Entwistle railway station

Entwistle National Rail
Location
Place Entwistle
Local authority Blackburn with Darwen
Coordinates 53°39′22″N 2°24′54″W / 53.656°N 2.415°WCoordinates: 53°39′22″N 2°24′54″W / 53.656°N 2.415°W
Grid reference SD727177
Operations
Station code ENT
Managed by Northern Rail
Number of platforms 1
DfT category F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05  9,158
2005/06 Increase 10,025
2006/07 Decrease 9,089
2007/08 Decrease 8,756
2008/09 Increase 9,444
2009/10 Decrease 7,718
2010/11 Increase 11,542
2011/12 Increase 15,458
2012/13 Increase 15,498
2013/14 Decrease 14,762
History
Original company Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe and West Yorkshire Railway
Pre-grouping Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Post-grouping London Midland and Scottish Railway
1 August 1848 Opened[1]
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Entwistle from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

The rural Entwistle railway station is served by Northern Rail services on the Manchester Victoria/Bolton 'Ribble Valley' Line towards Blackburn and Clitheroe in England. The station is 5 3⁄4 miles (9.3 km) north of Bolton.

It is the closest station to Edgworth, but lack of parking and a difficult approach along minor roads make it unpopular with commuters. Not all trains call here and, unlike nearby Bromley Cross the station lies outside the GMPTE boundary, meaning that passengers cannot take advantage of their special offers and ticketing. Owing to the remote location and low passenger numbers, Entwistle has been a request stop for several years. This means passengers wishing to board must signal to the driver (as they would for a bus) and those wishing to alight must inform the conductor.

The station was once substantially larger and served the factories at Knowmill. Until recently the remains of an overhead cable railway, connecting the factory to the railway goods yard, were visible in an adjoining woods. The mills were demolished when the level of the Wayoh Reservoir was raised and the station was reduced in size following the Beeching report of 1963 and the singling of the Bromley Cross to Blackburn section of the line a decade later.

Media appearances

The station has been used as a location for filming on more than one occasion:

In the 1986 film adaptation of Jeffrey Archer's novel First Among Equals, the sequences at the fictional Redfern Station were filmed there.

In Episode 2 of Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere, the station featured as "Middlewood station" (not to be confused with a real life station of the same name on the Buxton Line) due to its supposedly rural backwater location.

Services

The service has recently improved to more or less hourly throughout the week (including Sundays - see Northern Rail timetable 12 for details), although it remains a request stop. The success of this enhancement all depends on the fate of the local Strawbury Duck public house. The station was used heavily by pub drinkers before being closed down, but has been reopened under new management as of June 2010.

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 92. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Entwistle railway station.


Preceding station National Rail Following station
Darwen   Northern Rail
Ribble Valley Line		   Bromley Cross
Historical railways
Spring Vale   L&YR
Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe and West Yorkshire Railway		   Turton and Edgworth