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Hadlow Road
Hadlow Road
	The eastbound platform
General information
Location	Willaston, Cheshire West and Chester; England
Grid reference	SJ331773
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Pre-grouping	Birkenhead Railway
Post-grouping	Birkenhead Railway; London Midland Region (British Railways);
Key dates
1 October 1866	Opened
17 September 1956	Closed to passenger services
7 May 1962	Closed to freight services

Hadlow Road railway station is a Grade II listed heritage railway station and museum in Willaston, on the Wirral Way footpath. It has been restored to have the look and feel of the day the station was permanently closed to passengers in 1956. It has an authentic ticket office, waiting room and telephone box. Formerly the museum was a working railway station on the single track Hooton to West Kirby branch of the Birkenhead Railway, on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire. The station is owned by Cheshire West and Chester Council, and Friends of Hadlow Road Station (FHRS) help to maintain and develop the station as a community resource.^[1]

History

The Birkenhead Railway, owned jointly by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and London and North Western Railway (LNWR), opened a single-track branch line from Hooton to Parkgate on 1 October 1866, which included a station at Willaston with a train passing place. An extension to West Kirby was completed twenty years later.^[2]^[3]

It was named Hadlow Road Station because there are 2 villages named Willaston in Cheshire and the name Willaston railway station had already been taken by the time of Hadlow Road's opening.

The main station building is on the eastbound platform towards Hooton, whereas a smaller waiting shelter stands on the westbound platform towards West Kirby. At the western end of both platforms was a level crossing with rather large gates; this was due to the angle at which the road crossed the railway lines.

Hadlow Road railway station closed to passengers on 17 September 1956.^[2]^[3]^[4] The track continued to be used for freight transportation and driver training for another six years, closing on 7 May 1962. The tracks were lifted two years later.^[2]^[3]^[5]

Wirral Country Park

The station is on the Wirral Way footpath and part of Wirral Country Park.^[6]^[7] The country park lies both in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and in the borough of Cheshire West and Chester, it was the first designated country park in Britain opening in 1973. The footpath follows the track bed of part of the former Birkenhead Railway route from West Kirby to Hooton and is used by cyclists, walkers, joggers and horse riders. A second visitor centre is present on the Wirral Way at Thurstaston; however, Thurstaston railway station was removed and all that remains are its platforms.

Museum

The station is now a small free museum that is open to the public. It was created to have the look and feel of the day it closed, with a ticket office, telephone box, vintage signs and luggage carriers. All of the station (excluding the westbound platform) has been preserved^[2]^[4] and a short section of track has been relaid by FHRS in front of the eastbound platform. The signal box and crossing gates are not the originals, having previously been located at Hassall Green on the North Staffordshire Railway.^[8] The station is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.^[9] The facilities available are car parking, seating and public toilets.

Friends of Hadlow Railway Station

The station is owned by the council, but Friends of Hadlow Road Station, a community organisation,^[1] has helped to restore and maintain the site. FHRS has installed a model railway of the station as it was in the 1950s in the signal box, viewable from the signal box platform. There have been various plans to restore and upgrade the facilities and as of 2018 FHRS have expressed interest in placing carriages at the station from which themed meals could be served.^{[citation needed]}

Gallery

Ticket office and stationmaster's house
The ticket office (at left) and waiting room
The platform with a luggage trolley
Preserved K6 phone box, with original telephone equipment with A/B push buttons
The signal box, on the eastbound platform
Signal box interior
The rain shelter on the westbound platform

References

^ ^a ^b "Friends of Hadlow Road Station Community Group". Willaston Residents' & Countryside Society. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Disused Stations: Hadlow Road, Subterranea Britannica, retrieved 21 November 2008
^ ^a ^b ^c Maund, T.B. (2000), The Birkenhead Railway, The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society, pp. 33–34, 43–44, 69, ISBN 0-901115-87-8
^ ^a ^b Oppitz, Leslie (1997), Cheshire Railways Remembered, Countryside Books, pp. 95–96, ISBN 1-85306-458-0
^ Merseyside Railway History Group (1982), Scheele, R. (ed.), The Hooton to West Kirby branch line and the Wirral Way, Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, ISBN 0-904582-04-3
^ Wirral Country Park, Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, archived from the original on 11 December 2010, retrieved 13 June 2010
^ Wirral Country Park, Visit Liverpool, retrieved 8 December 2007
^ SRS Signalling Atlas and Signal Box Directory. p. 73. ISBN 978 1 873228 31 9.
^ Historic England, "Hadlow Road Railway Station (1387664)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 3 August 2013