Deepdale railway station (also known as Deepdale Bridge station) was on the Longridge Branch Line in Preston,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. The station opened in 1856 as a replacement for

Deepdale Street railway station Deepdale Street railway station was the original Preston terminus of the Preston and Longridge Railway in Lancashire, England, when it first opened in 1840. It was located in Deepdale Street, off Deepdale Road, on what was then the outskirts of ...

which until then had been the Preston passenger terminus of the line. The new station lay on an extension, built in 1850, which connected to the earlier line near the level crossing in Skeffington Road. The extension passed through the Miley Tunnel to another new station at . Deepdale station was the headquarters of the Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway, which had bought the

Preston and Longridge Railway The Preston and Longridge Railway (P&LR) was a branch line in Lancashire, England. Originally designed to carry quarried stone in horse-drawn wagons, it became part of an ambitious plan to link the Lancashire coast to the heart of Yorkshire. The ...

. The new line and tunnel were originally built to connect the Longridge line to the existing

Preston and Wyre Joint Railway The Preston and Wyre Railway (P&WR) was built to connect Preston, Lancashire, Preston, on the London and North Western Railway West Coast Main Line, with the port of Fleetwood, at the mouth of the River Wyre. It opened in 1840. An associated comp ...

, as part of a planned route from

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

the Fylde The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills to ...

coast to

Skipton Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Aire and the Leeds ...

in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

. However, that plan had already collapsed by 1852. The station, along with others on the line, closed to regular passenger services on 31 May 1930. The last passenger trains to use Deepdale station were 1970s football supporters' specials bringing away fans to Deepdale Stadium to watch a football match. This was done to keep visiting supporters away from the town centre before and after the match. The line through the station continued to be used for goods trains until the 1990s, and the tracks, though rusty and overgrown, still exist as far as the Skeffington Road level crossing.

References

* Hunt, D. (2003) ''The Wharncliffe Companion to Preston — An A to Z of Local History''
Wharncliffe Books, Barnsley
, p. 117. * Suggitt, G. (2003, revised 2004) ''Lost Railways of Lancashire''
Countryside Books, Newbury
, pp. 50–53. * Till, J.M. (1993) ''A History of Longridge and its People''
Carnegie Publishing, Preston
, p. 91 and p. 98. Disused railway stations in Preston Former Preston and Longridge Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1856 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1930 1856 establishments in England {{NorthWestEngland-railstation-stub