Wigan Album

1960, the station closed November 1964.

I always thought this was a better building than Wallgate Station. It looked quaint and more like a railway station found in many countryside areas. I never went inside and have no idea where the trains ran to. It just seemed to be always there and just noticed in passing. I do remember the trains ran over Scholes railway bridge, as a child I remember the earth shattering noise as I walked underneath the bridge.

We used to take the train from Wigan Central, to go to Doncaster to visit family there.. I think we also went to Durham also from Wigan Central..

That must be where my grandfather caught the train to Doncaster - he went there for a number of years after the 1926 strike, he worked in the pits there. Very interesting to me Janet that piece of information.

We went from there in the early 1960s just before it closed to visit my great Uncle and his family who lived at Irlam. I think a few Wiganers used to go there to work at the iron and steel works .

Did the trains from this station go to Risley? I think my dad went to work there after being demobbed from the Army in 1945. does anyone know if Risley was a Munition Factory?

Veronica, go to Google and type in "Disused stations Newchurch Halt". The information is there for you.

Veronica, yes it was. ROF Risley was a Royal Ordnance Factory that specialised in filling and priming shells and bombs during World War Two. It was filling factory No. 6

Some may remember the cattle being unloaded at this railway station, and being herded along the streets towards, and into Scholes, and into the slaughter houses.

Veronica, if you google Risley munitions, there is quite a bit of info.

Thank you all very much I suppose I should have known as I worked at ROF Chorley . I will look it up - I recall my dad saying he worked at Risley before working at the Gasworks till he retired in 1986.

Colin thanks for your information, very interesting.

Risley in those days was in fact two sites. The main complex and area was the admiralty supply depot which was served by a branch line to the area from Newchurch but was as I understand goods only linked to the extensive internal rail network. The ROF was not connected with the admiralty but was entirely separate not sure when it closed but was the initial facility taken over by the Atomic Energy Authority in the 1950s.I started there in 1958 and worked in the design office which was one of the old munitions sheds before we got the new offices which are still there today.
To get to work it was the train from Central to Culcheth and then bus to Risley.

Before my time at Chorley ROF trains ran to the factory, many Wigan people worked there. In fact the trains had only just stopped being used and coaches were put on from 1965 onward when I started as a young girl.. I recall the rail tracks. Would this station have run trains to Euxton or would they have run from Wallgate Station?

veronica the trains ran from north western via boars head,white bear chorley then to the rof station,but apparently not at the weekends ,when workers from wigan caught the train to balshaw lane station, euxton ,then walked a fair trek to the rof.

Thank you Baker. I used to catch the coach in Scholes so that saved walking to North Western station at six in the morning. I loved that job and met many decent people who had worked there during the war. I was put on inspection work not process work - thank goodness! I heard many tales of wartime that made my hair stand on end. I would not have missed the experience for anything! I only missed the coach one morning, and had to run to the Market Square to catch the Chorley bus and then another bus to Euxton. I never missed the coach again after that. Happy days!