Pendlebury railway station

Pendlebury railway station was a station in the town of Pendlebury in Greater Manchester.

The station started life as part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's Pendleton and Hindley line that grew into (and still exists today as) the Manchester Victoria to Wigan Wallgate line. Heading from Manchester towards Wigan, the proceeding station was at Irlams o' th' Height (closed in 1956), and the following station was at Swinton (still open). Pendlebury station was closed in 1960 due to low usage.

Ownership had passed from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and upon nationalisation it became property of British Railways.

It was located on the Bolton Road (A666), opposite St. Augustine's Church and the former (appropriately named) Station Hotel pub which is nowadays the Isis Italian restaurant. The station was about 700 metres east of the present day Swinton 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 map shows no buildings on top of the tunnel's location, suggesting that it wasn't stable to be built upon at this time.

The Swinton and Pendlebury Journal of 7 October 1960 reported that the last train to call at Pendlebury station was the 23:21 from Manchester Victoria to Wigan on the previous Saturday (1 October 1960) - there were 6 people aboard one of whom was a 37-years-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 Irlams o' th' Height on March 3 1956 to purchase the last ever 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 an Italian restaurant called Isis. Some of the yellow brick work of the station is still visible on Bolton Road.

Clifton Hall Tunnel (sometimes called Black Harry Tunnel), part of the London and North Western Railway's Clifton Branch, ran underneath the eastern end of the station. 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.

External links