If it takes one careless match to start a forest fire, why does it take a whole boxful to start a campfire?

Making Tracks looks at some of the history of the railways affecting the Warrington area.

Making Tracks 3 - Warrington to Lymm - Low Level: 150 Years of Change by Mr Bert Harris - is an extended account of the Warington and Stockport Railway (Low Level Line). Bert begins with a brief history of railways in Warrington and then through words and pictures describes how the line was built and what became of the route when the railway line was closed. He finishes off with an account of a local resident who witnessed everyday life on the railway during his lifetime.

All photos and text in Warrington to Lymm - Low Level: 150 Years of Change are Copyright © Bert Harris 2009,
except the two images above of Rocket and the Making Tracks logo, which are Copyright © Gordon I Gandy, mywarrington.

WARRINGTON TO LYMM - LOW LEVEL : 150 YEARS OF CHANGE By Bert Harris

Introduction

Warrington is a railway centre of vital importance to the national railway network as a whole.

Chapter 1 -  How it all Started

Warrington’s railway history began in 1830 when a line was opened from Liverpool (Crown Street). It passed through Rainhill where the famous Railway Trials were held, then through Newton Junction to Manchester (Liverpool Road).

A year later the Warrington & Newton Railway opened. It ran from Newton Junction (Earlestown) to a station at Dallam Lane, a distance of 4¼ miles. This new railway, which was in fact a branch line, included a short goods branch to Liverpool Road, just to the north of Bank Quay.

Opening on 4 July, 1837, the Grand Junction Railway not only gave Warrington fast and direct transport to major centres in the south for the first time, but, via the Warrington & Newton (which it bought in 1835) and, via the Liverpool & Manchester, created the first main line between Liverpool, Birmingham and London. Warrington continued to hold this position until the opening of the present route through Runcorn in 1869.

In 1853 it was the turn of the Birkenhead, Lancashire & Cheshire Junction Railway, which opened from Chester.

It had been intended that the St Helens Canal & Railway Company would join the Birkenhead, Lancashire & Cheshire Junction Railway at Arpley. In the event the BLCJR stopped at Walton Junction, before it reached Arpley. This not only left the St Helens Canal & Railway Company at a dead-end but the BLCJR itself was at the mercy of the LNWR.

Coming in to Warrington from the east was the Warrington and Altrincham Junction Railway. After securing powers for an extension to Stockport it was renamed the Warrington and Stockport. After some delay in completing the bridge over the Mersey at Wilderspool, the Warrington and Stockport opened on 1 May, 1854, to link up with the St Helens Canal and Railway and establish the so-called Low Level. The line was double-track along its entire length.

The Warrington and Stockport was operated by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. After acquiring the Grand Junction, the LNWR took out a lease on the W&S in 1860 and then the SHCR in 1864, giving it a virtual monopoly of lines into Warrington. A year later they overstepped the mark when they stopped the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire from using the Low Level. In the event this led to the end of the LNWR stranglehold on Warrington because the MSLR formed a partnership with the Great Northern and Midland Railways. Together they formed a joint railway called the Cheshire Lines Committee. This new line, designed for fast running, would bypass the centre of Warrington. However, local pressure forced the committee to add a 2-½ mile loop through the town centre via a new Warrington Central Station.

In 1868 the LNWR replaced Liverpool Road and Arpley stations with a new two-level station at Bank Quay. Here the West Coast mainline crossed over the Low Level. However, a legal requirement forced it to reopen Arpley in 1871.

The CLC, via the loop which went from Padgate Junction to Sankey Junction, was opened in the early 1870s and Warrington Central on 1 August, 1873. The originally planned direct line opened for freight and non-stop passenger trains in 1883, thus completing Warrington’s main line network.

Towards the end of the 19^th century came a major change to the area in the shape of the Manchester Ship Canal. This required major line deviations and the construction of substantial new bridges.

No longer would cargo be trans-shipped to and from trains at Liverpool or Birkenhead for the Manchester leg of the journey. The railways would lose traffic so they did not welcome having to step aside to let the canal through. They did all they could to protect their interests and delay the canal’s opening.

