North Lonsdale Road, Ulverston

Notes: This station was added to the Bardsea Branch some five years after it opened to passenger services. It was located immediately north of the level crossing (71ch from Plumpton Junction) close to the ironworks of the North Lonsdale Iron & Steel Co and to the hamlet of Sandside. Although the level crossing is named on large scale Ordnance Survey plans the station itself was not shown except on smaller scale maps including the OS Quarter-inch map (1921) and on Bartholomew’s Half-inch North Lancashire sheet (1920). No photographs are known to exist of the station while it was in use.  It is assumed that it possessed platforms, but if not there must have been some provision on the train for passengers wishing to join or alight. A single-storey building with a pitched roof and modestly decorated bargeboards was possibly the station building, and it stood east of the double-track line at the crossing opposite the North Lonsdale signal box. No information has been found, however, on whether the station was staffed.

North Lonsdale Crossing has been described as a halt, although it opened many years before the suffix was introduced by the Great Western Railway (1903) and the suffix has not been seen on North Lonsdale’s name on official maps or documents. The symbol used on Bartholomew’s 1920 map (published several years after the station had closed) is that used by that company for a halt, but it is simply named as ‘N Lonsdale Crossing’.

At the time of its opening in 1888 two return trips were probably still made by the Ulverston – Conishead Priory trains – this was the ‘frequency’ of the service in 1887 – but by December 1895 only one return trip was made, and this minimal service continued until 1916 when it was withdrawn. One authority on the Furness Railway has asked what use there would be for a station at North Lonsdale Crossing. It seems unlikely that the train timings would have been convenient for ironworks employees to arrive at or leave work; perhaps small goods were loaded or unloaded?  The second train of the day shown in the 1887 timetable calling at North Lonsdale at about 3.55pm southbound and 4.26pm northbound must have been equally unhelpful to employees at the ironworks, although the few local residents might have been able to travel into Ulverston on the earlier train, do their shopping, and return home on the afternoon train. In the 1910 timetable why anyone would join, or alight from, the 12.04pm down or 12.16pm up train is a mystery: however the ticket illustrated suggests that someone did indeed make a single journey from ‘Priory’ to North Lonsdale Crossing on Friday 4 August 1911 at the Third Class fare of 1d.

The Ulverston – Conishead Priory trains ceased to run on 6 March 1916 but the Bradshaw timetable continued to show the one return train in the June 1916 volume; in July the table showed ‘service suspended’. Quick (1916) gives the date of closure of North Lonsdale Crossing station as June 1916, quoting Clinker’s Register. Thus, amid the other uncertainties about North Lonsdale Crossing station, its date of closure is also difficult to establish.

Although its passenger services were minimal and ended early, for many years North Lonsdale was to remain an important location on a goods line that served several industrial sites, and the signal box remained in use.  This box opened on 16 June 1883 and was of a striking design used also at Ramsden Dock, Park South and Park North on the Furness Railway. The rock-faced stone walls of the lower part of the box spread gently outwards, giving the structure an impression of strength, and the contrasting smooth red sandstone quoins added dignity. In the timber cabin some of the windows carried shutters instead of glazing. The structure was surmounted by a steep, hipped roof of red slate.  In March 1933 the box closed as a block post with the section of line from Ulverston Canal signal box to North Lonsdale box worked as a siding; this measure was taken when the North Lonsdale ironworks furnaces were out of blast. In November 1937 North Lonsdale box reopened as a block post, as one of the iron works’ furnaces was being fired again, but the furnace closed for good in August 1938; foundry work continued until after World War 2. Thereafter North Lonsdale box was retained to operate the level crossing gates.

On 27 August 1961 it is likely that many more passengers trod the site of North Lonsdale Crossing station than on any occasion when the station was open. Organised by the Stephenson and Manchester Locomotive societies the ‘Furness Railtour’ from Lancaster reached the site of North Lonsdale Crossing station on this day just after noon, allowing passengers to have their customary stroll and to take photographs, before going on to visit some other outposts of the old Furness Railway network. At this time North Lonsdale signal box was still standing but with smashed windows.

Freight continued to operate on the singled section of the Bardsea Branch to the north of the Crossing, serving the Glaxo chemicals works until 1994, but the line was not abandoned and the track lifted until 2000. Today the site of North Lonsdale Crossing station is within the eastern area of Ulverston dominated by the modern industrial buildings of GSK (Glaxo-Smith-Klein) and associated service roads, but the GSK Memorial Garden, sown with wild flowers, occupies the former trackbed where the station and signal box formerly stood.

Ticket from Michael Stewart

See also Conishead Priory and

A brief history of the Bardsea branch