Stories of steam .... the Fallowfied Railway Line ...... one to do today

Location; The Union Chapel, 2b Wellington Road, Fallowfield, M14 6EQ

Picture; LNER B17 Class No.1664 "Liverpool" storming through Wilbraham Road station with an east-bound express in 1946 or 47. Photograph by William Lees. This is at today's Athol Road entrance to the Fallowfield Loop.

A forgotten river, an old railway track .... the Platt Brook, the Fallowfield Loop

By Withington Road Railway Bridge, 2009

Today I think we shall walk the Fallowfield Loop again

Now I first came across this disused railway line a few years ago and have been promising to take the route to Fallowfield with my botanist friend David Bishop, but in the way of these things our desire to start some serious walking has got there first.

We had been up in the Hope Valley and with the sun shining and the presence of plenty of ramblers we decided it was time to join them but more of that later.

In the meantime it is the Fallowfield Loop that has got me going on this bright sunny day at the end of April.

It is a cycle and walking track, which runs for six miles from St Werburghs in Chorlton to Debdale Park.

As you would expect there is much to see and I have already promised myself the Companion Book of Flowers, along with Trees to spot and enjoy and What was that bird?

Platt Brook and Ley Brook, 1841-53

But for me the exciting discovery of our first trip along the path was the Platt Brook which runs open along part of the track and is a constant reminder to me of the number of open water course which flowed through south Manchester.

Many now disappear in dark culverts lost to most of us but occasionally come out into the daylight.

So it is with the Platt Brook which is the Gore Brook earlier in its journey.  Like some of the other books it finally runs in to our own Chorlton Brook and on its course picks up even smaller ones like the Ley Brook which is almost hidden from view.

We missed it at first and I was only drawn to it by a small brick wall which stops the curious from falling down its banks.  But there it was running underneath the old track into the Platt Brook and visible as it snaked off southin the opposite direction  towards Fallowfield, Burnage and Withington.

Stretches of it had been put below ground by the 1840s.

Now I fight the romantic side of my character but I have to confess to a sheer bout of the emotion at finding these little water ways most of which are totally overlooked but are a powerful link to our rural past.

So a bit ironic really that it should be this old disused railway track that brings me back to south Manchester of the 1840s, where as many of you know I so often reside.

The line in 1905

The Fallowfield Loop Railway began in 1891 when the stretch between Chorlton and Fallowfield was opened, followed the next year with an extension up to Fairfield.

The line provided a new route for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway to run trains from Sheffield into Manchester, and local stopping services ran from Fairfield and Gorton on the Hope Valley line to Manchester Central via Hyde Road, Fallowfield and Chorlton-cum-Hardy before joining a section of line from Old Trafford into Manchester Central.

It had a chequered history and its demise was a slow decline marked by the closure of some of the stations in the 1930s and the rest in the 50s.   Its end as a passenger line came in 1969 with the closure of Central Station although it was still used for freight until 1988 when the line was finally closed.

The route remained an increasingly overgrown relic of our railway past until its reopening as a cycle and track way in 2001.

The Comet,  on the loop line in 1935

This brings me back to our resolve to do some serious walking and in turn leads me to a reflection on how you kit yourself out for a new hobby.

Like all new ventures we were in danger of going over the top and friends have gently smiled at the idea that we should use a compass, but it is all part of the fun.


So with that said I rather think it is time to make tracks.

Now I am always pleased to be corrected otherwise what ids the poinbt of trying to get thisngs right so Here are two corrections from Brian Roberston and Ed Allen.

Brian wrote, "I have to correct your blog on a couple of points, Andrew Simpson. Firstly, there were no station closures in the 1930s. All of the stations closed together on July 7th, 1958. Secondly, although some Hope Valley trains run through Gorton and Fairfield, these stations are very much on the Woodhead line. Incidentally, the building of this line necessitated the building of new stations at Gorton and Fairfield. The line's main claim to fame is that the blue Midland Pulman was a regular visitor as it rested at Reddish depot between turns."

