User:Nempnet/sandbox/stn5

original at Freshfield copied on 5 July

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Freshfield
General information
Location	Freshfield, Sefton England
Grid reference	SD291082
Managed by	Merseyrail
Transit authority	Merseytravel
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	FRE
Fare zone	D2
Classification	DfT category E
History
Original company	Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway
Pre-grouping	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
By April 1854	Opened
Passengers
2018/19	0.712 million
2019/20	0.773 million
2020/21	0.206 million
2021/22	0.484 million
2022/23	0.499 million
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Freshfield railway station serves the Freshfield district of Formby, Merseyside, England. The station is located on the Southport branch of the Merseyrail network's Northern Line.

History

The line was built through the station site when the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway (LC&SR) opened its line from Waterloo to Southport Eastbank Street. The line was subsequently extended to Liverpool Exchange in 1850 and Southport Chapel Street in 1851. This station opened sometime before April 1854 when it first appeared in the timetables.

The station was situated on the north side of Victoria Road which was crossed using a level crossing.

The station had two platforms, one each side of the double-track, and was of timber construction. There was a signal box on the down side at the southern end of the station which managed the level crossing.

By 1904 a small goods yard opened to the north of Victoria Road, on the coastal side of the line.

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it was described as "cramped and inconvenient, there being a station house, and a waiting room with an ungainly wooden awning on the up platform, and only a small timber waiting shed on the opposite side. An open-air footbridge connected the platforms whilst the main road passed over the railway via a level crossing".

as an intermediate station on the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway.

It was built at the insistence of the local landowner, Thomas Fresh, to provide him access to the railway, as when the railway opened in 1848, there was no village for it to serve. cn

Fresh donated his own land for the purpose. cn

shortly before the station the line became double with the formation of a long loop through the station so that trains could pass each other, the line reverted to single-track on leaving the station.

In 1850 the LC&SR had been authorised to lease, sell or transfer itself to the L&YR and on 14 June 1855 the L&YR purchased and took over the LC&SR.

The station was renamed to Formby in 1866. By 1893 a goods yard opened to the south of Kirklake Road, on the coastal side of the line, it was two sidings forming a run-around loop with a headshunt, it was equipped with a three and a half ton crane.

The level crossing was replaced with the road bridge in 1912. The station was rebuilt in 1913 getting waiting rooms on each platform, the booking office being on the road bridge.

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway amalgamated with the London and North Western Railway on 1 January 1922 and in turn was Grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. Nationalisation followed in 1948.

The goods yard closed on 3 October 1960.

Formby is mentioned in the song Slow Train by Flanders and Swann. This is because the Beeching Report listed Formby as a station to be closed, along with the entire Liverpool to Southport route, which never happened.

In 1978 the station became part of the Merseyrail network's Northern Line (operated by British Rail until privatised in 1995).

Facilities

The station is staffed, 15 minutes before the first train and 15 minutes after the last train, and has platform CCTV. There is a payphone, shelters, booking office and live departure and arrival screens, for passenger information. The station has a free car park, with 82 spaces, as well as a 10-space cycle rack and secure indoor storage for 44 cycles. Although both platforms are linked by a footbridge, wheelchair users can access both platforms via the level crossing.

Services

Trains operate every 15 minutes throughout the day from Monday to Saturday to Southport to the north, and to Hunts Cross via Liverpool Central to the south. Sunday services are every 30 minutes in each direction.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Ainsdale towards Southport		Merseyrail Southport branch Northern Line		Formby towards Hunts Cross
	Historical railways
Ainsdale towards Southport		Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway (1855)		Formby towards Liverpool Exchange

Gallery

• 
  The station footbridge and level crossing.
• 
  The view from the footbridge, looking north.
• 
  Buildings on the Southport-bound platform.
• 
  A broad view of the station.
• 
  Freshfield signal box 1 December 1966.

References

Bibliography

• Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0049-7. OCLC 19514063. CN 8983.
• Clinker, C. R. (October 1978). Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830–1977. Bristol: Avon-Anglia Publications & Services. ISBN 0-905466-19-5. OCLC 5726624.
• Ferneyhough, Frank (1975). The History of Railways in Britain. Reading: Osprey. ISBN 0-85045-060-8. OCLC 2120140.
• Gahan, John W. (1985). Seaport to Seaside: Lines to Southport and Ormskirk - 13 decades of trains and travel. ISBN 978-0-907768-07-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link)
• Gell, Rob (1986). An Illustrated Survey of Railway Stations Between Southport & Liverpool 1848-1986. Heyday Publishing Company. ISBN 0-947562-04-4. (No page numbers.){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Marshall, John (1969). The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Vol. 1. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4352-4.
• Pettitt, Gordon; Comfort, Nicholas (2015). The Regional Railways Story. ISBN 978-0-86093-663-3.
• Quick, Michael (2023) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (PDF). version 5.05. Railway & Canal Historical Society.
• Simmons, Jack (1997). "'up' and 'down'". In Simmons, Jack; Biddle, Gordon (eds.). The Oxford Companion to British Railway History From 1603 to the 1990s (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 548. ISBN 0-19-211697-5.
• The Railway Clearing House (1970) [1904]. The Railway Clearing House Handbook of Railway Stations 1904 (1970 D&C Reprint ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles Reprints. ISBN 0-7153-5120-6.
• Williams, Michael (2011). On the Slow Train. Random House. ISBN 978-1-84809-208-2.
• Yorke, Barbara (1987). Formby and Freshfield in times past. Countryside.