Notes: Dunham station was situated on the Warrington & Stockport Railway (W&S) which opened on 1 November 1853. The W&S route was authorised on 3 July 1851 as a line of the Warrington & Altrincham Railway (W&A) that would run to Warrington from a connection with the Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway (MSJAR) at Timperley Junction. At Warrington the W&A was authorised to make an end-on connection with the SHC&RC Garston and Warrington line and with the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) and the Birkenhead Joint Railway (BJR) at Walton Junction. On 4 August 1853 the W&A changed its name to the W&S.

Dunham station first appeared in the timetable in December 1853. Its most likely location was on the west side of School Lane to the north of Dunham. The station does not appear on any maps and no photos have yet come to light so its layout remains a mystery.

At the time of opening the W&S ran from a temporary station at Warrington Wilderspool to Broadheath. Broadheath was over a mile from Altrincham and was nowhere near Stockport . A comment made at the time was that the W&S went ‘from nowhere to nowhere’. It had not been the intention of the W&S to have an isolated line. The purpose of the W&S had been to create a route from Warrington to Manchester via the MSJAR railway. In doing so the SHC&RC would be able to reach Manchester from Garston and the BJR would have a link to the city from its network. The problem was that the MSJAR was under the joint ownership of the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) & the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR). The LNWR was hostile to the idea of trains running between the BJR and the SHC&RC lines and Manchester as they saw this as creating routes to its own. For that reason the LNWR obstructed the W&S, putting it in a precarious financial position.

A bridge over the Mersey was completed in the early months of 1854 and the W&S opened to Warrington Arpley on 1 May 1854. On the same day the line was also extended to Timperley Junction where it connected to the MSJAR.

Legal wrangling followed, and an arbitrator gave the W&S the right to run its trains over the MSJAR line to Manchester Oxford Road but at a financial cost that the W&S considered to be too high. The W&S had no choice but to pay, and their trains started to run between Warrington Arpley and Manchester Oxford Road on 31 October 1854.

Things went from bad to worse for the W&S. Companies such as the BJR had obtained running rights over the line and the W&S had anticipated healthy receipts from them. The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a partner in the BJR and it intended to run services to Manchester via the W&S. In spring 1855 the line from Warrington Arpley to Walton Junction opened (the junction being just to the west of the station) making the GWR plan feasible. The problem was that the GWR and the LNWR were hostile to each other and the LNWR would not allow the GWR to use the MSJAR. The W&S had obtained an Act to build a line to Stockport at the time of its name change, but because of the turn of events it did not have the funds to proceed and the powers lapsed. The W&S company was never to reach Stockport (it was extended from Broadheath to Stockport in 1865 by the Cheshire Lines Committee).

Dunham station must have been un-remunerative because it last appeared in the timetable in April 1855.

The LNWR took out a lease of the W&S on 13 August 1859 and absorbed it fully on 1 January 1861. The line through the site of Dunham station became a secondary passenger line but a very busy freight artery. It lost its local passenger service on 10 September 1962 and it closed completely on 7 July 1985.

The line was lifted in 1988, and in the late 1990s its course through Dunham was developed as part of the Trans-Pennine Way long distance path.

Tickets from Michael Stewart and route map by Alan Young

Sources:

• Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies - Christopher Awdry - Guild Publishing 1990.
• The Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway - Frank Dixon - The Oakwood Press 1994.
• The Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway - Martain Bairstow - Published by Martin Bairstow 2014.
• The St Helens Railway, Its Rivals and Successors – J M Tolston – The Oakwood Press 1982.

To see stations on the Warrington and Stockport railway click on the station name: Warrington Arpley, Warrington Wilderspool, Latchford (1st),
Latchford (2nd), Thelwall, Lymm, Heatley & Warburton, Dunham Massey & Broadheath.

See also the stations on the Garston and Warrington railway: Garston Dock,
Speke, Halebank, Ditton, Ditton Mill, Widnes (1st), Widnes South, Cuerdley, Fidlers Ferry & Penketh, Sankey Bridges &
Warrington Bank Quay Low Level.