Station house incorporating former booking hall is extant

Notes: The station takes its name from Towneley Hall, an elegant house in extensive grounds, which was the residence of the Towneley family for 500 years until both the house and grounds were sold to Burnley Corporation in 1901. Although Bradshaw timetables do not include the station until September 1851 it is most likely that Towneley opened with the line between Todmorden and Burnley (Thorneybank / Manchester Road) on 12 November 1849; it was not uncommon for intermediate stations to be omitted from timetables. When it opened the station was in a rural setting, though there were nearby cottages to the east. The spelling of the station was given, incorrectly, as ‘Townley’ in the Railway Clearing House Handbook until 1890.

The station possessed two facing platforms immediately north-west of a level crossing, and the main building was on the up (north-east, or Todmorden-bound) platform. It was of two storeys, constructed of small sandstone blocks laid in courses, under a pitched slate roof, broken by a dormer. The north-western part of the building was set back a little way from the platform, followed by a small single-storey wing. A two-storey extension was on the side away from the platform. This building, although by no means an architectural gem, was superior to the others on the Copy Pit route; the design was presumably thought to be acceptable to the Towneley family. A timber waiting shed with a hipped roof was built on the down platform sometime after the station opened. The signal box was initially on the up platform, adjacent to the level crossing, but it was replaced in 1878 with a box south-east of the crossing, again on the up side of the tracks. The new box was a Saxby & Farmer Type 9, originally containing a 26-lever S&F frame, but fitted with a new 24-level LYR frame at a later date. The box was originally known as Towneley West, but it was renamed Towneley Station following the closure of the nearby Towneley Colliery Sidings box (see below) in December 1951.

Destinations are not always made clear in Bradshaw
* Approximate time. Stops to set down first class passengers only
¶ Summary timetable given with no information on Towneley calls. Burnley stated as destination

A generously-sized goods and mineral facility, controlled from 1878 by Towneley Colliery Sidings signal box, stretched south-east of the passenger station, on the opposite side of the level crossing. The OS plan of the station in its first decade shows three sidings and loading docks on the up side of the line and a further siding on the down side. There was clearly optimism that Burnley’s rapid growth as a coal mining and cotton weaving town in the mid nineteenth century would continue, requiring ample goods facilities.

About 20yd behind the down platform was a tramway from Boggart Bridge Pit and Towneley Colliery leading to a depot on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Precise operating dates of the tramway have not come to light, but it is shown on large scale OS maps between 1892 and 1931. In 1897 a macabre incident occurred at Towneley station: click here for details.

Destinations are not always made clear in the timetable

By the 1890s the industrial terraced housing of the Burnley Wood area had reached Towneley station from the north-east, but east of the station a small, more affluent area had developed with larger houses with gardens. The OS map of 1912 indicates that some houses had been built along Moseley Road, south-west of the station, but the area to the west remained open countryside, as it does today.

Administration of Towneley station passed from the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1922 when it became part of the London & North Western Railway. In the Grouping of 1923 the LNWR lines became London, Midland & Scottish Railway territory. The following timetable shows departures from Towneley during its year in the LNWR:

§ Calls to take up for Brighouse and beyond      ‡ Calls to set down: approximate time                                                        † Calls by request: approximate time

In 1948 at nationalisation Towneley became part of British Railways’ London Midland Region.

South-east of the passenger station, Towneley Colliery Sidings signal box closed on 3 December 1951, following the demise of the nearby colliery in 1947. The box had initially been fitted with a Saxby & Farmer 19-lever frame, replaced with a 16-level LYR model by the new LMS in 1923.

Towneley station’s value to passengers was probably limited by the locations of Manchester Road and Rose Grove, to which trains ran directly, neither of which was convenient for the centre of Burnley. Trams and, later, motor buses on Todmorden Road operated to the centre from close to Towneley station. On 4 August 1952 the station closed to passengers, although the goods yard continued in use until 7 March 1960. The waiting shed on the down platform had been dismantled by 1961, but the platforms remained in place at this time. The up sidings were proposed for abolition on a plan dated 1 April 1959, and they were recovered soon afterwards. On 7 October 1973 the station signal box was reduced to gate box status (and renamed Towneley Level Crossing Frame) when Preston Power Signal Box took control of the this section of line. The frame was dismantled and superseded by an IFS (Individual Function Switch) panel in 1978. By 1977 both platforms had gone. The station building remains in residential use, accompanied by the signal box (‘Towneley Level Crossing’). Sometime between 1977 and 2011 the traditional crossing gates were replaced with lifting barriers.

Tickets from Michael Stewart

Click here for a brief history of the Copy Pit line
See also Copy Pit Route Collieries

See other stations on the Copy Pit line: Burnley Manchester Road (1st site), Burnley Manchester Road (2nd), Holme, Portsmouth, Cornholme, Stansfield Hall, Eastwood & Hebden Bridge (still open)