Notes: Whitehurst Halt was located on the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) main line that linked Birmingham to the River Mersey at Birkenhead via Chester. The section of line on which Whitehurst Halt was located had been opened on 1 October 1848 by the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway. The GWR took over the line on 1 September 1854. Under their ownership it became a busy trunk route linking the Midlands to Birkenhead on the River Mersey. Express passenger services began operating between London Paddington and Birkenhead on 1 October 1861. The line also carried heavy volumes of freight. Whitehurst Halt was located on the north side of the London – Holyhead road (the present day A5). A station called Llangollen Road had opened with the line on the south side of the road but it had closed to passengers on 1 July 1862. Llangollen Road station had been provided to serve Llangollen which lay 5¼ miles to the west. Road coaches provided the link between station and town. When a line opened to the town of Llangollen there was no longer any need for the Llangollen Road station.

At the turn of the twentieth century the GWR believed that there was demand for a station at Llangollen Road and they opened the halt on 1 October 1905. At the time of opening the halt was called Llangollen Road but it was renamed Whitehurst Halt on 1 May 1906.

The halt consisted of two short timber platforms each of which had a GWR Pagoda-style waiting shelter. There were nameboards at the north end of the up platform (Shrewsbury direction) and at the south end of the down (Chester direction). Access to the platforms was via sloping paths that connected to the A5 road.

When opened the halt was served by local railmotor trains. The nameboard at road level clearly advertised this fact. Services ran between Wrexham and Oswestry or Ruabon with some through workings to Shrewsbury or Chester.

In 1913 12,829 tickets were issued at Whitehurst Halt a large number for a relatively remote location. The number of passengers using the halt at that time clearly justified the decision to open it. Decline set in after the Great War when bus services became more widespread in the area. In 1923 only 4,468 tickets were sold. A decade later the situation had improved slightly with 6,832 tickets being sold.

On 1 January 1948 Whitehurst Halt became part of British Railways Western Region (BR[WR]). The summer 1949 timetable showed ten up and nine down trains on Monday-to-Friday. No trains called on Sunday.

Nine years later the 15 September 1958 timetable showed only two trains in each direction Monday-to-Saturday. In the up direction there two trains to Shrewsbury at 8.12am and 2.29pm. In the down direction there were two trains to Chester at 7.54am and 8.32am and a train to wrexham at 11.11am.

With such a poor level of service it came as little surprise when BR[WR] closed Whitehurst Halt on 12 September 1960 and it appears to have been demolished shortly after leaving no trace.

Tickets from Michael Stewart and route map by Alan Young

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.
• Shrewsbury to Chester - Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith - Middleton Press 2010.

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, Llangollen Road, Rhosymedre, Cefn, Rhosymedre Halt, Wynnville Halt, Rhos, Johnstown & Hafod, Rhosrobin Halt, Gresford, Rossett, Pulford, Balderton and Saltney