Notes: Notes: Chester Junction Golf Club Platform was named after the club it served. It was on the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway’s (MS&LR) Chester Northgate to Hawarden Bridge line which had opened on 31st March 1890. The line made on 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).

At the time of opening the MS&LR provided a halt for the golf club, known as Chester Golf Club Halt. It was located further southwest, and north of the Hawarden Bridge. The additional halt was opened as a result of the MS&LR’s ambitions to reach the River Mersey at Birkenhead, to which end they lured the WM&CQR into the Dee & Birkenhead Committee venture to build a line from Hawarden Bridge to Bidston (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. Close to Chester Golf Course a triangle of railways developed so that trains from Chester could run north towards Bidston or south towards Wrexham. Wrexham trains could equally run north to Bidston or east to Chester, and Bidston trains could run south to Wrexham or east to Chester. The eastern point of the triangle was Chester Junction, and it was just east of here that Chester Junction Golf Club Platform was located.

The station opened on the same day as the line to Bidston, and the original Chester Golf Club Halt was closed and demolished. Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform opened at the same time, just north Birkenhead Junction - the northernmost point of the triangle of lines.

Chester Junction Golf Club Platform had two platforms. It appears to have had a small waiting shelter on the Chester-bound platform, which was connected to the Chester Golf Course club house at its western end. The club house itself was a short distance to the northwest, adjacent to the line between Chester and Bidston. Also located on this platform was a signal box which controlled the Chester Junction. 

On 7th August 1896 the D&BC changed its name to the North Wales & Liverpool Committee (NW&LRC) then 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.

Chester Junction Golf Club Platform was not shown in the public timetable. It is likely that the station would have been serviced by scheduled trains by request. A regular passenger service between Wrexham Central and Chester Northgate and between Seacombe and Chester Northgate passed through the station.

On 1st January 1905 the GCR officially took over the WM&CQR. The lines between Wrexham and Bidston and to Chester Northgate all became GCR property. Chester Junction Golf Club Platform 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.

Chester Junction was later renamed Hawarden Bridge East Junction. The original line of 1890 closed in 1968 when passenger services between Chester Northgate and Wrexham Central, and between Chester Northgate and New Brighton, were withdrawn; it was lifted some time after. The route from the site of Chester Junction towards Bidston remained in use for goods traffic until closure on 20th April 1984. It reopened to goods traffic on 31st March 1986, but closed completely in June 1992. In 2000 a cycleway opened through the site of Chester Junction Golf Club Platform.

Ticket from Michael Stewart, Route map drawn by Alan Young

To see other stations on the Chester Northgate to Wrexham Central Line click
Chester Northgate, Chester Liverpool Road,
Blacon, Saughall, Sealand, Chester Golf Club Halt, Hope High Level, Rhosddu, Wrexham Exchange, Wrexham Central

See also stations between Chester Junction and Bidston
Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform, Sealand Rifle Range Halt, Burton Point, Storeton

See also
Liscard & Poulton & Seacombe

See also related items

Hawarden Loop
Hawarden Bridge
Railways at Bidston