Station Name: FORYD PIER

[Source: Paul Wright]

Date opened: 1.10.1865 (Although the station was never served by a regular passenger service)
Location: North side of A548 adjacent to the northwest shore of the Clwyd Estuary.
Company on opening: Vale of Clwyd Railway
Date closed to passengers: Unknown
Date closed completely: Unknown
Company on closing: London & North Western Railway
Present state: Demolished, the station site is now a boat yard
County: Flintshire
OS Grid Ref: SH993807
Date of visit: 10.5.2009

Notes: Foryd Pier Station was located at the northern end of a 1.4 Mile Branch line that connected the Vale of Clywd Railway to the northwest shore of the Clwyd Estuary at Foryd.  

It appears that the branch, which officially received Royal Assent on the 30th June 1862 had been constructed as a temporary track before that date. Evidence suggests that a Station opened on this unofficial branch in August 1859. It may have been used by passengers. In its final official form the branch left the Vale of Clwyd line from a point just to the south of the Foryd Station, passed under the Chester and Holyhead line and connected to Foryd Pier.

The branch was constructed primarily for goods services but a passenger station was provided at Foryd Pier. Publicity issued in August 1864 stated that passenger services would soon begin. The plan was that the station would connect with steam ships that ran from Foryd Pier to Liverpool. It appears that this plan was never realised although it is possible that some excursion services ran from the station.

Foryd Pier Station was located on the north side of a level crossing which carried the line over the Coast Road. A single platform and basic facilities were provided. Goods facilities, including a goods shed were also located at Foryd Pier. By 1864 the branch was being operated by the LNWR who absorbed it completely in 1867.

Little is known about the early years of the line but it is known that in early LMS days it was served by three goods trains each week. They ran as ‘trip workings’ from Rhyl on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. By the 1930s this service had increased to a daily trip working which continued after nationalisation in 1948 and right up until the line closed on the 1st April 1959. A Railway Magazine Article of 1957 reported that the station platform was still extant at that time.

Today there is very little to show that a railway ever existed at this location.

Source: From Rhyl to Corwen by Rail by J.M.Dunn - Railway Magazine: February & March 1957
From Chester to Holyhead, The Branch Lines, Bill Rear, ISBN 0 86093 569 8.
Encyclopedia of British Railway Companies by Christopher Awdry - Guild 1990 CN 8983
Private and Untimetabled Railway Stations by Godfrey Croughton, R W Kidner and Alan Young
Oakwood Press 1982 ISBN 0 85361 281 1

Further reading: Vale of Clwyd Railway: Rhyl to Denbigh Railway by Stephen Goodall.(1992)
ISBN 0 9520 1650 8

To see other stations on the Rhyl - Denbigh line click on the station name:
Rhyl STILL OPEN, Foryd, Rhuddlan, St. Asaph, Trefnant & Denbigh


Foryd Pier Station in 1957
Photo by J M Dunn





Looking North East in May 2009  towards the site of Foryd Pier Station from the site of the level crossing which carried the line over the coast road. Taken from the same
view point as the picture above.
P
hoto by Paul Wright

The site of Foryd Pier station in May 2009. The station site and goods yard is now a boat yard.
Photo by Paul Wright

 

 

 

[Source: Paul Wright]


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