Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

Bridge and Halifax (from June 5 th ), an additional train to Preston at 09:12 (from May 29 th ), and a 09:35 to Leeds via Burnley Manchester Road and Bradford (June 5 th to September 18 th ). June A whole raft of minor changes to the scheduled timetable would see - the 05:30 all stations to Colne retimed to 05:39, the 07:08 all stations to Colne retimed to 07:10 the 07:28 from Hapton to Accrington withdrawn, the 09:10 all stations to Todmorden retimed to 09:12, the 10:35 all stations to Colne retimed to 10:41. There would be an additional 12:28 via Manchester and Stockport to London Euston, whilst the 16:07 to Stockport would be retimed to 16:09, and the 16:12 to Colne (Saturdays excepted) would now depart Accrington at 15:36 ex-Stockport. The 18:34 all stations to Colne would be retimed to 18:38. The 22:10 to Manchester Victoria would now depart 2 minutes later, the 22:22 to Colne 3 minutes later and the 23:21 to Colne at 23:28. There would be an additional service to Colne at 23:22 coming through from London Euston via Stockport. July Despite the fact that the staff at Accrington’s Goods Station were not operating a ‘go slow’, it was anticipated that the industrial action at nine goods depots in the Manchester area would have an adverse effect on the railway. Only about one third of the workload was being handled by them at this time. Holiday bookings would include those from Church & Oswaldtwistle, to destinations further afield with the Isle of Man the most popular. Overnight specials would depart East Lancs on Friday night for London, Glasgow and some south coast resorts, along with Fleetwood for the IOM Steamer. On Saturday 4 specials were for Blackpool, an additional 2 for Fleetwood and 1 for Morecambe. Extra staff was brought in to Accrington Station to help cope with the exodus, and passengers were only allowed to access the platforms when their respective trains came in. Following a period of twenty-nine continuous days without rain, the numbers were up on previous years, although the Stationmaster at Church said they were still far less than in the pre-war period. October An ‘open’ verdict was arrived at, at an inquest into the death of a Mr Frank Hayes who was found dead on the railway on the 16 th . ( At the start of the decade the area had a substantial amount of industrial sites served by railways all of which were operational. Because a substantial amount of the information about these lines is from this decade, before they were progressively closed, I have chosen this point in which to insert this material .) Industrial Railways, (circa 1950) Clayton-le-Moors derived its name from the clay which is almost unique to the world. One of the properties of this material was that it not only can be used in the manufacture of extremely hard bricks, but these were resistant to corrosion from salt air. The area had several quarries where this clay could be excavated and from it a large brick making industry was built up. The most famous of the companies was the NORI Brickworks. When manufacturing began the company wanted to call their bricks ‘iron’ bricks but permission was refused, so they simply reverse the word to NORI, and this was how the name was derived. Much of the clay for the manufacture of bricks and tiles was taken out of Whinney Hill for Nori and another company adjacent to the hill, whereas other brickworks took clay from quarries into the side of the Coppice, the hill which stands high to the east overlooking Accrington. Two collieries also could be found in the district, one close to the railway behind Huncoat Station, the other on the far side of Whinney Hill in Altham known as Moorfield Colliery. Following a disaster in which many miners lost their lives, the pit in Altham closed and the site was occupied by the Coke Works. In order to serve these facilities from the railway and to transport away these important products it was necessary to construct an industrial line, which was part-funded by the Whinney Hill Plastic Brick Company. This line which was constructed between 1894 and 1895, had two outlets one to the east of Huncoat Station, the other just beyond the cricket club. Both these lines were linked by a loop to the north, which had to pass over two high viaducts on brick piers, the one over Whinney Hill Road being extremely impressive. One branch came off this loop beyond the cricket field and ran to the NORI works in Altham. The second continued turning east to serve the second brickworks before continuing on to circumnavigate Whinney Hill to several sidings at the coke works. Beyond the sidings at these brickworks the line turned again to run towards Huncoat where it met another set of sidings and lines associated with Huncoat Pit.

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