Tyldesley railway station is a closed railway station in Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

. It was situated within the historic county of Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

.

History

Tyldesley

Tyldesley

Tyldesley is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. It occupies an area north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, east-southeast of Wigan and west-northwest of the city of Manchester...

 station, in common with other stations on the Manchester to Wigan Line

Manchester to Wigan Line

The Manchester and Wigan Railway refers to a railway in North West England, opened in 1864 and closed to passengers on 3 May 1969, which was part of the London and North Western Railway before the Grouping of 1923 ....

, was opened by the London and North Western Railway

London and North Western Railway

The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...

 on 1 September 1864.
At a junction to the west of Tyldesley station, the line to Wigan North Western railway station

Wigan North Western railway station

Wigan North Western railway station is one of two railway stations serving the town centre of Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK.It is a moderately-sized station on the West Coast Main Line. It is operated by Virgin Trains, and is also served by Northern Rail...

 headed north west and the branch to Bedford Leigh

Leigh (Greater Manchester) railway station

Leigh railway station, originally named Bedford Leigh and later Leigh and Bedford, is a closed railway station located in Bedford, Leigh, Greater Manchester...

, Pennington and Kenyon Junction headed south west.
The station joined the London Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping

Railways Act 1921

The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...

 in 1923. It passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.
The station closed on 5th May 1969.

Coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 deposits were the chief motivation for building a railway in the area and the railway's supporters included many local colliery owners and industrialists. Collieries linked to the railway include Astley and Tyldesley Collieries

Astley and Tyldesley Collieries

The Astley and Tyldesley Collieries Company formed in 1900 owned coal mines on the Lancashire Coalfield south of the railway in Astley and Tyldesley, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England...

' St George's

St George's Colliery

St George's Colliery, Back o't' Church, was a coal mine operating on the Manchester Coalfield after 1866 in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England...

, Nook

Nook Colliery

Nook Colliery was a coal mine operating on the Manchester Coalfield after 1866 in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England....

 and Gin Pit Collieries

Gin Pit Colliery

Gin Pit was a coal mine operating on the Lancashire Coalfield from the 1840s in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester then in the historic county of Lancashire, England...

 in Tyldesley connected at Jackson's sidings to the west of the station and the Shakerley, Green's Tyldesley Coal Company

Tyldesley Coal Company

Tyldesley Coal Company was a coal mining company formed in 1870 in Tyldesley, on the Manchester Coalfield in the historic county of Lancashire, England that had its origins in Yew Tree Colliery, the location for a mining disaster that killed 25 men and boys in 1858.-History:Yew Tree Farm covered...

 and Ramsden's Shakerley Collieries

Shakerley Collieries

Ramsden's Shakerley Collieries was a coal mining company operating on the Manchester Coalfield from the mid 19th century in Shakerley, Tyldesley in the historic county of Lancashire, England.-History:...

 had connections at sidings approximately one mile to the east of Tyldesley station.

The Tyldesley Loopline

Tyldesley Loopline

The Tyldesley Loopline was the London and North Western Railway's Manchester and Wigan Railway line from Eccles to the junction west of Tyldesley station and its continuance south west via Bedford Leigh to Kenyon Junction on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The line opened on September 1st 1864...

 closed following the Beeching Axe

Beeching Axe

The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...

 on the 5th May 1969 and Tyldesley and all other stations along the line were closed.
The former trackbed within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan

Metropolitan Borough of Wigan

The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. It is named after its largest component town, Wigan and also includes the towns of Leigh, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Ince-in-Makerfield, and Hindley. The borough was formed in 1974 and is an...

 area was reserved in the Unitary Development Plan in case the rail route could be reinstated. The cutting in Tyldesley was filled in and the line of the railway is a footpath. The current proposal for the Leigh-Tyldesley area is a guided bus

Guided bus

Guided buses are buses steered for part or all of their route by external means, usually on a dedicated track. This track, which often parallels existing roads, excludes other traffic, permitting the maintenance of reliable schedules on heavily used corridors even during rush hours.Guidance systems...

 route along the former trackbed joining the A580

A580 road

The A580 is a primary A road in England that connects Walton, near Liverpool and Salford, near Manchester and known officially as Liverpool-East Lancashire Road. Locally, the road is shortened to the "East Lancs". The road was designed and built to provide better access to the Port of Liverpool for...

East Lancashire Road close to Roe Green. This is a controversial project and is not popular in the area.