Wavertree Lane was one of the original stopping-places on the

Liverpool & Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively ...

which opened in 1830. Stopping-places were commonly located at supervised

level crossings 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 als ...

where gatekeepers were available to signal trains to stop close to the point at which the line crossed the road, in this case Wavertree Lane (now Wavertree Road). The stopping-places were generally primitive in nature without platform or shelter for passengers. Wavertree Lane appeared in the first official list of stopping-places issued in February 1831. The list was probably issued to reduce the number of informal intermediate stops requested by passengers. In the early days only second class trains made such request stops although mixed class trains were introduced subsequently. The stopping-place was close to Wavertree Hall, residence of Mr Charles Lawrence, chairman of the railway company. A short length of track was laid in the vicinity in Summer 1827, very early in construction of the line, presumably for demonstration and public relations purposes. However, the cuttings to the east and west appear to have been incomplete at the time of

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scot ...

's report in early 1829. On 14 June 1830 the locomotive ''Arrow'' took a train carrying directors of the company to Manchester. On the return the train terminated at Wavertree where they were given dinner at Wavertree Hall. The station was probably one of the first to have a company-owned building with a cottage across the road for the gatekeeper. The station closed to passengers in 1836 with the opening of the tunnel to Lime Street station from

Edge Hill station Edge Hill railway station is a railway station that serves the district of Edge Hill, Liverpool, England and is one of the oldest railway stations in the world There have been two stations of that name. The first stood a short distance south- ...

(the latter was initially referred to in planning documents as New Wavertree Lane station). Ultimately the level crossing was replaced by a bridge and the area occupied by the station subsumed into industrial and railway development associated with the Edge Hill goods marshalling yards.

References

{{Closed stations Merseyside Disused railway stations in Liverpool Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1830 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1836