Station Name: RHOSYMEDRE HALT

[Source: Paul Wright]


Date opened: 1.9.1906
Location: North side of Chapel Street
Company on opening: Great Western Railway
Date closed to passengers: 2.3.1959
Date closed completely: 2.3.1959
Company on closing: British Railways (Western Region)
Present state: Demolished
County: Denbighshire
OS Grid Ref: SJ284426
Date of visit: 6.4.2012

Notes: Rhosymedre Halt was located on the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) main line that linked Birmingham to the River Mersey at Birkenhead via Chester. The section of line on which Rhosymedre Halt was located had been opened on 4 November 1846 by the Shrewsbury & Chester Railway. The GWR took over the line on 1 September 1854 (click here to read more about the events that led up to the take over) . Under their ownership it became a busy trunk route linking the Midlands to Birkenhead on the River Mersey. Express passenger services began operating between London Paddington and Birkenhead on 1 October 1861. The line also carried heavy volumes of freight.

The halt was authorised on 18 July 1906 and opened on 1 September 1906 to serve the small settlement after which it was named. It was located to the north of Chapel Street which passed over the line on a bridge. The line was in a cutting at this point and sloping paths led down to 150ft length timber platforms. The down platform (Chester direction) was also connected by a sloping path to Church Street which was to the north of the halt.

On each platform there was a GWR pagoda style corrugated iron shelter.

The cost of providing the halt was £336.

The halt would have been served by local trains and the July 1922 timetable showed ten up and eleven down services Monday-to-Saturday. There was an extra service in each direction on Wednesdays and two trains each way on Sundays.

Tickets were issued by the guards of trains. Lamps were lit by the lad porter from Whitehurst Halt and extinguised by the guard of the last train.

On 1 January 1948 the line became part of British Railways [Western Region] (BR[WR]).

The summer timetable for 1949 showed only six up and four down services Monday-to-Saturday as shown in the table below. There were no services on Sundays.

Up trains
Summer 1949

Destination

Down Trains
Summer 1949

Destination

6.50am

Oswestry

8.00am

Ruabon

9.35am

Oswestry

11.07am

Wrexham General

11.55am

Gobowen

1.06pm

Wrexham General

4.24pm Gobowen 9.26pm Wrexham General
5.57pm Gobowen    
8.12pm Oswestry    

The last timetable in which Rhosymedre Halt was shown covered the period from 15 September 1958 to 14 June 1959. It showed no trains calling at Rhosymedre Halt and this was because it was closed by BR[WR] on 2 March 1959. It was demolished shortly after leaving no trace.

The line remained a busy trunk route until the mid-1960s when many mainline services were diverted to other routes or ceased to run. By the late 1970s it had become a shadow of its former self with only an hourly DMU service in each direction.

Following a period of passenger growth in the first decade of the Twenty-First century the line was once again handling main line traffic.

Tickets from Michael Stewart and 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.
  • Great Western Halts - Volume 2 - Kevin Robertson - KRB Publications 2002.
  • 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, Trehowell Halt, Llangollen Road, Whitehurst Halt
Rhosymedre, Cefn, Wynnville Halt, Rhos, Johnstown & Hafod, Rhosrobin Halt, Gresford, Rossett, Pulford, Balderton and Saltney


Rhosymedre Halt looking north-east in its early years.
Copyright photo from Stations UK and Middleton Press


Rhosymedre Halt shown ob a six-inch scale map from 1910.

Rhosymedre shown on a 1:25,000 scale map from 1951.
P
hoto by Paul Wright

Looking north-east towards the site of Rhosymedre Halt in 1974. The halt was on the far side of the bridge seen in the middle distance.
P
hoto by John Mann


The entrance to the up platform at Rhosymedre Halt seen on 23 November 2015.
P
hoto by Paul Wright

A view looking north-eat at the site of Rhosymedre Halt on 23 November 2015.
P
hoto by Paul Wright

 

 

 

[Source: Paul Wright]




Last updated: Monday, 22-May-2017 13:00:56 CEST
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