construction of the Bypass the down platform was approached directly from the end of Warrington Street where there was a large cobbled yard for passenger and parcel vehicles. The up platform stood on the edge of the escarpment, supported by arches and overlooking Lower Wharf Street. To the east of this platform were coal staithes where coal was dropped into vehicles waiting below in the coal yard. The lines serving the coal staithes were controlled by a signal box located on the opposite side of the line and just to the east of the down line platform where there was also a substantial goods siding. When the sidings were built Ashton's Old Baronial Hall was demolished to make way for them. These sidings occupied the land where the Bypass runs between the Parish Church and the railway line with the only remaining signs of the sidings being two wooden buildings in Church Street which once served the goods yard.

History

Opened by 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 ...

, as the Stalybridge branch extension it later became part of the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...

, it then became part of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

during the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923. The station then passed on to the

London Midland Region of British Railways The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irela ...

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 1948. It was then closed by the

British Railways Board British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in 1956. It closed to goods on 2 November 1963.

Present day

No remains of the former station are evident other than the well preserved flight of stone steps which ascend from Lower Wharf Street and led into the former Station Yard at the down platform entrance. The railway line is still open;

TransPennine Express TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major c ...

services between Liverpool/Manchester and the North East still run through the site of the old station, as does the once-weekly

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

service on the Stockport to Stalybridge Line. The only other clue of its existence is "The Station", a pub on Warrington Street, near the former station. The building of the Ashton by-pass sealed the fate of this station which cut it off from the towns main shopping street.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashton Park Parade Railway Station Disused railway stations in Tameside Former Great Central Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1845 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1956