A railway had reached Rhos (full name Rhosllanerchrugog) in January 1867 when the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) opened an extension to its single-track Pontcysyllte Branch between Wynn Hall and the Llwyneinion Brick Works just to the north of Rhos. The OS 6-inch scale map published in 1879 shows that the Pontcysyllte Branch was connected to numerous local industries including collieries, brick works, clay works and an iron works and it was a successful revenue earner for the LNWR. Being completely isolated from the LNWR system the branch was at first worked by a locomotive owned by the New British Iron Company but in December 1870 an 0-4-0 locomotive of the LNWR arrived from Crewe. From the late 1870s industrial decline afflicted the area and the Pontcysyllte Branch became a less attractive proposition for the LNWR.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was the dominant railway company in the area: its Shrewsbury and Chester main line was located only a mile to the east of Rhos and had connections into the Vale of Llangollen including lines that linked to the industries around Pontcysyllte. However in the mid-1890s the residents of Rhos, frustrated at not having a direct rail connection to the town, formed the East Denbighshire Railway (EDR) so that they could build their own line. This spurred the GWR in to action and in 1896 they purchased the Pontcysyllte Branch from the LNWR for £51,000. On 6 August 1897 the GWR obtained an Act to build a 3¾-mile single-track line from their Shrewsbury and Chester railway (at what became Rhos Junction) to an end-on connection with the Pontcysyllte Branch at Rhos. The line opened in 1901 and passenger services were introduced on 1 October 1901.
Brook Street crossed the line by means of a level crossing and it was also the location of the Rhos station goods facilities. Located on the north side of Brook Street on the east side of the line the goods facilities were fairly substantial consisting of a goods office, goods shed, weighing machine, two sidiings and a 1-ton lifting crane. The single-road goods shed was an austere, brick-built affair under a pitched roof. A small awning projected from the eastern wall and the attached office, also of brick with a pitched roof, was located at the southern end.
As Brook Street was only 14 chains south of Rhos passenger station its location close to the town centre can have been the only motivating factor for the GWR to locate a halt there. The passenger service introduced in October 1901 ran only between Rhos and Wrexham General and line to the south of the passenger station was only by goods traffic. So that passenger services could be extended southwards from Rhos passenger station the line had to be upgraded. Improvements were made to the section of line between Rhos station and Wynn Hall and at Brook Street a signal box was provided. 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 east side of the line.
Throughout the life of the halt passengers could travel northwards to Wrexham General (via Rhos, Legacy and Rhostyllen) and south to Wynn Hall Halt via Pant. The November 1906 timetable (click here to see it) 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 and to Wynn Hall it was 8 minutes. The services were operated by a rail-motor.
In 1912 the Wrexham and District Electric Tramways Company (changed to the Wrexham and District Transport Company Limited in 1914) introduced motor-bus services to Rhos and the surrounding area and they successfully competed with the rail-motor service. The buses proved to be far more convenient than the trains and the result was a loss of passengers from the railway. On 22 March 1915 the GWR withdrew the passenger service between Rhos and Wynn Hall Halt and Brook Street Halt closed completely.
Being a simple structure it is likely that the halt was removed shortly after closure. On 31 May 1927 Brook Street signal box was closed and it is likely that the line to the south of Rhos reverted to goods only status after that date.
Goods services continued to use the line and the passenger service between Rhos and Wrexham General continued to operate until 1 January 1931.
The Pontcysyllte Branch passed into the ownership of British Railways in 1948. In 1953 the section of line between Pant (to the south of Brook Street) and Pontcysyllte was closed completely and it was lifted shortly afterwards. The Rhos goods facilities at Brook Street remained open and trains continued to run south to Pant to serve the Pant Brick Works until 14 October 1963 when the line to Rhos Junction was closed to all traffic. Track-lifting had commenced by July 1964. Interestingly during the track-lifting wagons were stabled in the sidings at Brook Street.
After the track had gone the goods shed was demolished. In 2015 a car park occupied the site. |