And Ed Allen comented, "The first picture is not Withington Road but St.Werburghs looking South. The bridge was widened in 1929 to cater for widening the tracks...a scheme which never materialized. I grew up with the Loop at the end of the garden in Chelsfield Grove. I still live nearby, with the Metrolink now at the back of the house. Land was reserved for the widening, the long thin field behind our house, the cinema on the bridge had to be easy to demolish and the houses on the West side of Buckingham Road were built on reserved land. The Comet didn't run on the Loop but ran from Piccadilly/London Road to London Euston. It didn't run through Fallowfield and anyway, the station in the photo is somewhere else, Fallowfield' signal box was actually on the Westbound platform. The locomotive is an original Royal Scot class originally named Jenny Lind then The Rifle Brigade. Usually, steam locos running on the Loop were former Lner engines Long coal trains were run into manchester and the Manchester Central to Harwich boat train was a regular heading the other way. So many archive photos have been captioned wrongly in the past, I hop no-one minds a little correction now and then."

Pictures; on the Fallowfield Loop by Withington Bridge, August 2009, Phil Champion and  geograph.org.uk, map of the spot where the Platt Brook joins the Leigh [Ley Brook] from the OS of Lancashire 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ railway bridge close to Fallowfield Station, City Engineers, October 1905, m78399, the Comet  Manchester to London Express, pulled by Loco 6146, passing through Fallowfield at 5.30 pm 1935, m63467, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

Suppose they built a railway and people forgot about it

Now it’s the station everyone gets wrong.

And I suppose I know why for today all that remains is a bit of the platform on the Fallowfield Loop Walk

But it was here that Muddy Waters, Cousin Joe Pleasant, Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee performed on May 7 1964.

This was the Blues and Gospel train at Chorltonville which of course was really Wilbraham Road station which had once been Alexandra Park.

The station had opened as Alexandra Park on Sepetmber1 1891 and its name  was changed to Wilbraham Road eight months later to avoid confusion with a London station with a similiar name.

“The station was situated on the MSLR’ Fallowfield Loop line, a 7 mile double track route that linked the Midland Railway’s Manchester South District Line from a point just to the south of Chorlton-cum-Hardy to the MSL main line between Manchester and Sheffield at Fairfield. The reason for the line was to give the MLSR access to Manchester Central Station.”*

During the Great War it was where aircraft parts were unloaded to be reassembled at Alexandra Park Aerodrome.**

And that marks the station off as both a place in our history and of course the station many get wrong.

Ask most people about Granada’s Blues show on that rainy May evening and they will tell you it was at Chorlton Railway Station which would have been difficult given that trains still ran from Central through Chorlton and on to Stockport and Derbyshire.

Not so Wilbraham Road which closed for passenger traffic in 1958 and there I suspect is why history has forgotten the place.

Memories of boarding trains there will be fast fading and I doubt that there will be anyone today who can remember the aerodrome which closed in 1924.

But as Andy Robertson’s pictures show there is still something left.

Like him we have walked the Fallowfield Loop and gazed down at the old station master’s house and stood beside the platform.

I just wish I had been at the concert.

Pictures; Wilbraham Road Station, 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Disused Railway Stations, http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/wilbraham_road/index.shtml

Suppose they built a railway and people forgot about it

Now it’s the station everyone gets wrong.

And I suppose I know why for today all that remains is a bit of the platform on the Fallowfield Loop Walk

But it was here that Muddy Waters, Cousin Joe Pleasant, Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee performed on May 7 1964.

This was the Blues and Gospel train at Chorltonville which of course was really Wilbraham Road station which had once been Alexandra Park.

The station had opened as Alexandra Park on Sepetmber1 1891 and its name  was changed to Wilbraham Road eight months later to avoid confusion with a London station with a similiar name.

“The station was situated on the MSLR’ Fallowfield Loop line, a 7 mile double track route that linked the Midland Railway’s Manchester South District Line from a point just to the south of Chorlton-cum-Hardy to the MSL main line between Manchester and Sheffield at Fairfield. The reason for the line was to give the MLSR access to Manchester Central Station.”*

During the Great War it was where aircraft parts were unloaded to be reassembled at Alexandra Park Aerodrome.**

And that marks the station off as both a place in our history and of course the station many get wrong.

Ask most people about Granada’s Blues show on that rainy May evening and they will tell you it was at Chorlton Railway Station which would have been difficult given that trains still ran from Central through Chorlton and on to Stockport and Derbyshire.

Not so Wilbraham Road which closed for passenger traffic in 1958 and there I suspect is why history has forgotten the place.

Memories of boarding trains there will be fast fading and I doubt that there will be anyone today who can remember the aerodrome which closed in 1924.

But as Andy Robertson’s pictures show there is still something left.

Like him we have walked the Fallowfield Loop and gazed down at the old station master’s house and stood beside the platform.

