Immediately south of Grove Road, close to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

Passengers: London & North Western Railway
Goods: British Railways (London Midland Region)

Passenger station is demolished. Goods warehouse is extant but derelict. Enclosed coal conveyor of former Hartshead Power Station survives adjacent to the warehouse.

Passenger station SJ975998
Goods station SD976002

Notes: Although officially Staley & Millbrook station, reference to it as ‘Millbrook’ was made prior to its opening and the accompanying photograph from Tameside Archives is titled and listed as ‘Millbrook’; the sidings to the north which were installed to serve Hartshead Power Station were also generally given the name of Millbrook, taken from the village about ½-mile east of the station. ‘Staley’ was perhaps chosen as the first name in deference to nearby Stayley Hall - the spelling used on the 1898 OS map - and Staley Mill, several hundred yards along Grove Road. Bradshaw of August 1887 further confuses the matter by listing the station as ‘Staley’ (without Millbrook) in the index, but ‘Staly’ and Millbrook in the timetable station bank. There was already a ‘Millbrook’ station on the LNWR route from Bedford to Bletchley (and another on the LSWR) so prefixing the Cheshire station name with ‘Staley’ avoided confusion - even if its spelling was a vexed question.

When Staley & Millbrook station opened, there was already some population and industry in the immediate neighbourhood. Spring Grove cotton mill faced the station across Grove Road, and map evidence suggests that the railway’s viaduct sliced through the existing mill building. A terrace of three cottages, also pre-dating the railway, stood immediately north of the platforms, and Stayley Hall was about 100yd south of the station. Millbrook village, with three cotton mills, was about ten minutes’ walk uphill east of the station.

Staley & Millbrook station stood on a steep slope immediately south of Spring Grove Viaduct.  The two facing platforms were equipped with waiting rooms, most likely of timber construction, with glazed awnings, as is thought to have been the building style at all four of the Loop’s stations. The platforms, too, were most likely of timber construction as that material was used for the platforms at Micklehurst, where they were also on an embankment, and timber would be a much lighter load than masonry for an embankment to support. The stationmaster’s house and adjoining single-storey office range to its west faced Grove Road across a small, triangular forecourt. The station house was constructed of dark red brick with string courses of blue engineering brick and pale stone lintels. It was a dignified two-storey structure, almost square in plan, with a single-storey office range extending to the north. The roofs of both the station house and the office range were hipped and slated, with restrained cresting and finials, and a cornice was provided using a row of bricks set at 45⁰ as dentils. The original tall chimneystacks were probably of blue brick. The entrance to the house was centrally placed and was sheltered by a small, sloping porch while the passenger entrance to the office range was given a glazed, hipped verandah with a deep serrated valance. A staircase led to the up (east) platform, and the down platform was reached by means of a subway and staircase. Although both platforms were at a higher level than the main building, the down platform and its building stood on an embankment whilst the steeply rising land had to be hollowed out to make room for the opposite platform and building.

Below is the timetable for Staley & Millbrook just over a year after the station opened:

§ Timetable suggests that Micklehurst Loop train couples with train via Mossley at Stalybridge

In winter 1895-96 the frequency of trains had not been altered, but they were re-timed and destinations had changed:

As the timetables for 1887 and 1895 (above) show, Staley & Millbrook – together with the other three stations on the Loop- did not enjoy a generous service; there were no trains on Sunday. Apart from the nearby Spring Grove Mill the station had little local population to serve, and it had a short life, closing to passengers on 1 November 1909. Its neighbour to the north, Micklehurst, had already closed in 1907.

The goods facilities – which continued to be used for several decades after passenger trains ceased to call - were about 500yd north of the passenger station, beyond Spring Grove Viaduct and Spring Grove Mill. The sidings and goods warehouse were located east of Hartshead Power Station (opened in 1926). The warehouse was a two-storey structure in blue engineering brick with attached mess rooms extending southwards. A 10-ton capacity yard crane was installed. The bulk of the sidings fanned out with their stop-blocks overlooking Buckton Vale Road. In LMS times six coal shoots were in place to serve a small nearby yard. In British Railways days the sidings were expanded to service the increasingly important Hartshead Power Station. An overhead conveyor was built to carry coal from ‘Millbrook’ sidings across the Micklehurst Loop, the canal and River Tame to the power station.

Staley & Millbrook signal cabin was originally positioned on the down side a short distance north of the goods warehouse, almost opposite the sidings’ connection with the running lines. At some date this cabin was replaced with one of a more modern design fitted with 25 levers, still on the same side of the running lines but a little further north. Wells (1996) notes that the BR ‘standard’ type cabin was possibly paid for in part by the Central Electricity Generating Board, whose power station was served by the sidings complex; the CEGB also, reputedly, paid part of the wages of the men on duty in the cabin. The cabin closed on 30 October 1966 although the line through Staley & Millbrook continued to serve the power station until 1972; thereafter coal deliveries to the power station were made by road. The railway remained in place for several years but was officially taken out of use on 14 July 1976 when the points at Stalybridge were clamped. Hartshead Power Station closed in October 1979 and was demolished in the late 1980s. A section of the overhead coal conveyor remains in place today, striding across the railway trackbed.

Map evidence suggests that the passenger station building and covered stairway to the former up platform on Grove Road survived until at least the mid 1960s. The terrace of three cottages is also shown on the mid 1960s map, immediately west of the station house.

Today, although the surrounding area is densely populated, the immediate environs of Staley & Millbrook station are conspicuously lonely and forlorn. Grove Road, which gives access to the station, is flanked by woodland and its tarmac surface is crumbling, revealing the cobbles beneath. Nothing remains of the passenger station or the nearby cottages; the viaduct across the road has gone, and the embankment on which the platforms were constructed has been partially removed. To the south of Grove Road is an electricity substation and, to the north, a disused rubber mouldings factory. North of the factory the old trackbed is in use as a footpath through the woodland that has colonised the extensive site of the goods and mineral sidings. Any pedestrian who possesses the courage to enter the woodland and wander along this muddy track will be rewarded by the spectacle of the huge, derelict goods warehouse and the abandoned coal conveyor high above the path. Given present-day concerns about ‘health and safety’ it is remarkable that the warehouse with its collapsing roof and deep pits in the floor is accessible from a housing estate just a few hundred yards to the east. The warehouse can be seen from trains travelling between Mossley and Stalybridge.

CLICK HERE FOR A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HUDDERSFIELD & MANCHESTER RAILWAY AND THE MICKLEHURST LOOP

Tickets Michael Stewart. Bradshaw from Alan Young. Route map drawn by Alan Young

Other web sites: The Micklehurst Loop - Numerous archive pictures along the loop.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Bairstow, Martin   The Leeds, Huddersfield & Manchester Railway: the Standedge Line (Author, 1990)
• Holt, Geoffrey O  A regional history of the railways of Great Britain: Vol 10 The North West  (2nd Edition, revised by Gordon Biddle) (David & Charles, 1986)
• Hurst, Geoffrey Register of closed railways 1948-91 (Milepost, 1992)
• Joy, David  A regional history of the railways of Great Britain: Vol 8 South and West Yorkshire (2nd Edition) (David & Charles 1984) 
• Quick, Michael   Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (RCTS 2009)
• Clinker, C R   Clinker’s register of closed passenger stations and goods depots  (Avon Anglia 1978)
• Wells, Jeffrey  Miles Platting to Diggle (via Ashton)  (Challenger, 1996)
  

To see stations on the Micklehurst Loop Line
click on the statation name:
Uppermill, Friezland & Micklehurst
See also Diggle