Kirby Park railway station was a station on the single track
Hooton to
West Kirby
West Kirby is a resort town on the north-west corner of the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, England, at the mouth of the River Dee. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, to the north-east lies Hoylake, to the east Grange ...
branch of the
Birkenhead Railway, on the
Wirral Peninsula
Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to ...
,
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 ...
.
History
The Birkenhead Railway, owned jointly by the
Great Western Railway (GWR) and
London and North Western Railway (LNWR), had initially opened a branch line from Hooton to
Parkgate in 1866. An extension to West Kirby was completed twenty years later
although Kirby Park station did not open until 1 October 1894.
It was named after
Kirby Park, the area surrounding the house
Kirbymount, formerly the summer residence of John Hurleston Leche XV of
Carden.
Originally considered an experimental station,
it was constructed primarily of timber to the south of the current
West Kirby railway station
West Kirby railway station serves the town of West Kirby in Merseyside, England. The station is the terminus of the West Kirby branch line, which is one of the two branches of the Wirral Line, part of the Merseyrail network,. There is a centra ...
and served largely as a school stop for the nearby
Calday Grange Grammar School
Calday Grange Grammar School (abbreviated to CGGS; also known as Calday Grange, Calday Grammar or simply Calday due to the difference in spelling to the nearby village of Caldy) is a non-denominational, academically selective grammar school, f ...
.
Closure
Kirby Park railway station closed before most of the stations on the line on 5 July 1954, however for school purposes it remained open until 1956. The track continued to be used for freight transportation and driver training for another six years, closing on 7 May 1962.
The line was lifted two years later with the station building and platform completely demolished.
The only evidence that a station stood on this site is the entrance on Sandy Lane in West Kirby.
Wirral Country Park
The route became the Wirral Way footpath and part of
Wirral Country Park
The Wirral Country Park is a country park on the Wirral Peninsula, England, lying both in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in the county of Merseyside and in the borough of Cheshire West & Chester in the county of Cheshire. It was the first de ...
in 1973, which was the first such designated site in Britain.
References
Further reading
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External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirby Park Railway Station
Disused railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
Former Birkenhead Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1894
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1954
1894 establishments in England
1954 disestablishments in England