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Millgrove railway station (England)

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For the station in Australia, see Millgrove railway station.
Millgrove
General information
LocationCopeland
History
Original companyCleator and Workington Junction Railway
Post-groupingLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
by 23 July 1903Opened
by 1921Closed[1][2]
16 September 1963.Line through the station site closed[3]

Millgrove railway station was a private station on the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway (C&WJR) main line from Moor Row to Workington Central. It appears to have served the Burnyeat family who lived at a house named Millgrove in Moresby, Cumbria, England, which was near the company's main line. William Burnyeat (1849-1921) was on the company's Board of Directors from 1900 to 1921.[4]

The grid reference, latitude and longitude shown are interpreted from a large scale map showing the station.[5]

The station is said to have been in use during the First World War.[1]

Uncertainties

The station is referred to by McGowan Gradon and Robinson, but standard works, notably Butt,[6] Croughton[7] and Jowett,[8] make no mention of the station; nor do regional works, notably Anderson,[9] Marshall,[10] and Suggitt.[11] It is not mentioned in the company's May 1920 Working Time Table.[12] Contemporary 6" OS Maps do not show the station or anything which suggests the remains of a station, though a minor road passes Millgrove and crosses the line nearby.

Nevertheless, the minutes of the C&WJR Board Meeting of 23 July 1903 refer to erecting an Up platform at Millgrove and extending the down platform.[13]

History of the line

The line was one of the fruits of the rapid industrialisation of West Cumberland in the second half of the Nineteenth Century, being specifically born as a reaction to oligopolistic behaviour by the London and North Western and Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railways.[14] The station was on the line from Moor Row to Workington Central. The line opened to passengers on 1 October 1879.

All lines in the area were primarily aimed at mineral traffic, notably iron ore, coal and limestone, none more so than the new line to Workington, which earned the local name "The Track of the Ironmasters". General goods and passenger services were provided, but were very small beer compared with mineral traffic.[15]

The founding Act of Parliament of June 1878 confirmed the company's agreement with the Furness Railway that the latter would operate the line for one third of the receipts.[16]

Like any business tied to one or few industries, the railway was at the mercy of trade fluctuations and technological change. The Cumberland iron industry led the charge in the Nineteenth Century, but became less and less competitive as time passed and local ore became worked out and harder to win, taking the fortunes of the railway with it. The peak year was 1909, when 1,644,514 tons of freight were handled.[17] Ominously for the line, that tonnage was down to just over 800,000 by 1922, bringing receipts of £83,349, compared with passenger fares totalling £6,570.[18]

Rundown and closure

The high water mark for tonnage was 1909, the high water mark for progress was 1913, with the opening of the Harrington and Lowca line for passenger traffic. A chronology of the line's affairs from 1876 to 1992 has almost no entries before 1914 which fail to include "opened" or "commenced". After 1918 the position was reversed, when the litany of step-by-step closures and withdrawals was relieved only by a control cabin and a signalbox being erected in 1919 and the Admiralty saving the northern extension in 1937 by establishing an armaments depot at Broughton.[19]

Millgrove station had closed by 1921 Normal passenger traffic ended along the line in 1931. Diversions and specials, for example to football matches,[20] made use of the line, but it was not easy to use as a through north-south route because all such trains would have to reverse at Moor Row or Corkickle.[21]

An enthusiasts' special ran through on 6 September 1954, the only one to do so using main line passenger stock. The next such train to traverse any C&WJR metals did so in 1966 at the north end of the line, three years after the line through Moresby Parks closed.[22]

Afterlife

By 2013 aerial images clearly show the line of route and that the area to the west of the station site had been transformed by housing.


Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Distington
Line and station closed 		  Cleator and Workington Junction Railway   Moresby Parks
Line and station closed

See also

References

  1. ^ a b McGowan Gradon 2004, p. 68. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFMcGowan_Gradon2004 (help)
  2. ^ Robinson 2002, p. 31.
  3. ^ McGowan Gradon 2004, p. 59. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFMcGowan_Gradon2004 (help)
  4. ^ McGowan Gradon 2004, p. 65. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFMcGowan_Gradon2004 (help)
  5. ^ McGowan Gradon 2004, p. 6. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFMcGowan_Gradon2004 (help)
  6. ^ Butt 1995, pp. 158–162.
  7. ^ Croughton, Kidner & Young 1982, pp. 101–2.
  8. ^ Jowett 2000, Map 36.
  9. ^ Anderson 2002, p. 309 (or text).
  10. ^ Marshall 1981, pp. 117–122.
  11. ^ Suggitt 2008, pp. 64–8.
  12. ^ Haynes 1920, pp. 8–13.
  13. ^ Andrews 1996, p. 264.
  14. ^ Anderson 2002, p. 309.
  15. ^ Anderson 2002, p. 313.
  16. ^ Marshall 1981, p. 117.
  17. ^ McGowan Gradon 2004, p. 50. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFMcGowan_Gradon2004 (help)
  18. ^ Suggitt 2008, p. 65.
  19. ^ McGowan Gradon 2004, pp. 58–59. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFMcGowan_Gradon2004 (help)
  20. ^ McGowan Gradon 2004, p. 52. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFMcGowan_Gradon2004 (help)
  21. ^ Marshall 1981, p. 118.
  22. ^ McGowan Gradon 2004, pp. 60–1. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFMcGowan_Gradon2004 (help)

Sources

  • Anderson, Paul (April 2002). Hawkins, Chris (ed.). "Dog in the Manger? The Track of the Ironmasters". British Railways Illustrated. 11 (7). Clophill: Irwell Press Ltd. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Andrews, Dr. Michael J. (May 2001). Peascod, Michael (ed.). "A private station on the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway". Cumbrian Railways. 5 (16). Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association. ISSN 1466-6812. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Bradshaw (1986) [1922]. Bradshaw's July 1922 Railway Guide (reprint). Guild Publishing London. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
  • Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
  • Haynes, Jas. A. (April 1920). Cleator & Workington Junction Railway Working Time Table. Central Station, Workington: Cleator and Workington Junction Railway. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • McGowan Gradon, W. (2004) [1952]. The Track of the Ironmasters: A History of the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway. Grange-over-Sands: Cumbrian Railways Association. ISBN 0-9540232-2-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Marshall, John (1981). Forgotten Railways: North West England. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 8003 6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Robinson, Peter W. (2002). Cumbria's Lost Railways. Stenlake Publishing. ISBN 1 84033 205 0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Smith, Paul; Turner, Keith (2012). Railway Atlas Then and Now. Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978 0 7110 3695 6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Suggitt, Gordon (2008). Lost Railways of Cumbria (Railway Series). Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-84674-107-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

  • British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas And Gazetteer. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. 1997 [1958]. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Atterbury, Paul (2009). Along Lost Lines. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-2706-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Bairstow, Martin (1995). Railways In The Lake District. Martin Bairstow. ISBN 1-871944-11-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Bowtell, Harold D. (1989). Rails through Lakeland: An Illustrated Journey of the Workington-Cockermouth-Keswick-Penrith Railway 1847-1972. Wyre, Lancashire: Silverling Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-947971-26-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Croughton, Godfrey; Kidner, Roger W.; Young, Alan (1982). Private and Untimetabled Railway Stations, Halts and Stopping Places X 43. Headington, Oxford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0 85361 281 1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Joy, David (1983). Lake Counties (Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 094653702X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • McGowan Gradon, W. (2004) [1952]. The Track of the Ironmasters: A History of the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway. Grange-over-Sands: Cumbrian Railways Association. ISBN 0-9540232-2-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Western, Robert (2001). The Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway OL113. Usk: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-564-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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