16.6.1947 (temporary)     14.12.1949 (permanent)

Passengers (temporary) and minerals: London, Midland & Scottish Railway
Passengers (permanent): British Railways (London Midland Region)

Buildings and platforms demolished. Subway and steps survive and are in use.

Notes: The station opened on the extension of the Facit Branch northwards to Bacup in 1881. This section of line was double-track, and at Shawforth two flanking platforms were built. Britannia, the other roadside station on the double-track section, was provided with an island platform. At Shawforth each platform had a similar single-storey stone building, with a distinctive roofline of three pitches facing the platforms, creating a ridge-and-furrow appearance which was complemented by the verandahs which extended to the edges of the platforms. This style of roof and awning articulation was also found at Facit (down platform), some of the LYR Manchester-Whitefield-Radcliffe stations and at Hapton, between Accrington and Burnley.  The booking hall at Shawforth stood east of the up platform at a lower level, tucked into a recess in the embankment. It was stone-built with paired window openings either side of the central doorway. The roof was hipped and partially glazed. A subway from the booking hall gave access to the platforms; the presence of a siding behind the up platform made subway approach to this platform necessary. The signal box stood a short distance south of the down platform. It opened with the line in 1881 and was a Gloucester Wagon Co structure equipped with a Saxby & Farmer 21-lever frame.

Whereas most of the intermediate stations between Rochdale and Bacup were sited on level stretches of line, on the steep climb north through Shawforth the gradient slackened to 1 in 260, but still rising. Most of the journey north from Facit (altitude 775ft) to Shawforth (897ft) was at 1 in 39, and beyond Shawforth the climb continued at 1 in 40 to the line’s summit (967ft) just before Britannia station. The exceptional gradients made goods train operations difficult, and Shawforth had a coal yard, but no general goods-handling facilities.

The railway from the south approached Shawforth through a cutting, with a loop on the up (east) side extending behind and beyond the platform to reach a four-track coal yard north of the station. Coal was supplied to the booking hall by means of a chute which was installed adjacent to the track leading to the coal yard; coal was shovelled directly from a wagon down the chute to a coal bunker on the lower level.  On the down side another loop extended from the south to north of the station passing behind the platform. At the south end of the loop a siding led to Isaac Law’s quarry; it was installed circa 1882 and taken up in 1913/14, with the connection removed in 1917. Further north was a siding to Shawforth Brick Co; the firm also owned an incline which extended from their works up the valley side to a clay pit. The brick works closed in 1910.

In 1922 the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway which had built and operated the route was absorbed by the London & North Western Railway, which itself became part of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway in the ‘Grouping’ of 1923.

During World War 2 the services between Rochdale and Bacup remained fairly frequent although at irregular intervals: a feature of the timetable since the early days of the line. In July 1943 trains left Rochdale for Bacup at the following times: 7.00 and 9.25am; 12.05pm, 1.25, 4.20, 6.30 (Saturday excepted [SX]), 6.45 (Saturday only [SO]), 8.17 and 10.40 (SO). All trains called at Shawforth. Trains departed from Bacup for Rochdale at 6.41, 7.17, 8.07 and 9.37am; 12.48 (SO), 1.30, 2.07, 3.13 (SO), 4.45 (SO), 5.12 (SX), 5.52, 6.25 (SO) and 7.44. No passenger trains ran on Sunday.

Shawforth signal box, sited on the down side, south of the station, ceased to be a block post sometime during the 1943-44 period, although the box continued in use as a ground frame until about 1952.

After the war, during which this and many other lines suffered reductions in train frequency, the service improved, as shown in the table below for 7 October 1946 to 4 May 1947:

Whereas up trains were allowed 3 minutes for the journey from Shawforth to Facit, the next station southward, in the opposite direction the time was 5 minutes as they faced the punishing uphill 1 in 39 gradient for most of the 1¼ miles between the stations.

At some stage, probably shortly after the war, a buffer stop had been installed on the south side of the subway overbridge on the siding giving access to the coal yard on the north-east side.  This effectively stopped use of the coal yard; it could have been installed after Shawforth station signal box ceased to be a block post. It is possible that defects had appeared in the bridge over the subway, making it necessary to cut off the coal yard.

Shawforth station lost its passenger services when they were suspended by the LMS during a ‘coal crisis’ in June 1947. By this time the coal traffic handled here had declined significantly. In this somnolent state, Shawforth passed into British Railways’ London Midland Region, under whose administration the closure was declared permanent in December 1949. Whilst the other Facit Branch stations continued to handle goods and mineral traffic after closure to passengers in 1947/49, Shawforth did not.  Because of the steepness of the gradients goods traffic worked through Shawforth and Britannia only in exceptional circumstances and goods traffic from Bacup worked via the Irwell Valley route. From June 1947 the line on which Shawforth station stood saw only light engine operations between Facit and Bacup engine shed, but it was closed to all traffic on 5 May 1952. Thereafter the track remained in place, notionally for wagon storage, but there is no record of the line ever being used for this purpose, and the rails had been lifted by the end of 1964.

Before the rails were removed a housing development called Knowsley Crescent began to advance from the north and west towards the decaying remains of Shawforth station. Once the rails disappeared and the station was demolished Knowsley Crescent spread across the station site on its high embankment. A practical solution for pedestrians wishing to reach Knowsley Crescent, at its much higher elevation, from Quarry Street was found by retaining the old station subway. The walled entrance to the subway on Knowsley Crescent makes a most unusual contribution to the townscape. A stone tablet in the subway commemorates the inauguration of ‘Shawforth Station Redevelopment Scheme’ on Tuesday 28 April 1966. The OS 1: 2,500 map of 1968 shows the housing development on the site of Shawforth station to be complete.

Click here for a brief history and bibliography of the Bacup to Rochdale line.

To see other stations on the Bacup - Rochdale line click on
the station name:
Bacup, Britannia, Facit, Whitworth, Broadley, Shawclough & Healey, Wardleworth & Rochdale 1st Station

See also special feature: Facit branch viaducts and the Siamese bridges