Taking in Water at Parkside (The Station where Mr. Huskisson fell)

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 3rd May 2011 by Jenny Porter

One of the Bury Prints, painted by Thomas Talbot Bury, who was commissioned to paint depictions of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Here, a train is seen taking in water at Parkside. Parkside station was one of the original stations on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and, as the picture shows, was used for water stops, as it lay halfway between the two cities. As the painting’s subtitle mentions, it was at Parkside that William Huskisson MP, former President of the Board of Trade, was killed at the opening ceremony of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway on 15th September 1830: Huskisson alighted from the Northumbrian, which had stopped for water, and walked along the tracks to speak to the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, who had arrived on another train, only to be knocked over by a train pulled by the Rocket, which was approaching. A memorial to Huskisson was erected, and this is now all that remains of this small but once important station. For Parkside was just a small trackside cottage, as also seen in the picture, and in 1839 was replaced by a new station of the same name 17 chains (374 yards) to the east, in order to open a line from Parkside North Union Junction (now Parkside East Junction) to Preston. The new station had far superior facilities to its predecessor, though the earlier Parkside was still used for luggage for a while (when it finally closed is a mystery though it almost certainly did not outlast its successor). But the days of Parkside station were soon numbered. Improvements in locomotive design allowed trains to travel from Liverpool to Manchester without needing extra water, while from 1847 the building of a west to north curve to the Wigan line meant trains from Liverpool no longer needed to visit Parkside, which was in a remote location. The station was thus closed for goods in 1877, and for passenger trains in 1878, and was later demolished

Tagged under: steam locomotives, liverpool and manchester railway, rocket, bury prints, thomas talbot bury, william huskisson, northumbrian, parkside station, duke of wellington

Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives