Station Name: HEATON (1st site)

[Source: Alan Young]

Date opened:

By 5.1841                            

Location:

Immediately north-east of Heaton Road bridge

Company on opening:

Newcastle & North Shields Railway

Date closed to passengers: 1.4.1887
Date closed completely:

1.4.1887  (Goods facilities are believed not to have been provided)

Company on closing: North Eastern Railway
Present state:

Demolished - the station was demolished immediately after closure to allow for the widening of the line and the building of the second station which overlapped the first site.

County: Northumberland
OS Grid Ref:

NZ269652

Date of visit: 1.9.1972

Notes: The first Heaton station stood in a cutting on the double track shared by the East Coast main line and the Newcastle & North Shields route. A precise opening date has not been traced, but an advertisement placed in Newcastle Journal on 15 May 1841 by the Newcastle & Shields Railway gives the train timetable commencing 24 May, and this includes ‘Heaton Hall Lane’ as one of the stations; no other reference has been found to Heaton station by this name.       

There were two platforms approximately 100 yd in length. The principal building stood on the down (NW) platform, facing a smaller building on the up platform.  When it opened the station stood in a rural location, the nearest village being Byker Hill, about ¼ mile to the east, but during the later decades of the 19th century the terraces of the residential suburb of Heaton began to fill the fields on both sides of the railway. Although the NER authorized a new station in 1861 the first station was not replaced until 1887 when the track was quadrupled between Manors and Heaton Junction, and the second station was constructed on an adjacent site to the west of Heaton Road. The first station was presumably erased by the widening works.

See Heaton History Group web site

Click here for a brief history of the East Coast Main Line
in Northumberland.

Sources:

Further reading: Young, Alan   Suburban Railways of Tyneside (Pub: Martin Bairstow 1999). Young, Alan   Railways of Northumberland (Pub: Martin Bairstow 2003).

See other ECML stations:Tweedmouth, Scremerston, Goswick, Beal, Smeafield, Crag Mill, Belford, Lucker,
Newham, Fallodon,
Little Mill, Longhoughton,Lesbury, Warkworth, Longhirst, Ashington Colliery Junction, Morpeth, Stannington, Plessey, Annitsford (1st), Annitsford (2nd), Killingworth, Forest Hall, Heaton (2nd), Durham, Croft Spa, Eryholme, Otterington, Alne & Tollerton


This is the only illustration found of the first Heaton station. The view is south-westwards from the up platform towards Heaton Road bridge. The main building is seen on the down platform; it is a remarkable structure for a minor, rural station, having three storeys and is taller than it is wide. The building looks somewhat top-heavy, as the upper storey windows below the pitched roof are as tall as those on the other floors. A more conventional single-storey block adjoins the main building. The station became part of the North Eastern Railway in 1854, and the ‘coiled serpent’ bench on the down platform is likely to be that company’s addition. When the route was quadrupled in 1887 this station was closed and its successor was built on the far side of the bridge.

1864 Ordnance Survey map

Looking north east at the site of the first Heaton Station in August 1980
Photo by Alan Lewis from his Flickr web site

The site of the first Heaton Station in December 2008
Photo by Ali Ford



 

 

 

[Source: Alan Young]



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