A little bit of Stretford archaeology ………

I don’t pretend to be an expert on what was Stretford Railway Station.

In the early 1970s it was just a station I passed through and then a few years later after I had finally washed up in Chorlton it was just a place I was vaguely aware of at the end of Edge Lane.

Later still I dug into its early history while researching my first book on Chorlton-cum-Hardy.*

But I suppose in all of the 53 years I have lived in Manchester I think I have stood on its platform just a handful of times.

All of which means I could do with a bit of help interpreting the ghost clues on the northern gable end of the railway station building.

It starts with the chimney stack which long ago was capped and will have vented the smoke from the coal fires in the waiting room and booking office. 

Now that was the easy one, but then here is the brick arch which must have been a window, but which appears to have been blocked up possibly when a new structure was “added on”.

The inverted V I assume was the roof over a bridge which connected the up and down platforms, and if you follow the line of that roof it sloops down which would be consistent with the roof  over the  flight of stairs.

And in turn the grey bricks will have been used to block off the opening from the station, while below them can be made out the sawn-off iron supports for the bridge which rested on those stone blocks.

The remaining ghost clues will have been windows and a door.

I have gone looking for photographs and turned up nothing in the collections of Manchester City Council Libraries or Trafford Local Studies, but out there I have found some which confirm the bridge theory.

Alas they are copyright and so I am hoping that knocking around will be the odd period picture postcard showing the bridge.

Leaving me just to record that my Wikipedia tells me, the railway station was originally opened as Edge Lane on July 20 1849 by the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway (MSJAR), and was renamed Stretford in September 1849 when it relocated.** 

“The station operated as a four-platform station from circa 1900 until 1963. Stretford closed as a British Rail station on December 24th 1991 for conversion to Metrolink, and reopened for Metrolink services on June 15th 1992” which I guess was when the bridge was demolished".

Interestingly the railway station does not feature on that excellent site, Disused Railway Stations.***

But I know there will be plenty of people who not only have pictures but also memories of walking over that bridge.

Well, we shall see.

*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, The History Press, 2012 

**Stretford tram stop, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretford_tram_stop

***Disused Stations, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretford_tram_stop