For obvious reasons the LNWR objected to swing bridges where the canal cut across the Crewe, Chester and Low Level Lines, especially if canal traffic had priority. The canal company was eventually persuaded to use fixed bridges. However, these needed to be high enough for ships to pass under them so the railways approaching them had to be rebuilt on embankments rising to great heights. One of these bridges was built at Acton Grange to carry the Crewe and Chester lines on a single structure; the other was at Latchford to carry the Low Level. The Low Level line realignment enabled some congested level crossings to be replaced by bridges.

Chapter 2 - Lymm to Warrington - The Original Route

Construction of the Warrington and Altrincham Railway began in July 1851, and services began two years later. From the outset the line was double tracked. Each station on the route had platforms on both sides of the track, and each had its own signal box. The railway passed through the village of Lymm and had a large influence on its development. Several large Victorian houses in the village are indicative of the fact that wealthy businessmen were able to live in rural Lymm and commute to their businesses in Manchester.

Heatley Station was opened on 1 November, 1853, and was renamed Heatley and Warburton in 1857. Heatley and Warburton Station closed to passengers on 10 September, 1962. One of the pieces of evidence against the withdrawal of passenger services in the early 1960s was that the crossings would still have to be manned for freight trains and so the savings would be minimal.

A further 2/3rds of a mile on was another controlled skew level crossing over the junction of Rush Green Road with Birchbrook Road. This was the end of the 3-mile straight and the line bent slightly southwards, keeping straight for a further 2 miles to the bridge under Camsley Lane.

There were a further 4 level crossings in this section. Starting from the Rush Green Road/Birchbrook Road level crossing, the line crossed, on the level, over a minor path, known as Reddish Lane followed by a bridge over a track leading to a sewage works. The second level crossing was over another minor path known as Lymm Hay Lane, before bridging a farm access track. This was followed by a bridge over Sow Brook, which flows out of the Lymm Dams and empties into the Manchester Ship Canal. The third level crossing was a controlled one over Whitbarrow Road, adjacent to Lymm Station. The main station building was on the north side, as was the crossing keeper’s cottage, while an Inn was on the south side. A footbridge with abutments at the back of the keeper’s cottage joined the two platforms. The signal box was on the north side of the line on the opposite side of the road from the Station Master’s House.

The fourth level crossing was also a controlled one over Star Lane, just north of the Bridgewater Canal aqueduct. Between Star Lane and Camsley Lane a footbridge had to be built to preserve a pedestrian right-of-way between Camsley Lane and Warrington Road.

The next underpass was at Camsley Lane. From Camsley Lane it is a further 1¼ miles before the next major underpass on Stockport Road, just northeast of the Dog and Duck crossroads. After leaving Camsley Lane there is first an underpass for a farm access, followed by an underpass at Deans Lane. Next, we come to Thelwall Station. The main station building was on the north side platform and it had a quite large station yard behind it with the entrance on Stockport Road. Two sidings branched westwards into the station yard.

From here the line bent slightly to the west, heading towards Latchford. Just south of Latchford there was a controlled level crossing over Knutsford Road. Another controlled level crossing took the line over Grappenhall Lane where Latchford & Grappenhall Station was situated.

There was no pedestrian bridge, but there was a track-level sleeper pedestrian crossing just inside the gates from platform to platform. The station opened under the name of Latchford & Grappenhall and was in use until the completion of the line over the Manchester Ship Canal on 9 August, 1893, when it closed.

The line continued its swing to the north and crossed over a pedestrian level crossing on a farm track before crossing the Black Bear Canal by an overbridge, which is no longer there. It was situated about 30 yards to the southwest of the present overbridge. It was much lower in height, just enough to clear the barges using the canal. From the canal the line continued straight and level for ¾ of a mile to Wilderspool level crossing over Chester Road. Just before it reached the level crossing a branch line came off it in the reverse direction back towards the canal.

The line split, behind what is now Priestley College, into five shorter branches so that six sidings terminated at the Black Bear Canal. Just prior to the five-split, another branch split off and turned westwards. This again split into two with one of the branches terminating at Loushers Lane. The other branch ran alongside the Black Bear Canal, on the north side. This line and the Black Bear Canal then passed under Loushers Lane with the line terminating at Wilderspool Sidings behind Greenall’s Brewery.

