Caldy railway station was a station on the single track
Hooton to
West Kirby
West Kirby () is a coastal town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. In the north west of the Wirral Peninsula and at the mouth of the River Dee, the town is contiguous with Hoylake. It lies within the historic county bo ...
branch of the
Birkenhead Railway
The Birkenhead Railway was a railway company in North West England. It was incorporated as the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway (BL&CJR) in 1846 to build a line connecting the port of Birkenhead and the city of Chester wit ...
, on the
Wirral Peninsula
The Wirral Peninsula (), 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 Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east, and Liverpo ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
.
History
The Birkenhead Railway, owned jointly by the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...
(GWR) and
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world.
Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...
(LNWR), had initially opened a branch line from Hooton to
Parkgate in 1866. An extension to West Kirby was completed twenty years later
although Caldy station did not open until 1 May 1909.
The station was located to the west of the village of
Caldy
Caldy (historically spelt Calday) is a small, affluent village on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England, south-east of West Kirby. It is part of the West Kirby & Thurstaston Ward (country subdivision), Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wi ...
and situated on top of a high embankment. This was due to a local landowner objecting to the original intended course of the line; which resulted in the station being much closer to the coast of the
River Dee than was planned.
The site consisted of a single platform on a single track section of the line. The station building was constructed from
corrugated iron
Corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America), zinc (in Cyprus and Nigeria) or ...
and consisted of a ticket office, waiting room and male & female toilets.
Closure
On 1 February 1954 the station was closed to passengers, although the line itself remained open to passenger trains for another two years. The track continued to be used for freight transportation and driver training for another eight years, closing on 7 May 1962.
The line was lifted two years later with the station building and platform completely demolished.
Wirral Country Park
The route became the Wirral Way footpath and part of
Wirral Country Park
Wirral Country Park lies on the Wirral Peninsula, England; it is split between the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in the county of Merseyside and in the borough of Cheshire West & Chester in Cheshire. It was the first designated country park in ...
in 1973, which was the first such designated site in Britain.
References
Further reading
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External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caldy
Disused railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
Former Birkenhead Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1909
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1954
1909 establishments in England
1954 disestablishments in England