Brook Street Halt was opened by the Great Western Railway (GWR) on 1 May 1905 for the introduction of a rail-motor service that ran to Wrexham General via Rhos.

The halt was situated on the single-track GWR Pontcysyllte Branch which had been purchased from the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) in 1896. The section of line at Brook Street was an extension to the original Pontcysyllte Branch from Wynn Hall to the Llwyneinion Brick Works just to the north of Rhos; the extension had opened in January 1867. The GWR wanted to operate passenger services on part of the line and accordingly the company built the 3¾-mile Rhos Branch which connected Rhos (full name Rhosllanerchrugog) to its Shrewsbury and Chester main line at Rhos Junction (near Rhostyllen). Passenger services were introduced between Rhos and Wrexham General on 1 October 1901.

Brook Street itself was located on the western side of Rhos and possessed a level crossing over the railway. It was also the location of the Rhos station goods facilities, located on the north side of the street on the east side of the line. These facilities consisted of a goods office, a goods shed, a weighing machine, a 1-ton lifting crane and two sidings.

Although Brook Street was only 14 chains to the south of Rhos station it was closer to the centre of the town which is probably why the GWR decided to locate a halt there. The halt was located on the north side of the level crossing on the west side of the line, directly opposite the goods shed. It consisted of a single platform, most likely constructed from timber, and a shelter. Access was from Brook Street.

A signal box was opened for the introduction of the passenger service. It was a timber, ground-level box fitted with a 7-lever NK-type frame. The signal box is not marked as such on the 25-inch scale OS map of 1909 but a small building, likely to be the 1905 box, is shown adjacent to the track on the south side of the crossing and east side of the line.

Brook Street Halt was served by a rail-motor operated service between Wrexham General and Wynn Hall Halt. The November 1906 timetable showed ten services in each direction on Monday-to-Friday with two extra services each way on Saturday; no trains ran on Sunday. The journey time to Wrexham General was 19 minutes.

Bus services were introduced to the area in 1912 and they competed so successfully with the trains that the GWR withdrew the passenger service between Rhos and Wynn Hall Halt on 22 March 1915. Brook Street signal box was closed on 31 May 1927.

The Pontcysyllte branch remained in use for goods traffic until 1953 (being part of British Railways from January 1948) when the section between Pant Halt and Pontcysyllte was closed completely. Trains continued to travel through Brook Street after that date to serve a brick works at Pant.

The goods facilities also remained open and the 1956 RCH Handbook of stations listed it as being able to handle general goods and parcels (although the parcels might have been handled at Rhos passenger station, which had closed on 1 January 1931). The goods yard still possessed its 1-ton lifting crane.

The line closed to all traffic on 14 October 1963. Track-lifting had begun by July 1964 and the sidings at Brook Street were used to stable the wagons used to in the track-lifting and recovery of materials.

Tickets from Michael Stewart and route map by Alan Young

CLICK HERE TO SEE AN OS MAP SHOWING THE PASSENGER RAILWAYS OF THE WREXHAM AREA AT THEIR GREATEST EXTENT

CLICK HERE FOR A DETAILED HISTORY OF BROOK STREET HALT

Sources:

• Awdry, C  British railway companies (Guild Publishing,1990)
• Bodlander, A; Hambley, M; Leadbetter, H; Southern, D and Weatherley, S. Wrexham railways (Bridge Books, 1992)
• Bodlander, A; Hambley, M; Leadbetter, H; Southern, D and Weatherley, S. Wrexham railways vol.2  (Bridge Books, 1993)
• Bodlander, A; Hambley, M; Leadbetter, H; Southern, D and Weatherley, S. Marcher railways: the railways of Wrexham and Oswestry - a photographic  journey (Bridge Books, 2008)
• Clinker, C R Clinker’s register of closed passenger stations and goods depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830-1977 (Avon-Anglia,1978)
• Cobb, M H The Railways of Great Britain – vol.1 (Third Edition) (Author, 2015)
• Quick, Michael Railway passenger stations in Great Britain - a chronology (RCHS, 2009 and on-line supplements)

To see the other stations on the Rhos Branch click on the station name:
Rhostyllen, Legacy, Rhos, Pant Halt and Wynn Hall Halt

See also: Fennant Road Halt and, Aberderfyn Halt and Ponkey Crossing Halt
from the Legacy/Ponkey Branch

Click here to see Register of Closed Railways 1901 - 1994