Notes: Bolton Crook Street Goods station was located at the north end of the Bolton & Leigh Railway (B&L) on the south side Crook Street and just to the south of the passenger station at Bolton Great Moor Street. The B&L had been authorised on 31 March 1825 to build an 8-mile line between Bolton and Leigh. They opened the first section between Bolton and Chequerbent for goods services only on 28 August 1828. The line had been engineered by George Stephenson and it was one of his locomotives, the Lancashire Witch that made the inaugural run. The section of line from Chequerbent to Leigh opened in March 1830. At Leigh the line connected to the Leeds & Liverpool canal (the original purpose having been to connect Bolton to the canal). A further 2½ miles of line, between Leigh and Kenyon Junction, was authorised on 14 May 1829 and was built by the Kenyon & Leigh Junction Railway (K&LJR). This section of line provided a link to the Liverpool & Manchester Railway (L&M) and It opened to goods on 3 January 1831.

In the early years Bolton Crook Street had several sidings and a goods warehouse. A branch ran from the station to Bolton Deansgate Goods which was closer to the town centre.

The station would have handled a variety of goods as Bolton was a busy manufacturing centre. Cotton for the many mills would have been an important inbound traffic as would iron ore and coal for the engineering industries. Finished products going out from Bolton would have included cloth and industrial machinery. Livestock and food products would also have been handled.

On 8 August 1845 the B&L was merged into the Grand Junction Railway (as were the L&M and the K&LJR). A year later, on 16 July 1846 the GJR merged with the London & Birmingham Railway to form the London & North Western Railway (LNWR).

On 1 August 1871 the LNWR closed the original Bolton Great Moor Street passenger station to rebuild it on a grander scale. Temporary passenger facilities were opened at Crook Street Goods. Because of the temporary nature of the passenger facilities they were most probably of timber construction. Bolton Crook Street was served by passenger trains until 27 September 1874 the new facilities at Great Moor Street opening on the following day.

In the 1880s the facilities at Crook Street were extended considerably. A new warehouse was provided and coal sidings were opened to the west of Chandos Street. Additional sidings were also laid to the south of the station.

The 1904 Railway Clearing House Handbook of Stations listed Bolton Crook Street as being able to handle general goods, parcels, furniture vans and livestock. It showed the station as having a 20-ton lifting crane.

On 16 March 1918 a coal train ran away on the Daubhill incline and crashed through the goods station wall the locomotive ending up in the cellar of a property in Crook Street. Nobody was killed but it took weeks to clear up the wreckage.

On 1 January 1923 Bolton Crook Street Goods station became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS). On 25 February 1930 the LMS closed Deansgate Goods station and its branch. All of the traffic previously handled by Deansgate was transferred to Crook Street.

Crook Street became part British Railways [London Midland Region] (BR[LMR]) on 1 January 1948.

By 1956 the 20-ton lifting crane had gone, the Handbook of Stations for that year showing only a 6-ton crane. The station was listed as being able to handle general goods furniture vans and livestock.

BR[LMR] closed Bolton Crook Street to public goods on 25 April 1965 but it continued to be used for private traffic until 16 October 1967.

After closure the goods station was demolished and by 2016 its site had become a retail park.

Map by Alan Young

Sources:

• A Lancashire Triangle Part 2 - D J Sweeney, Triangle Publishing 1997.
• A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain - Volume 10 The North West - Geoffrey O Holt, David & Charles 1986.
• Forgotten Railways - North West England - John Marshall, David & Charles 1981.
  

See also: Bolton Deansgate Goods and Bolton Great Moor Street

To see the other stations on the Bolton Great Moor Street - Kenyon Junction line click on the station name: Kenyon Junction, Pennington, West Leigh, Atherleigh, Atherton Bag Lane, Chequerbent 1st, Chequerbent 2nd,
Daubhill 1st & Rumworth & Daubhill