It was the mid-1950s before the busiest level crossing on the line was lifted. This was the Wilderspool level crossing over Chester Road. It was replaced by a bridge which carried Chester Road over the line.

The line then crossed over the Mersey to Arpley Station via a girder bridge. Until 1908 this bridge was tubular, similar to that at Menai, but with an open top. For many years the bridge carried an advertisement for ‘Falstaff’s Warrington Ale’.

Warrington Arpley Station had a grand façade and overall roof but only ever had two platforms, although four tracks passed through it.

In 1868 the LNWR lifted the elevation of their Newton to Birmingham line so that it crossed the former St Helens line on a bridge. They built a new station on two levels with platforms serving both lines. The Warrington and Stockport Railway was, from that time, known as the Low Level Line.

The new station was called Warrington Bank Quay and it was less than half a mile away from Arpley. The LNWR did not want two stations so close together on the same line so they closed Arpley on 16 November, 1868. This decision was met with storms of protest from the citizens of the town, as Arpley was closer to the town centre. The LNWR closure decision was challenged legally and they were forced to reopen the station on 2 October, 1871.

Warrington Arpley Station closed to passengers for the second and final time on 4 September, 1958.

Chapter 3 - Deviations Caused by the Manchester Ship Canal

Towards the end of the 19th century, a large project required major line deviations and the construction of major new bridges. This was the building of the Manchester Ship Canal, which would take ocean-going vessels directly from Liverpool to Manchester.

When the railways were first planned, assurances had had to be made that any crossings of rivers or canals would not prevent ships from uninterrupted passage on any of those waters, or any future canals. Railways were to have their bridges made to swing or cross with 100 feet of headroom, as was first envisaged, for clearance. Although swinging bridges carrying main roads across canals were acceptable it was considered impractical for railway lines. So, new high-level bridges were constructed at a height of around 75 feet above the water level of the new Manchester Ship Canal, and this required the construction of railway deviations with suitable gradients.

A skew bridge carries the Warrington to Stockport Railway deviation across the MSC just to the west of Latchford Locks. This is a hog-backed steel girder bridge with a span of 250 feet supported on piers constructed of blue brickwork; the weight of the steel work in this bridge being 1,220 tons. The piers of this bridge are a mammoth feat of brickwork and, on completion, the bridge was tested under the weight of 6 locomotives.

The Latchford viaduct was opened for goods traffic in February 1893, but not until July of that year did the railway Inspectorate pass it as fit for passenger trains. The last pieces of land were released, and work could commence on cutting through the final sections, thus severing the original line. On the north side of the MSC part of the line was kept as sidings and part was used by the MSC’s own industrial railway.

The alignment of the new High Level Bridge required a new approach to it. The height of the bridge also required a gradual incline.

After crossing the Latchford viaduct, two new overpasses took the line over Knutsford Road and Grappenhall Lane, along the north side of Station Road, doing away with two level crossings.  A new high-level station, called Latchford Station, was built to the west of the Grappenhall Lane overpass. The booking office was on the same level as Station Road and was of typical LNWR wooden construction. Steps led up to the platforms and there was a subway to the Manchester-bound side.

The station waiting room was on the Manchester-bound side. The LNWR prefabricated the buildings at its Crewe works, transported them to the site and erected them. They were without canopies and the platforms were also made of wood. The station had gaslights all its life.

Within 200 yards of the above bridge is another overbridge which the locals used to call ‘Caravan Entry’ because they thought that gipsies lived in a caravan just under the bridge. This overbridge replaced the pedestrian level crossing, which the farmer used to get to his fields (now Woolacombe Close – see Chapter 4).

From here the line passed over the Black Bear Canal by means of a new overpass which was situated about 30 yards to the northeast of the original overpass. There was then another overbridge at the end of Park Lane, probably with the intention of continuing Park Lane under it. It then merged into the original line just before Wilderspool level crossing over Chester Road.

Chapter 4 - The Route of the Line as it is Now

From the Stockport Road underpass the line continues straight for just over half a mile. It also climbs on a gentle gradient to gain height for the crossing of the Thelwall High Level Bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal. Before the High Level Bridge, which can be seen in the far distance, we reach an overbridge carrying the track over Bradshaw Lane.

