Westleigh railway station

Westleigh
Location
Place	Leigh
Area	Wigan
Coordinates	53°29′55″N 2°31′36″W / 53.4985°N 2.5268°WCoordinates: 53°29′55″N 2°31′36″W / 53.4985°N 2.5268°W
Grid reference	SD651003
Operations
Original company	Bolton and Leigh Railway
Pre-grouping	London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping	London Midland and Scottish Railway
Platforms	2
History
13 June 1831	Station opened as "Leigh"
1 August 1876	Renamed "West Leigh" or "Westleigh"
29 March 1954	Station closed[1]
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LNWR Lines to Bolton
Legend
Deansgate Goods Bolton Great Moor St Bolton Crook Street Original alignment shown in green Rumworth & Daubhill Daubhill 1831 Plodder Lane Shed Plodder Lane Chequerbent Chequerbent 1831 Little Hulton Wigan Wallgate Manchester-Southport LYR Walkden High Level Walkden Low Level Atherton Bag Lane Wigan NW Manchester & Wigan Rly Atherleigh Westleigh Worsley Leigh Plank Lane Bridgewater Canal Tyldesley Loopline Monton Green Pennington Eccles Kenyon Junction Lime St-Manchester Chat Moss Line

Westleigh or West Leigh was a station in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England on the Bolton and Leigh Railway line. Westleigh was situated within the historic county of Lancashire. Its station opened in 1831 and closed in 1954.^[2]

History

The Bolton and Leigh Railway reached Leigh in 1830 and was extended by the construction of the Kenyon and Leigh Junction Railway, which received Royal Assent in 1829, to Kenyon Junction by 1831 creating a junction with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The station at Westleigh was named Leigh when it opened for passengers in 1831 and its name changed in 1876. Following amalgamations, from 1846 it was owned by the London & North Western Railway.

Structure and operations

1911 map showing the station's location (centre right) to the west of Leigh and south of Westleigh

The station had two platforms. In the 1930s up to 20 trains per day operated between Kenyon Junction and Bolton via Westleigh.^[3] Stations on the line became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923 and the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. They were closed by the British Transport Commission six years later in 1954 when the line to Bolton Great Moor Street closed.^[4]

Holiday excursion trains and Rugby League specials called at the station up to 1958.^[2]

References

Notes

1. Butt 1995, p. 246
2. Westleigh, disused-stations.org.uk, retrieved 23 November 2015
3. Sweeney 1996, p. 55
4. Sweeney 1996, p. 11

Bibliography

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.
• Sweeney, D.J. (1996), A Lancashire Triangle Part One, Triangle Publishing, ISBN 0-9529333-0-6

Further reading

• Holland, Bert (2001), Plodder Lane for Farnworth, Leigh: Triangle Publishing, ISBN 0-9529333-6-5
• Smith, Paul; Turner, Keith (2012), Railway Atlas Then and Now, Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7110-3695-6

External links

• The station on a 1948 OS map via npe maps
• The station on an 1888 OS map overlay via National Library of Scotland
• The station and line via railwaycodes