Station Name: LLANGOLLEN ROAD

[Source: Paul Wright]


Date opened: 14.10.1848
Location: South side of the A5
Company on opening: Shrewsbury & Chester Railway
Date closed to passengers: 1.7.1862
Date closed completely: 10.6.1963
Company on closing: Great Western Railway
Present state: Station building extant.
County: Denbighshire
OS Grid Ref: SJ286399
Date of visit: 23.11.2015

Notes: Llangollen Road was one of the original stations of the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway which opened between Shrewsbury and Ruabon on 14 October 1848. The S&CR was formed in July 1846 out of a merger of the North Wales Mineral Railway (NWMR) and the Shrewsbury, Oswestry & Chester Junction Railway (SO&CJR). The NWMR had started the construction of a line between Saltney Junction (near Chester) and Ruabon via Wrexham in 1844. The first section of the line opened between Saltney Junction and a temporary station at Rhosymedre on 4 November 1846. The SO&CJR was set up to create a route between Shrewsbury and Chester and the merger enabled that task to be carried out through an extension of the NWMR line.

The station at Llangollen Road was located on the south side of the London and Holyhead road, engineered by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826 (later to become the A5), a mile to the north of Chirk. The location was in a remote spot and the purpose of the station was to provide a railhead for the town of Llangollen which lay 5¼ miles to the west.

The main facilities were located on the up side (Shrewsbury direction) of the double-track line in a single-storey L-shape building of uncoursed stone. The steeply pitched roofs were crowned by tall chimneystacks, and low parapets, capped by spiked stone finials, were found at the gables.

Goods facilities were also provided at the station. They included sidings, a goods shed, a weighing machine and a lifting crane all located to the south of the station on the east side of the line.

Llangollen Road was served by trains that ran between Shrewsbury and Chester and also onto the Oswestry branch. The March 1850 timetable showed six trains in each direction Monday-to-Saturday as shown in the table below. There were two trains in each direction on Sundays.

Up Trains - March 1850 Destination Down Trains - March 1850 Destination
5.18am Shrewsbury 5.07am Chester
8.57am Shrewsbury 7.56am Chester
11.30am Shrewsbury 9.35am Chester
2.37pm Shrewsbury 1.00pm Chester
5.08pm Shrewsbury 3.18pm Chester
6.12pm Shrewsbury 5.04pm Chester
9.59pm Oswestry 7.38pm Chester

Connecting road coaches ran between the station and the town of Llangollen using the well-constructed Holyhead road. Through ticketing was available and Llangollen was shown on the timetables. The price of a second class ticket to Shrewsbury in 1850 was 3 shillings and 8 pence. A second class ticket to Chester cost 3 shillings and 3 pence.

On 1 September 1854 the S&CR was taken over by the Great Western Railway (GWR). On 1 May 1857 the GWR introduced a Birmingham - Birkenhead passenger service onto the line and on 1 October 1861 a London Paddington - Birkenhead service. Some of these trains would have served Llangollen Road.

On 2 June 1862 the GWR opened a line from Ruabon (2 mile to the north of Llangollen Road) to Llangollen. As the town could now be reached by train there was little need for Llangollen Road as a passenger station and it closed for that purpose on 1 July 1862. The station continued to be used for goods services.

By this time the former S&CR line had become a major trunk route of the GWR linking London Paddington to the river Mersey at Birkenhead.

By the end of the 1890s a signal box had opened at Llangollen Road. it was located on the down side of the line opposite the goods shed.

On 1 October 1905 the GWR opened a halt on the north side of the Holyhead road. It was initially called Llangollen Road but after only seven months it was renamed Whitehurst Halt on 1 May 1906. The halt lasted until 12 September 1960 by which time the line was part of British Railways Western Region.

Llangollen Road closed to goods services on 10 June 1963. The sidings were lifted soon after and the signal box closed on 2 February 1964.

In 2015 the original station building at Llangollen Road was extant and in use as a domestic dwelling.

Sources:

  • A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain - Volume II North & Mid Wales - Peter E Baughan - David & Charles 1980.
  • Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies - Christopher Awdry - Guild Publishing 1990.
  • Paddington to the Mersey - Dr R. Preston Hendry & R. Powell Hendry - Oxford Publishing Company 1992.
  • Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain - A Chronology - Michael Quick - Railway & Canal Historical Society 2009.

To see the other stations on the Shrewsbury - Chester General line click on the station name: Shrewsbury S&C, Leaton, Oldwoods Halt, Baschurch,
Stanwardine Halt
,
Haughton Halt, Rednal & West Felton,
Whittington Low Level,
Weston Rhyn, Trehowell Halt, Whitehurst Halt, Rhosymedre, Cefn, Rhosymedre Halt, Wynnville Halt, Johnstown & Hafod, Rhos, Rhosrobin Halt, Gresford, Rossett, Pulford, Balderton and Saltney


A view looking south at Llangollen Road station in 1949. The main station building had survived closure and was in use as a private residence. At this time goods were still being handled and the facilities for that traffic can be seen to the right of the former passenger station.
Copyright photo from the John Alsop collection




Llangollen Road shown on a 1:2,500 scale map from 1872.

Llangollen Road station shown on a six-inch scale map from 1873. The station had been closed for eleven years when the map was surveyed.

The site of Llangollen Road station looking north on 23 November 2015. The station building is behind the vegetation to the right.
P
hoto by Paul Wright

The Llangollen Road station building seen from the Holyhead road on 23 November 2015.
P
hoto by Paul Wright

A view looking south at the Llangollen Road station goods yard on 23 November 2015.
P
hoto by Paul Wright

 

 

 

[Source: Paul Wright]




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