Latchford Station closed to passengers on the 10 September, 1962, when all regular passenger services on the line ceased. The line continued to be heavily used for freight but mainly for the transportation of coal to Fiddlers Ferry Power Station. The line also went to Garston Docks. As late as the early 1980s, there were 60 trains per day booked to use the line east of Warrington. However, extensive and expensive repairs were needed to the High Level Bridge at Latchford. Because many trains were able to avoid the High Level Bridge by taking an alternative route, the line was closed east of Latchford. The last booked trains crossed over the High Level Bridge on 7 August, 1985.

Turning right off the canal, immediately after going under the bridge, is a footpath which runs through the old sidings, on the original Low Level Line, towards Bridge Foot. There are now no sidings to be seen and behind Priestley College a metal railing prevents further progress. On the other side of the fence the lines can still be seen and these are still used for shunting purposes. Walking back towards Black Bear Park the positions of the branch line sidings can still be seen as walking tracks. Occasionally, as one walks along, old sleepers, chairs and rail can be seen.

Chapter 5 - Memories and Reflections

Memories of the Low Level, by a Local Boy

In 1935, when I was 5 years of age, my family moved into the Post Office in Loushers Lane. In 1951, I lived in my wife’s family home in Secker Avenue. After a short time we moved to a police house in Loushers Lane and remained there until 1974. So, for almost 40 years, I could view both Low Level lines from where I lived.

In 1932, or 1923, my father had a shop built for him close to the bridge in Wash Lane. It is still standing today. My dad ran it as a newsagents and tobacconists but when he moved into the Post Office in Loushers Lane it became a chip shop, as it still is. In the past, goods train drivers would send their firemen down the embankment to get fish and chips while the train waited at the signal. No doubt they also got some for the signalman.

Mr Cockgreave lived at the crossing-keeper’s cottage on the original line crossing Wash Lane. When I moved to the police house in Loushers Lane this line was still being used by the MDC Company. Our garden came right up to this line and I could almost touch the saddle tanks. I would chat to the driver since he had to stop here to let his mate go and open the crossings.

Back to when I was a boy living at the post office, I knew the times of all the passenger trains and their engine numbers, it was the same ones on the same trains. Two would pass about 4.20, one on the ‘up’ and one on the ‘down’. I never knew which was which since neither was going up to London.

If I remember correctly, there were about 4 up to 9.00am and 2 at 1.10pm. Next came the 4.20pm. When I was at the Grammar School I could still see the trains and I remember Ma O’Brien who lived, I think, at Lymm. She would rush off and catch this 4.20pm train.

When I was courting, Dot and I would sit on an old tennis court roller in the field, which is now Woolacombe Close. I think it was the 9.20pm train that told us it was time to go home. We were only 14 at the time.

The war was on and I had seen the film ‘Ghost Train’ with Arthur Askey. This was a propaganda film about the train being run by Nazis carrying guns. At about midnight a mail train would leave Bank Quay Low Level going to Normanton. As a boy I imagined it full of Nazis and you could still see the glare from the firebox even though they had canvas sheeting during the blackout.

It was a steep incline and often goods trains couldn’t make it and had to wait for another engine to get them over the bridge at the Manchester Ship Canal.

The person who worked at Latchford Station would come to the Post Office to buy his cigarettes. He was the Station Master, booking-office clerk and ticket collector. He would close the station during the morning and afternoon. I remember him well; he spent hours in the shop, in his uniform, chatting to dad. I never knew his name; we called him ‘bad teeth’ (not to his face). His teeth were horrible.

I spent many hours on Latchford Station watching the trains and the coal wagons taken into the siding. I got to know the signals – there was a home and a starter on the same post - and Mrs Hands, off the estate, was one of the signal operators.

I was lucky on one occasion whilst on Latchford Station, getting to go on the footplate to Bank Quay. I remember the driver telling me to duck down so the signalman wouldn’t see me.

On the 13 May, 1949, I was with Dot on Latchford Station and we got engaged.

We had friends who lived in Statham. We would catch the 4.20 to Lymm and return on the 11.something. This train terminated at Bank Quay.

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