Station Name: WEST KIRBY (Birkenhead Joint)

 

[Source: John Fogg]


Date opened: 19.4.1886
Location: On the north side of Grange Road (A540)
Company on opening: Birkenhead Joint (Great Western Railway and London North Western Railway)
Date closed to passengers: 17.9.1956
Date closed completely: 7.5.1962
Company on closing: British Railways (London Midland Region)
Present state: The station has been demolished and the site is now occupied by a leisure centre
County: Cheshire
OS Grid Ref: SJ214870
Date of visit: April 2005

Notes: (by Paul Wright) The GWR and LNWR opened a branch line from their main line at Hooton to Parkgate on 1.10.1866. Three stations were provided at Hadlow Road, Neston and Parkgate. On the 19.4.1886 the line was extended to West Kirby. Further stations opened at Heswall, Thurstaston, Caldy, Kirby Park and West Kirby.

The line was a single track branch with passing loops at various points including Hadlow Road. It served the small village of Willaston until its closure in 1956. The line survived until 1964 for goods services and latterly it was used to train drivers on newly introduced DMUs.

In the early 1970s the route of the Hooton - West Kirby Branch was chosen to create Britain's first country park the Wirral Country Park. Hadlow Road Station was restored as a typical 1950s village station and it remains as such today.

To see the other stations on the Hooton - West Kirby line click on the station name: Kirby Park, Caldy, Thurstaston, Heswall, Parkgate, Neston South & Hadlow Road

 

West Kirby Station (Birkenhead Joint) in 1886


West Kirby Stations (Birkenhead Joint & Wirral) in 1933. The platform on the above picture is on the left. The Wirral Line platforms (opened 1896) are on the right. The Wirral Line was opened in 1878 but West Kirby Station was resited slightly to the west in 1896
Photo by John Fogg
West Kirby Station (Merseyrail) in April 2005. From the same position as the one above. The Wirral Line has now become Merseyrail and the branch line platforms are now the site of a leisure centre.
Photo by John Fogg

The layout of West Kirby Station in 1887

Click on thumbnail to enlarge

 

 

 

[Source: John Fogg]
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