Demolished

Holme station on the Copy Pit route was suffixed ‘Lancs’ to distinguish it from its namesakes in Huntingdonshire, Yorkshire (later renamed ‘Holme Moor’) and Norfolk.

Although Bradshaw timetables do not include the station until September 1851 it is most likely that Holme opened with the line between Todmorden and Burnley (Thorneybank / Manchester Road) on 12 November 1849; it was not uncommon for intermediate stations to be omitted from timetables. The station is within the extensive parish of Cliviger, one of several parishes in the Lancashire / West Riding Pennines which contain a number of villages and hamlets though no substantial settlement having the name of the parish. Holme (now generally known as Holme Chapel or Holme-in-Cliviger) is part of a discontinuous line of settlements in the spectacular upper valley of the Lancashire Calder, stretching from Burnley towards the watershed at the former Copy Pit. These settlements consist mainly of stone-built terraced cottages which housed workers employed on the land and in the small local coal pits, all of which have closed. Holme station was located almost half a mile from the village and was reached by an inconspicuous lane close to the Ram Inn. The station’s setting is as rural and remote today as it was when it opened.

The station also served Holme Hall (also known as ‘The Holme’ or, simply, ‘Holme’) residence of the Whitaker family. The hall is about half a mile north-east of the station, on the far side of Burnley Road, now the A646 between Todmorden and Burnley; at the time of writing (November 2016) it is undergoing conversion into ‘luxury’ apartments. It seems that the Whitakers preferred not to mingle with the local people when travelling between their home and the station, so they enjoyed the privacy of their own footpath. This passed under Burnley Road then crossed the family’s fields, with a footbridge over the River Calder; having passed beneath the railway, approaching the station there was a private stone arched footbridge beyond which the path continued directly to the down platform. This bridge survives, and without an understanding of its obscure origin and purpose it would appear to be little more than a folly, standing as it does just a few yards from the similar bridge which carries the railway over the track beyond the station. There is a local belief that the Whitakers chartered a complete railway carriage which stopped at a section of segregated platform which was reached by the bridge, but no reliable evidence has been found of this. I am grateful to Ken Geddes for providing information on the association of the station with the Whitakers of Holme Hall.

Holme station possessed two facing platforms with the station building at the north-west end of the down (Burnley-bound) platform, opposite the approach path. It was a pitched-roofed timber structure on a stone base - a much poorer affair than the attractive stone villa provided at the neighbouring Towneley station. The gents’ toilet was in a separate timber building some way along the platform. Structures on the up platform were also of timber, and OS map evidence suggests that they were not constructed until the 1890s, at the earliest; they consisted of a small booking office at the north-west end, followed by a hipped roof waiting room and ladies’ toilet (reminiscent of buildings at Portsmouth and Cornholme stations) and a small separate building serving as the gents’ toilet. There was no footbridge at the station, so passengers used the barrow crossing at the Burnley end to transfer between the platforms. The signal box and water tank were on the down side, north-west of the station. No goods facilities were provided.

Despite its somewhat isolated position, with no population to speak of on the southern side of the line where the land rose steeply to the moors, local trains routinely called at Holme station.

Destinations are not always made clear in Bradshaw
* Approximate time. Stops to set down first class passengers only
¶ Summary timetable given with no information on calls at Holme. Burnley stated as destination

The signal box at Holme station opened in 1877/78 and was a Saxby & Farmer Type 9, north-west of the down station platform. It contained a 14-level S&F frame. The box closed in 1905 and the location ceased to be a block post. However platform levers were installed immediately beyond the down platform’s north-western ramp adjoining the barrow crossing; Littleworth (2002) suggests that this was possibly because the Board of Trade insisted at this time that trains standing in stations had to be protected by fixed signals. One of the levers possibly locked the wicket gate at the up side entrance. The date of abolition of the levers is not known. A further signal box named Holme Tunnel opened in 1905/06 at the south-eastern end of the tunnel on the down side of the tracks; it was a brick-based LYR box containing a 12-level frame. The function of the box was to control the end of the Down Loop line running from Copy Pit.

Destinations are not always made clear in the timetable

The rural tranquillity of Holme was shattered on 27 September 1907. A train of about 40 wagons carrying goods including coal and onions was on its way from Normanton to Liverpool when it came to grief at Holme. It appears that a draw-bar, or coupling, broke between the 13th and 14th wagons, and the train broke into two sections which came together at the station. In the collision the buildings on the down platform were almost totally destroyed; these included the booking office, waiting rooms and the stationmaster’s quarters. The wagons and locomotive came to rest in a pile beside the line. Sadly, William Pim, the deputy stationmaster, was killed outright as the wagons careered through the station. If the accident had occurred several minutes later many more deaths might have occurred as people assembled to catch the 11.00am train. The accident must have taken place at 10.37 as the station clock stopped at that time as a result of the accident. The only other item to survive on the down platform was the station’s iron safe.

The incident was reported in Burnley Express the following day, 28 September 1907.

Photographic evidence suggests that the demolished building at the Burnley end of the down platform was replaced with a modest timber structure on the same platform a short distance to the south-east.

In January 1922 the LYR was absorbed into the LNWR; a year later the LNWR lost its identity within the LMS in the ‘Grouping’. The timetable below shows the departures from Holme station during the short period when it was administered by the LNWR. The service is reasonably frequent on weekdays, although trains call at irregular intervals; even on Sunday there is a respectable service.

§ For Brighouse and beyond      ‡ Calls to set down: approximate time                                                        † Calls by request: approximate time

During the 1920s road motor transport began to provide competition for the railways, and bus services along the Todmorden-Burnley road served Holme Chapel far more conveniently than the railway station could. Holme station was an early casualty, closing to all traffic on 28 July 1930; this was the first of the Copy Pit route stations to close – the closure of Burnley (Manchester Road [1st] or Thorneybank) in 1866 was simply a re-siting the station. Holme Tunnel signal box closed on 2 January 1938 when the loop exit points were motorised and control passed to Copy Pit box.

It is not known how long Holme station stood derelict; the OS one-inch map of 1947 shows it as closed and the 1953 edition omits it altogether. The much more detailed 1:  2,500 map of 1960 indicates that the site had been cleared. In 2016 the only evidence of the station’s former existence is the approach road from the village and the steep pathway up the embankment which gave access to the north-west end of the platforms. As noted above, the stone bridge by which the Whitakers of Holme Hall reached the Burnley platform is in situ.

In 2011 a news item suggested the reopening of Holme station, and the proponent misinformed the readers that the platforms were in situ. Responses to the article are provided. Click here.

Tickets from Michael Stewart

Click here for a brief history of the Copy Pit line
See also Copy Pit Route Collieries

See other stations on the Copy Pit line: Burnley Manchester Road (1st site), Burnley Manchester Road (2nd), Towneley, Portsmouth, Cornholme, Stansfield Hall, Eastwood & Hebden Bridge (still open)