I just wish I had been at the concert.

Still there is always that wonderful site about our disused railway stations* which has the full story of the place along with posts on the aerodrome** and the Fallowfield Loop.***

Pictures; Wilbraham Road Station, 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson


*Disused Railway Stations, http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/wilbraham_road/index.shtml

**Alexandra Park Aerodrome,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Alexandra%20Park%20Aerodrome

***The Fallowfield Loop,http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Fallowfield%20Loop

Walking through Levenshulme’s history part 1 ............. a railway station

Now there is a lot in Levenshulme that I have missed over the years so here is a short series focusing on the bits that have gone, the bits that may soon go and a lot more that is still there if you know where to look.

And that is where Andy Robertson comes in because on a grey and very unpromising July day he set off to record a place he knows well.

I could have started with any one of the four-eight images he recorded but given our joint fascination for all things railway, here is Levenshulme Station and associated pictures, and because someone has done its history far better than I here also is a little bit about when the railway arrived.*

The station which many will remember as Levenshulme South was originally just called Levenshulme and was opened by the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway on May 2nd 1892 and was on the Fallowfield Loop line.

And for those of us living in Chorlton it would have been just a few minutes down the line, but alas the station was closed as a passenger service in 1958.

Freight traffic continued to be handled until June 1965 when the station was downgraded to a coal depot only.

The building is still there and you can now walk the walk where once trains thundered past.

We have yest to do this bit of the loop but will do in time.

And that I think is where I shall stop for today, but as Levenshulme is a place I never lived and my knowledge of railway history is sketchy I shall await the experts to add more to the story of the station and the surrounding area.

And no sooner had the story been posted and  Anthony commented, "just a quick comment Andrew, although Levenshulme South closed to passengers in 1958, the line remained in passenger use, I think until the closure of Manchester Central in 1969. Liverpool Central - Manchester Central - Harwich Parkeston Quay boat trains had been routed via Levenshulme and Guide Bridge to Sheffield Victoria. In 1957-61 generally hauled by B1 class steam locos, with 61002 'Impala' and 61161 making regular appearances."

Which was followed up by Cedric who wrote, "so sad to see it today. I have a distant memory of catching a train at Levy south but I can't have been more than 3 years old at the time. 

I remember playing on the platform after the station closed, you had to be careful as there was broken glass everywhere after the vandals finished off the station buildings. 

The KK cash and carry shown in the photos was a hardware merchants after the station closed and I remember there was a shoe repairers next door who had the necessary leather working tools to restitch my school satchel when it started to come apart. 

Do kids still have satchels? I guess not." 

And I shall finish with a correction, Brian who runs that excellent facebook site,Greater Manchester History, Architecture, Faces and Places  added "Oh and Andrew, the loop was opened throughout on 2.5.1892, but it had been opened from Chorlton Junction to Fallowfield on 1.10.1891."

Now that is how I like my history, local, instant and full of new things to learn.

Next; that cinema

Pictures; of Levenshulme Station and more July 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Disused Stations, http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/levenshulme_south/index.shtml

The Fallowfield Loop

On the Fallowfield Loop by Withington Bridge, August 2009, Phil Champion

Now I am back with the Fallowfield Loop that disused railway line.*

It began in 1891 when the stretch between Chorlton and Fallowfield was opened, followed the next year with an extension up to Fairfield.

The line provided a new route for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway to run trains from Sheffield into Manchester, and local stopping services ran from Fairfield and Gorton on the Hope Valley line to Manchester Central via Hyde Road, Fallowfield and Chorlton-cum-Hardy before joining a section of line from Old Trafford into Manchester Central.

And today I want to feature the work being done on the stretch which has “created a linear park and wildlife corridor, linking parks and open spaces. It has an interesting flora – some of which may represent all that’s left of the lost, ancient rural landscape of South Manchester.”**

Now given that I always believe there is no pint in rewriting what has already been done very well I shall direct you to a fascinating article on the Loop from David Bishop on the Friends of Chorlton Meadows.

Picture; on the Fallowfield Loop by Withington Bridge, August 2009, Phil Champion


 *The Fallowfield Loop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/a-forgotten-river-old-railway-track-and.html

** Friends of Chorlton Meadows, http://friendsofchorltonmeadows.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-fallowfield-loop-and-greening.html

Picture; on the Fallowfield Loop by Withington Bridge, August 2009, Phil Champion