Denton Railway Station

Stockport & Guide Bridge Line of the London & North Western Railway

Manchester Rd North, Denton
Denton Railway Station is 6 miles south east of Manchester and 4½ miles north east of Stockport. It stands on a formerly busy line where coal from Denton Colliery on Stockport Ln was transhipped onto the rail network at Denton Colliery Sidings in North Reddish situated to the south west of Dane Bank. Adjoining the station, on the opposite side of Manchester Rd, there were sidings in a large goods yard, containing a goods shed, that was used by Lancashire Felt Works and next to this there was another siding for Denton Gas Works owned by Denton Urban District Council. Just outside the station stood the Queen's Hotel where passengers could quench their thirst. When it opened in 1871 it had stables but it was unsuccessful as a railway hotel. It was demolished in 1983 to make way for the M67 motorway.

The line eventually had four tracks and there were two island platforms at the station, with two tracks laid between the islands and one on either side. There was a ticket office that was accessed from the north side of Manchester Rd and two flights of stairs down to the platforms. Subsequently, the eastern platform was abandoned but the tracks around it were left in place to be lifted at a later date. The ticket office was demolished and access to the remaining western platform is presently by a single flight of steel stairs from Manchester Rd North. The station now lies adjacent to Denton Island, a large roundabout, where the A57 trunk road and the M60 and M67 motorways intersect.

Denton Station, 1950. The occasion is the annual works outing of J Moores & Sons, Hat Manufacturers.	Denton Station, 1951. The occasion is the annual works outing of Oldham & Son Ltd to Blackpool. The locomotive is possibly a Class 5 4-6-0 introduced by the London Midland & Scottish Railway Company in 1934.
Goods Train, 1924. The goods train, loaded with lead destined for Oldham Battery Company, stands alongside Lancashire Felt Works adjoining Denton Goods Yard.	A No. 19 tram stopped at Denton Station on its way to Manchester. This photo was taken shortly before the Manchester tram system closed on the 10 Jan 1949.

Denton Station is widely known because it is one of the hosts of Britain's least frequent train service, which is once a week, with return, on Saturday mornings only. It is a request stop train operated by Northern Rail. The record-holding infrequency of the service now attracts railway enthusiasts who wish to ride on the 'Denton Flyer' or 'ghost train' as it is also known. Northern Rail operates a train service on Saturdays only, one train each way. The stations on the line are: Stockport (Edgeley), Reddish South (request stop), Denton (request stop), Guide Bridge and Stalybridge.

This formerly busy railway line enabled passenger services in south Manchester to link with other national services to the north of the city. The factor that led to the decline of the station was its unfortunate location because it is not particularly close to Denton town centre at Crown Point; in fact, it lies ¾ mile away. The station is set among Denton Reservoirs, industrial units, a large roundabout, a trunk road and two motorways and because of this the station has no catchment area from which it can readily derive viable commuter services. Nevertheless, on the positive side, the line is regularly used by freight trains. Railtour specials also use it and from time-to-time these stop at Denton and Reddish South Stations to pick up passengers. These specials can be either steam or diesel hauled.

Entrance to the station on Manchester Rd North, 24 Mar 2008.	Flight of steel stairs leading down to the island platform, Mar 2008. The embankment of Denton No. 2 Reservoir is on the left.
Flight of steel stairs leading down to the island platform, Mar 2008.	Flight of steel stairs leading down to the island platform, Mar 2008.
Denton Station signal box, early 1970s. This signal box was situated about 52 yards south of Denton Station on the other side of Manchester Rd. In the top left, above the bridge parapet, the roof of the Queen's Hotel can just be seen. The signal boxes at Denton Station and Denton Junction were based on a design first introduced by the London & North Western Railway Company in 1876.	Denton Junction signal box, early 1970s. This signal box was larger than the one at Denton Station and it was situated about about 1,257 yards north of the station. Here the line from Stockport, via Reddish South Railway Station, branched three ways. Westwards was the LNWR Ashton Branch Junction Line from which the Guide Bridge Junction Line branched off at Ashton Moss Junction. Northwards the LNWR Stockport & Guide Bridge Line continued to Guide Bridge. Eastwards was the LNWR Denton and Dukinfield Line* through Hooley Hill, Audenshaw, which then became the LNWR Stalybridge Junction Line. This branch is no longer extant.

*The LNWR Denton and Dukinfield Line through Hooley Hill opened in 1893 with the purpose of avoiding the busy junction at Guide Bridge and to provide the railway company with its own line between Stockport and Stalybridge. Hooley Hill Station was closed to passenger traffic by British Railways on the 25 Sep 1950 shortly after nationalisation and the line was closed completely in 1968.

Map of Hooley Hill Station and Tunnel, 1913/18.

Brief History of the Stockport & Guide Bridge Line
The London & North Western Railway Company was formed in 1846 by the merger of three companies, viz the Grand Junction, London & Birmingham and the Manchester & Birmingham. Subsequently, it acquired the soubriquet of the 'Premier Line' and one of its illustrious ancestors was the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, which at the time of the merger was a constituent of the Grand Junction Railway. The LNWR served several of Britain's major cities, for example, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two latter by means of a facility with the Caledonian Railway Company. Additionally, it operated the Irish Mail Train for the Government between Euston and Holyhead.

By 1848 the Stockport & Guide Bridge Line and the accompanying Stalybridge Junction Line were open throughoutas integral parts of the line connecting London and Leeds via Northampton, Birmingham, Stafford, Shrewsbury, Crewe, Stockport, Stalybridge and Huddersfield. Nevertheless, it is understood that the line through Denton had been cut in 1845 (Middleton, 1936). The same source states Denton Railway Station did not open until 1882 and that the line was widened to four tracks in 1889. However, a map of 1848 clearly shows a small station standing on the site of the later station.

Map of Denton Station, 1848.

A pre-1897 company timetable shows that the Stockport & Guide Bridge Line was used by local trains travelling between Stockport and Stalybridge as well as between Stockport and Manchester (Victoria/Exchange Stations). Owing to the arrangement of Denton Junction, a number of local journey possibilities were available, such as:

• Stockport, Heaton Norris, Reddish (South), Denton, Hooley Hill (station on Mount Pleasant St), Dukinfield & Ashton (station on Cooper St, Dukinfield) and Stalybridge (Rassbottom St).
• Stockport, Heaton Norris, Reddish (South), Denton, Guide Bridge, Ashton (Park Parade Station, Warrington St/Lower Wharf St) and Stalybridge (Rassbottom St). Between Guide Bridge and Stalybridge, the line of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was used.
• Stockport, Heaton Norris, Reddish (South), Denton, Audenshaw (station on Manchester Rd adjoining junction with Droylsden Rd), Droylsden, Clayton Bridge (request), Park (request), Miles Platting (request) and Manchester (Victoria/Exchange Stations).

A typical journey time between Stockport and Stalybridge was 26 minutes and between Stockport and Manchester it was 25 to 30 minutes, depending upon the number of halts.