Sandycroft railway station

Former railway station in Flintshire, Wales

53°11′52″N 2°59′47″W / 53.1977°N 2.9964°W / 53.1977; -2.9964Grid referenceSJ334672Platforms2Other informationStatusDisusedHistoryOriginal companyLondon and North Western RailwayPre-groupingLondon and North Western RailwayPost-groupingLondon, Midland and Scottish RailwayKey dates1 March 1884Opened^[1]1 May 1961Closed^[1]

Sandycroft railway station was located on the eastern edge of the village of Sandycroft, Flintshire.

History

Opened on 1 March 1884 by the London and North Western Railway, it was served by what is now the North Wales Coast Line between Chester, Cheshire and Holyhead, Anglesey.^[1] The station was located near Deeside, in England. It had two platforms made of wood, upon which were only very basic wooden waiting facilities, and a single storey brick booking office.^[2] The two platforms were connected by a footbridge and there was a signalbox positioned between the middle two of the four tracks.

In 1896 the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Edward Benson died at Hawarden Castle and his body was put on the train at Sandycroft to be returned to London.^[3] The station closed on 1 May 1961,^[4] although a private siding remained in use for some time after, and the 1980s the number of tracks running through the abandoned site were reduced down to two. The signal box was taken out of use and demolished in 2005^[5] and there are no structures or platforms on the site left to be seen.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Station Name: Sandycroft". Disused Stations. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
^ A description of the station on the village website
^ An article about the Archbishop's death on the Flintshire website
^ Jones, Mark: Lost Railways of North Wales, page 29. Countryside Books, 2008
^ A copy of the closure notice on signallingnotices.org.uk