Parbold railway station, on the

Manchester to Southport Line 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 tw ...

, serves the village of Parbold and the nearby village of Newburgh in West

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 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 ...

. It is currently operated by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

History

The station was built by the

Manchester and Southport Railway The Manchester and Southport Railway in England opened on 9 April 1855. It merged with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1854. The route is still in use to day as Northern's Manchester to Southport Line. Route *Manchester Victoria railwa ...

as a branch of the

East Lancashire Railway East Lancashire Railway is a heritage railway line in North West England which runs between Heywood, Greater Manchester and Rawtenstall in Lancashire. There are intermediate stations at Bury Bolton Street, , Summerseat and Ramsbottom, with ...

on 9 April 1855. It radically altered the village, allowing workers to live in Parbold and commute to urban areas throughout the

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

. The railway station also provided a natural centre for the village which it still is today. It was absorbed 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 ...

(L&YR) in 1859. The main stone-built station building (still in use) was built during this time, in the standard L&YR style. Parbold railway station then became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 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 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 Irelan ...

on nationalisation in 1948. When Sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by

Regional Railways Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982 that existed until 1997, two years after privatisation. The sector was originally called ''Provincial''. Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per pas ...

until the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the indust ...

. The station has retained its L&YR signal box, which operates the adjacent barrier

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...

. In 2005 the railway station underwent a £250,000 restoration project which saw the ticket office restored to its former glory and new fences and CCTV installed.

Facilities

The station is staffed on a part-time basis, with the ticket office open from 06:30 to 11:00 on weekdays only (closed Saturdays and Sundays). At other times, tickets must be purchased prior to travel or on the train. Train running information can be obtained from timetable posters and by phone. There are shelters on both platforms and step-free access is available to each one.

Name

The station was originally named Newburgh after the nearest large village ( Newburgh) but this became Newburgh for Parbold and then Parbold for Newburgh. At this point

Dalton Dalton may refer to: Science * Dalton (crater), a lunar crater * Dalton (program), chemistry software * Dalton (unit) (Da), the atomic mass unit * John Dalton, chemist, physicist and meteorologist Entertainment * Dalton (Buffyverse), minor ch ...

wanted to also to be mentioned in the official name so the railway company decided to just call the station ''Parbold'' (this happened before 1910 as the station was called Parbold in the Bradshaw of that date). At one point however the station was again renamed as ''Parbold for Newburgh'' (see 1960s and 1980s British Railway timetables.) Finally in 1973 the station became once again plain ''Parbold''.

Services

On Monday to Saturday daytimes, there are two trains an hour westbound to

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

and eastbound to

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the 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 north-east and Warrington t ...

. Beyond here, services run via alternately to via

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 co ...

and to Stockport and via Manchester Piccadilly. Only a limited number now run via , mainly at peak times and late evenings (travellers to these destinations and for stations along the Calder Valley line now need to change at Wigan). On Sundays there is an hourly service to Southport and Blackburn via Manchester Victoria.

References

External links

{{coord, 53.591, N, 2.771, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in the Borough of West Lancashire DfT Category E stations Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1855 Northern franchise railway stations Parbold