Pendlebury railway station was a station serving the town of

Pendlebury Pendlebury is a town in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,069. It lies north-west of Manchester, north-west of Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford and south-east of Bolton. Histori ...

in the

City of Salford The City of Salford is a metropolitan borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater Manchester, England, named after its main settlement, Salford, which covers a larger area including Eccles, Greater Manchester, Eccles, ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. It was closed in 1960 by

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ways.

History

The station started life as part of the

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company before the Railways Act 1921, 1923 Grouping. It was Incorporation (business)#Incorporation in the United Kingdom, incorpo ...

's Pendleton and Hindley line that grew into (and still exists today as) the

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 c ...

to Wigan Wallgate line. Heading from

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

towards

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

, the preceding station was at

Irlams o' th' Height Irlams o' th' Height is a suburb of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, on top of the Irwell Valley, on higher ground than Pendleton, Greater Manchester, Pendleton, hence the name. The first part of the name derives from the Irlam family t ...

(closed in 1956), and the following station was at Swinton (still open). Pendlebury station was closed in 1960. The existing lines still widen where the island platform existed (removed in 1978). By 1922, ownership had passed from the

, to the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

, and upon

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 it became property of

ways. It was located on Bolton Road ( A666), opposite St. Augustine's Church and the former (appropriately named) Station Hotel pub which is nowadays the ''Trattoria''

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

restaurant. The railway station was about 760 yards east of the present-day Swinton railway station. The station was located just before the entrance to a tunnel underneath Bolton Road. From the site of the station the tunnel goes as far as Swinton Hall Road where it comes out and into a cutting on its way towards Swinton. A 1909

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

map shows no buildings on top of the tunnel's location, suggesting that it was not stable to be built upon at this time. In the Black Harry Tunnel collapse of 1953, part of the tunnel collapsed. Two houses fell into the resultant large void in Temple Drive, Swinton. Five people in the houses were killed. The ''Swinton and Pendlebury Journal'' of 7 October 1960 reported that the last train to call at Pendlebury railway station was the 23:21 from

on the previous Saturday (1 October 1960) - there were 6 people aboard one of whom was a 37-year-old shopkeeper Mr Jackson, proprietor of 419 Chorley Road, Swinton. Mr Jackson reportedly bought the last ticket ever issued at Pendlebury station from the porter Mr D. White - a single to Swinton. Mr Jackson also reportedly travelled to

on 3 March 1956 to purchase the last ticket issued there. A pub, the Station Hotel, was located on the opposite side of the road. The building still exists but has been refurbished into the ''Trattoria''

restaurant. Some of the yellow brickwork of the station is still visible on Bolton Road.

Station layout

The layout was four tracks wide, with an island platform serving two of the tracks being connected to Bolton Road via a footbridge. Several sets of points lay at the eastern end of the station. The Clifton Hall Tunnel (sometimes called the '' Black Harry Tunnel''), part of the London and North Western Railway's Clifton Branch, ran underneath the eastern end of the station. The is a sign at the eastern end of the old platforms indicating to railway workers where the line of the old tunnel is.

Cultural links

The artist L.S. Lowry lived at 117 Station Road (B5231), Pendlebury, about a mile from the station. Lowry recalled an inspirational moment at the station which transformed his view of the industrial landscape around him: This experience led Lowry to incorporate elements of local textile mills and factory chimneys into many of his works, and elements of the Acme Mill can be seen in two of his iconic paintings: '' Coming from the Mill'' (1930) and ''The Mill, Pendlebury'' (1941). In 1953, Lowry painted ''The Railway Platform'', an oil on canvas depicting a scene of railway passengers standing on the platform at Pendlebury station. The painting was auctioned in 2015 for £1.6 million. Lowry was filmed at Pendlebury station in documentary films made in the late 1950s, including a 1957

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

documentary produced by John Read.

References

{{Closed stations Greater Manchester Disused railway stations in Salford Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1888 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1960