Route of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 18th November 2011 by Liam Physick

This map, taken from The Liverpool and Manchester Railway - Newton’s Story, shows the route of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Stations still in use are marked with black circles, closed stations with clear circles. The solid line represents the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the dotted line adjacent railway lines, like the service to Warrington. Note that most of the stations closed are on the Manchester side of the line rather than the Liverpool side: indeed, it is noticeable that the stations in Manchester itself are all closed, and only two of the stations beyond Newton-le-Willows remain in use. However, one of the stations shown here as closed has now been reopened: Lea Green. Lea Green was one of the original Liverpool and Manchester Railway passenger stations: it was renamed Sutton in 1844, reverting to its original name in 1848. By the end of the nineteenth century, it had developed two partly-staggered platforms with the Manchester-bound platform partly under the road bridge and the Liverpool-bound one on the west side of the bridge. It was closed to passengers on 7th March 1955 and completely on 15th September 1958 (the 128th anniversary of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway): it was subsequently demolished. The station house is still in non-railway use and is surrounded by a scrapyard: the approach ramp to the Manchester-bound platform is part of a private garden, and the approach road to the Liverpool-bound platform and the staircase from the overbridge are used as a track access point. On 17th September 2000 (two days after the Liverpool and Manchester Railway’s 170th anniversary), a new Lea Green station was opened, a few hundred metres to the east of the original

Tagged under: liverpool and manchester railway, newton-le-willows station, lea green station

Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives