Places   (Help with places, streets and buildings in Wigan.)

ashtonman01

I have had a look at the pictures on here of the old Bryn Station and Garswood Hall Colliery, and some of the comments accompanying those pictures are wildly inaccurate, whilst other comments are probably true, but two pictures stand out to give an indication as to when the two slow lines through Bryn Station were 'lifted' the first picture is of a steam loco and brake van in between Bryn Station (WiganRoad) Bridge and the Bryn Road Bridge, and as can be seen to the side of the railway tracks, the slow lines had been lifted by this time, so first thing is that this picture was taken before August 1968 when the last steam train ran for British Rail, and in the background of the picture the remains of Garswood Hall colliery are being demolished, and a few comments agree that this would have been in 1964 so the track had already been lifted by 1964 and looking at the vegetation at where the lines would have been located, it looks like they had been lifted a few years before that time.



The second picture appears to have been taken in the same time frame as the first picture, and taken from the same place, but with the camera pointing to the left of the first picture, this shows the old St Peters Church and the remains of Garswood Hall Colliery in the same picture, so if you agree that Garswod Hall Colliery was being dismantled in 1964 and you found out when the old St Peters Church burned down, which was apparently after 1961 then you can say that the pictures were taken before St Peters burned down, and before 1968 which gives the 1964 date for the pictures, a more than likely probability, so we know that the tracks had been lifted by 1964 and looking at the vegetation I would say they were probably lifted between three and five years before the picture was taken.



Garswood Hall Colliery closed in 1958 and that colliery was connected to the slow lines in question, so I would surmise that the tracks were lifted not long after the colliery closed in 1958 because there was no longer any need for those railway lines, and looking at the vegetation on the pictures of where the lines were located in 1964 I am going to give a date of circa 1960 when those lines were lifted ....