| Notes: Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform served Chester Golf Club and was situated on the Dee & Birkenhead Committee’s (D&BC) line between Hawarden Bridge and Bidston. The D&BC was a joint concern consisting of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) and the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway (WM&CQR). The MS&LR had opened a line from Chester Northgate to |
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the south bank of the River Dee via the Hawarden Bridge on 31st March 1890. It made an end-on connection with the WM&CQR who had opened a line from Buckley to the River Dee a few days earlier. At Buckley the line connected with the original WM&CQR line of 1866 which gave access to Wrexham. A through route had thereby been created between Chester and Wrexham that could compete with the Great Western Railway (GWR).
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The MS&LR had ambitions to reach the River Mersey at Birkenhead, and it was for this reason that they lured the WM&CQR into the Dee & Birkenhead Committee venture. Bidston was on the Wirral Railway’s (WR) network. The WR had originally proposed a line to link with the WM&CQR, and they had even received an Act to build it, but they could not raise the capital. They were happy, therefore, to offer running rights over their network to the D&BC.
Work on the line began on 21st October 1892 and it opened on 18th May 1896; Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform opened on the same day. It replaced an earlier halt that served the Chester Golf Club, which had been further to the south, on the MS&LR Chester Northgate to Hawarden Bridge line.
Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform was situated just to the north of Birkenhead Junction, the point at which a line diverged from the Hawarden Bridge and Bidston line heading east to make a connection with the MS&LR line Chester line. The line allowed trains to run directly between Chester and Bidston and created a triangle of lines south of the station. At the same time as Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform opened so, too, did Chester Junction Golf Club Platform. It was located east of Chester Junction, the point at which the line from Birkenhead Junction merged with the MS&LR line.
Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform had two platforms. It appears not to have had any waiting facilities. A footpath connected the Chester Golf Course club house to the southbound platform at its southern end. The club house itself was a short distance to the southeast of the platform adjacent to the Chester connecting line. South of the southbound platform there was a signal box which controlled the Birkenhead Junction. West of the line, behind the northbound platform, was an area of sidings that led into a steelworks.
On 7th August 1896 the D&BC changed its name to the North Wales & Liverpool Committee (NW&LRC) and on 1st August 1897 the MS&LR |
became the Great Central Railway (GCR). The GCR had been the driving force behind the Bidston line and they had pushed the WM&CQR beyond their financial limits: in 1897 the WM&CQR went into receivership.
Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform was not shown in the public timetable. It is likely that scheduled services called at the station by request. A regular passenger service between Seacombe and Chester Northgate and between Seacombe and Wrexham Central passed through the station.
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On 1st January 1905 the GCR officially took over the WM&CQR; the lines between Wrexham and Bidston and to Chester Northgate – including Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform - therefore became GCR property. The station continued to serve the golf club throughout the GCR era and, after 1st January 1923, as a London & North Eastern Railway facility, but it |
fell out of use after 20th September 1927.
The area surrounding the station continued to develop with numerous sidings serving the steelworks, which continued to expand until the 1970s. The connecting line from the Birkenhead Junction (renamed Hawarden North Junction and then later Dee Marsh Junction) closed on 20th April 1984. It reopened on 31st March 1986 but closed completely in June 1992.
In March 2011 Borderlands Line passenger services between Wrexham and Bidston still passed the site of Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform.
Ticket from Michael Stewart, Route map drawn by Alan Young
Sources:
To see other stations on the Wrexham Central to Bidston Line click
Wrexham Central, Wrexham Exchange, Rhosddu, Hope High Level, Buckley (1st station), Chester Golf Club Halt, Sealand Rifle Range Halt, Burton Point, Storeton,
See also
Liscard & Poulton, Seacombe
See also MS&LR Stations between Shotton and Chester Northgate
Chester Junction Golf Club Platform, Sealand, Saughall, Blacon, Chester Liverpool Road, Chester Northgate
See also related items
The Buckley Railway
Hawarden Loop
Hawarden Bridge
Railways at Bidston |
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