Pant Halt was opened by the Great Western Railway (GWR) on 1 May 1905 for the introduction of a rail-motor service that ran to Wrexham General via Rhos.

The halt was situated on the single track GWR Pontcysyllte Branch which had been purchased from the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) in 1896. The section of line through Pant was an extension to the original Pontcysyllte Branch from Wynn Hall to the Llwyneinion Brick Works just to the north of Rhos; the extension had opened in January 1867. The GWR had aspirations to operate passenger services on part of the line and accordingly the company built the 3¾-mile Rhos Branch which connected Rhos (full name Rhosllanerchrugog) to its Shrewsbury and Chester main line at Rhos Junction (near Rhostyllen). Passenger services were introduced between Rhos and Wrexham General on 1 October 1901.

In 1905 there was a small residential settlement at Pant and a brick works (The Pant Brickworks) that possessed a rail connection to the Pontcysyllte Branch. At Pant the railway passed over the line on a bridge and the halt was located on the embankment that lay on the southern side. It appears that there was no building or shelter provided at Pant Halt but it is probable that there was a platform as one was provided at the other halts which opened on the line at the same time.

Pant Halt was served by a rail-motor operated service between Wrexham General and Wynn Hall Halt. The November 1906 timetable showed ten services in each direction on Monday-to-Friday with two extra services each way on Saturday; no trains ran on Sunday. The journey time to Wrexham General was 22 minutes.

Bus services were introduced to the area in the second decade of the twentieth century and they competed so successfully with the trains that the GWR withdrew the passenger service between Rhos and Wynn Hall Halt on 22 March 1915.

The Pontcysyllte branch remained in use for goods traffic until 1953 (being part of British Railways from January 1948) when the section between Pant Halt and Pontcysyllte was closed completely. As the Pant Brick Works was still using the railway at that time the line between Pant Halt and Rhos Junction remained operational. On 18 April 1959 a rail tour visited Pant; it was probably the first passenger train to call since 1915 and would be the last as the remaining section of the line closed to all traffic on 14 October 1963.

Tickets from Michael Stewart and route map by Alan Young

CLICK HERE TO SEE AN OS MAP SHOWING THE PASSENGER RAILWAYS OF THE WREXHAM AREA AT THEIR GREATEST EXTENT

CLICK HERE FOR A DETAILED HISTORY OF PANT HALT

Sources:

• Awdry, C  British railway companies (Guild Publishing,1990)
• Bodlander, A; Hambley, M; Leadbetter, H; Southern, D and Weatherley, S. Wrexham railways (Bridge Books, 1992)
• Bodlander, A; Hambley, M; Leadbetter, H; Southern, D and Weatherley, S. Wrexham railways vol.2  (Bridge Books, 1993)
• Bodlander, A; Hambley, M; Leadbetter, H; Southern, D and Weatherley, S. Marcher railways: the railways of Wrexham and Oswestry - a photographic  journey (Bridge Books, 2008)
• Clinker, C R Clinker’s register of closed passenger stations and goods depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830-1977 (Avon-Anglia,1978)
• Cobb, M H The Railways of Great Britain – vol.1 (Third Edition) (Author, 2015)
• Quick, Michael Railway passenger stations in Great Britain - a chronology (RCHS, 2009 and on-line supplements)

To see the other stations on the Rhos Branch click on the station name:
Rhostyllen, Legacy, Rhos, Brook Street Halt and Wynn Hall Halt

See also: Fennant Road Halt and, Aberderfyn Halt and Ponkey Crossing Halt
from the Rhos Branch

Click here to see Register of Closed Railways 1901 - 1994