Station Name: RHOS (SHREWSBURY & CHESTER)

[Source: Paul Wright]


Date opened: 14.10.1848
Location: To the east of Hafod-y-bwch south of a minor road.
Company on opening: Shrewsbury & Chester Railway
Date closed to passengers: March 1855
Date closed completely: March 1855
Company on closing: Great Western Railway
Present state: Demolished
County: Denbighshire
OS Grid Ref: SJ307468
Date of visit: 23.11.2015

Rhos was one of the original stations of the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway (S&CR) which opened throughout on 14 October 1848. The S&CR was formed in July 1846 out of a merger of the North Wales Mineral Railway (NWMR) and the Shrewsbury, Oswestry & Chester Junction Railway (SO&CJR). The NWMR had been formed on 6 August 1844 to create a line between the industrial areas around Wrexham and Chester. They started construction of a 14½-mile line later that year. The SO&CJR was set up to create a route between Shrewsbury and Chester and the merger enabled that task to be carried out through an extension of the NWMR line. The NWMR section of the line opened on 4 November 1846 and passenger trains started to run between Chester and Rhosymedre.

The station at Rhos opened with the Rhosymedre and Shrewsbury section of line. It was located in a remote spot almost a mile to the east of the settlement after which it was named. The station was to the south of a road overbridge which carried Corkscrew Lane over the line. No images of the station have come to light and it does not appear on any large scale maps so nothing is known about its appearance.

Rhos was served by trains that ran between Shrewsbury and Chester and also onto the Oswestry branch. The March 1850 timetable showed five trains in each direction Monday-to-Saturday as shown in the table below. On Sundays there were two trains in each direction.

Up Trains - March 1850 Destination Down Trains - March 1850 Destination
8.42am Shrewsbury 5.38am Chester
11.18am Shrewsbury 8.14am Chester
2.23pm Shrewsbury 1.16pm Chester
5.58pm Shrewsbury 3.41pm Chester
9.44pm Oswestry 7.56pm Chester

On 1 September 1854 the S&CR was taken over by the Great Western Railway (GWR). The GWR considered Rhos to be unremunerative and they closed it in March 1855. It appears to have been demolished after closure and nothing is shown at the location on an 1872 six-inch scale map other than a signal post.

Under the GWR the former S&CR went on to become a main line that linked Birmingham to the River Mersey at Birkenhead via Chester.

On 1 October 1901 the GWR opened a branch to Rhos. It diverged from the main line a mile to the south of Wrexham at Rhos Junction. A station called Rhos was opened on the branch which remained open for passenger services until 1 January 1931 and for goods until 14 October 1963.

Route map by Alan Young

Sources:

  • A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain - Volume II North & Mid Wales - Peter E Baughan - David & Charles 1980.
  • Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies - Christopher Awdry - Guild Publishing 1990.
  • Paddington to the Mersey - Dr R. Preston Hendry & R. Powell Hendry - Oxford Publishing Company 1992.
  • Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain - a Chronology - Michael Quick - Railway & Canal Historical Society 2009.

To see the other stations on the Shrewsbury - Chester General line click on the station name: Shrewsbury S&C, Leaton, Oldwoods Halt, Baschurch, Stanwardine Halt, Haughton Halt, Rednal & West Felton, Whittington Low Level,
Weston Rhyn
, Llangollen Road, Whitehurst Halt,
Rhosymedre, Cefn,
Rhosymedre Halt
,
Wynnville Halt, Johnstown & Hafod, Rhosrobin Halt,
Gresford
,
Rossett, Pulford, Balderton and Saltney

To read more about the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway company click here


The site of Rhos station looking north on 23 November 2015.
P
hoto by Paul Wright


The site of Rhos station shown on a six-inch scale map from 1872. Nothing survived
of the station by this time

During the period when the station was open there was a lane that led to it. The course of that lane on the eastern side of the line is shown in this view from 23 November 2015.
P
hoto by Paul Wright

Looking south towards the site of Rhos station on 23 November 2015.
P
hoto by Les Fifoot

 

 

 

[Source: Paul Wright]




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