Pendlebury Station.

[Ian Howarth]

Pendlebury Station has been long gone. Even the platform itself has been removed. I can remember it as a boy walking along the connecting bridge/corridor from the entrance door with the booking office on the right to the steps down to the platform, also on the right hand side as you walked in.
The bridge across seemed quit narrow if you compare it to that at Atherton Station which is in a way similar but not the same. It was a longer bridge as it had to go across the fast lines as well as one of the slow lines. There was a signal box near to the blue brick bridge which is still there and carried Clively Road across it. This road was only accessible by foot once you had crossed it as it actually split into a fork and went down either side of the tunnel mouth of Clifton Hall Tunnel. The tunnel had been filled in when I used to go down there but the top of the tunnel coping stones had been uncovered gradually by the weather erosion although they were subsequently recovered. The railway lines were still in place to Clifton Hall Sidings but were disused. The area around was a great place for boys to play and explore as a lot of the old railway had been abandoned but not removed. It lay in this state for a number of years before gradually being removed.

[springs branch mickey]

I used to live a couple of hundred yards from Hindley North station until about 1958. That was always a well kept station.
Mickey

[Tony]

Hello Ian,
I used to go onto Pendlebury station after school (I used to walk home from Cromwell Road Juniors to Agecroft Road). I got to know the Stationmaster (Chief Porter!) and the signalman very well. The signalman was Mr Jack Robinson who lived on Dauntsy Estate. He taught me all I know about signalling and allowed me to help in the box. The only signal that I couldn't pull off was the down express distant which was about 200 yards beyond Agecroft Road, nearly a mile from the box, it was too heavy for a ten year old boy. The powers that be would have had a fit of the vapours if they knew that a ten year old boy was signalling all the trains between 4.30pm and 5.30pm - the rush hour! Oh happy days!
I wonder if the orange coloured stream is still running about 100yards east of the railway? I remember falling in it once - did I get a hiding!

[Ian Howarth]

Hi Tony,
The orange coloured stream you mention was probably Slackey Brook which ran all the way along at the back of the railway where the land fell away sharply into the area we called "Down Beggars". It ran into the old sewerage works which was disused when I went but a great place to explore. It has all been filled in and landscaped now and new houses are even starting to encroach upon the area from the Agecroft road end. The rush hour that you mention was a hectic time for us after school as we would congregate on the Swinton side of Pendlebury tunnel and wait for the Blackpool and Southport trains to go through. The high point of the evening came when the Windermere express came through. We would go down to the bottom of the embankment and watch for it pounding up Pendlebury Bank looking through the tunnel. it was very often a Britannia Class Pacific and I guess I must have seen almost half of the Class on that express.
Ian

[Tony]

Hi Ian,
The area bounded by the railway, Agecroft Road, Lumms Lane and the Clifton Hall railway line was a very dangerous boys paradise when myself and pals played there, it is such a pity that it has been landscaped. It was dominated by the "Tipping Rucks" (spoil heaps) from Wheatsheaf and Newtown collieries.
The orange stream ran out under Lumms Lane just before the Z bend into Carrs Mill Dam which was filled in when Dauntsey Hall? was pulled down to make way for the breeze block factory (about 1952). I don't know what was in the stream water but it was full of horse leaches up to 10 inches long!
There was an aerial ropeway from Clifton Hall to a return wheel near the main railway which was used for the spoil buckets. It was the height of folly to ride the buckets from the wheel, across the valley and jump off onto the spoil heaps before you reached the tipping arm! Doing the gained you great quedos, King of the slagheap!
Riding the tubs on the little rope railway from Newtown colliery to Clifton Hall was also great fun. How nobody got killed or even badly hurt, I shall never know!

[Ian Howarth]

Hi Tony,
Your knowledge and memory of that area goes back a lot further than mine. The things you got up to sound outrageous. Although it was dangerous it was probably the kind of thing that was part of the adventure of growing up, learning by the risks, bumps and knocks you take. Todays children seem over protected and less able to grow up with such adventure and discovery as there was. I may be wrong but there seems to be so much boredom and apathy in so many youngsters these days. I never had a minute to spare as a lad and it sounds as if you were just the same. We had our interest in steam railways, watched rugby (and played it in the park), went fishing, camping, cycling, bird waching played kick can and rallyo 123 in the street until dark and then went into each others houses playing cards and playing records etc. How can anybody be bored!.
Ian

[Tony]

Hi Ian,
My time playing in the area was 1946-52. I moved then into Irlams o'th Heights and found things like Scouts and ATC instead of risking life and limb around Clifton Hall. I went to school with a girl who lived at Clifton Hall Farm, it was still a working farm then! Wheatsheaf and Newtown Collieries were still in full production; Clifton was still a Junction and trains went through Black Harry Tunnel!

[faltskog36abba]

went to the lowry museum last year at salford quays,they were showing an old film about the artist ls lowry..you see him coming out of pendlebury station,fascinating stuff.

[Deathbyteacup]

Originally Posted by faltskog36abba

went to the lowry museum last year at salford quays,they were showing an old film about the artist ls lowry..you see him coming out of pendlebury station,fascinating stuff.

Really? I would love to see that.

[faltskog36abba]

get yourself down to the lowry-and its free,it was definatly pendlebury station as a friend of mine was with me and she lives on crescent avenue-off bolton road and next to the line,she was the one who shown me where the station stood,lowry came out of the station and above him was[british railways pendlebury].