Backworth was a railway station on the

Blyth and Tyne Railway The Blyth and Tyne Railway was a railway company in Northumberland, England, incorporated by Act of Parliament (UK), act of Parliament on 30 June 1852. It was created to unify the various private railways and Wagonway, waggonways built to carry ...

, serving the village of

Backworth Backworth is a village in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England, about west of Whitley Bay on the north east coast. It lies northeast of Newcastle upon Tyne. Other nearby towns include North Shie ...

, in the borough of

North Tyneside North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It forms part of the greater Tyneside conurbation. North Tyneside Council is headquartered at Cobalt Park, Wallsend. North Tyneside is bordered by Ne ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The county is ...

, England. It was opened, as Hotspur, on 27 June 1864, along with the Blyth and Tyne's branch to Newcastle New Bridge Street station. It replaced another Backworth station, originally known as Holywell, on the Blyth and Tyne's original line between and . The station was located immediately to the Newcastle side of the junction where the Newcastle branch split, with curves to the Blyth and Tyne's original line, and to its branch to . Station Road crossed the line on an overbridge between the station and the junction, and the station building was at bridge level. Until the early 1970s, a bridge carried the Backworth Waggonway across the station about midway along the platforms. Hotspur station was renamed Backworth in June 1865. Acquired in turn by the North Eastern Railway and the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It ope ...

, the station passed to the

North Eastern Region of British Railways The North Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified by the orange signs and colour schemes that adorned its stations and other railway buildings. It was merged with the Eastern Region i ...

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 contrasts with priv ...

in 1948. The line had been electrified (as the Tyneside Electric) by the North Eastern Railway in 1904 to fight competition from the newly built electric tramways, but was de-electrified in the 1960s. The station was closed on 13 June 1977, to enable the construction of the

Tyne and Wear Metro The Tyne and Wear Metro is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The owners Nexus have ...

, but was not re-opened as part of that system. Initially

Shiremoor Shiremoor is a village in Tyne and Wear, Northern England. It is in the Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside and formerly governed under Northumberland. In the 2011 census, it was included in the Tynemouth area of Tyneside. It is near the Nor ...

was the nearest metro station to the site until the 2005 opening of Northumberland Park. The latter is located a short distance to the south east.

References

Bibliography

* The halt is pictured on page 23. *

External links

Backworth on navigable 1946 O. S. map
* Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1864 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1977 Former North Eastern Railway (United Kingdom) stations Disused railway stations in Tyne and Wear {{NorthEastEngland-railstation-stub