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To service his operation at Smethurst Rd, James Marsden had constructed a railway linking the colliery and brickworks with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway -later the LNWR and then the LMSR- at Orrell West Sidings, midway between Orrell Station and the eastern end of the Upholland Tunnel. The authors of “The Industrial Railways of the Wigan Coalfield: Part 1 – West and South of Wigan” (C H A Townley, F D Smith & J A Peden; Runpast, 1991) note that connection with the mainline was provided under an agreement dated 21 September 1901. “The level crossing of the Colliery Railway of the Bispham Hall Colliery in Oxhouse-road*” is also referenced in a Gazetted notice of 20 November 1902 on proposed electrification works in the Orrell area. Following the Company's acquisition of the Mountain Mine Colliery c.1916, the railway was extended north-west of the Smethurst Rd complex to form a connection with it and, beyond the Mountain Mine Colliery, to provide a second connection with the L&YR on the west side of the Tunnel.
As was often the case with local colliery railways, the Company also carried goods for the neighbouring farms and other businesses. Records from the 1920s and 30s cited in “The Industrial Railways [etc]” mention carriage of materials for W Gaskell & Co (builders), Joseph Gibbons of Promised Land Farm, the Littler brothers of Lower Heaton House Farm and Henry Middlehurst of Brownlow Farm.
Directly south of the mainline, between Sandbrook Rd and St James's Rd, the mineral railway crossed a reservoir belonging to the L&YR via a timber bridge. To avoid the need for future repairs to the bridge, it was in 1931 to fill in that part of the reservoir directly below and north-west of the bridge.
The Mountain Mine Colliery was sold to the Upholland Coking and By Products Co Ltd in 1925, and closed five years later. The rail connection appears still to have been intact in 1934 but is absent from the 1948 OS map, surveyed in 1939. The Bispham Hall Brick & Terracotta Co abandoned rail transport entirely in 1952, and the remaining tracks had been lifted by 1960. The route from Oxhouse Rd* to the former brickworks site is now a public right of way - Footpath 62 “Newfold to Footpath 41 (Old Mineral Railway)” on the Wigan MBC Definitive Statement of Public Rights of Way for Billinge & Winstanley.
A list of locomotives owned or hired by the Bispham Hall Colliery Co and its successors can be found in “The Industrial Railways of the Wigan Coalfield [etc]”. A full account of rail operations at Bispham Hall is given in C A Appleton's “Bispham Hall Colliery and Brickworks, Upholland By-products Plant” (Journal of Industrial Locomotive Soc, Vol 6/No. 5, June 1953).
Main image: Extract from “The Authentic Map Directory of South Lancashire” (Section 100), Geographia Ltd. The date of publication is not stated explicitly, but a map of administrative areas is said to show the position at May 1934 and the St Helens Central Library copy is date-stamped “21 Aug 1934”. *Oxhouse Rd, between New Fold and the local authority boundary, is shown here as a continuation of Sandbrook Rd. Top right: Start of Footpath 62/ex-Bispham Hall Mineral Railway, Oxhouse Rd (west side), 1.11.2016. Bottom right: Looking east from Sandbrook Rd railway bridge, 1.11.2016. New housing (Sandcross Close) now occupies the sites of the former reservoir and Orrell West Sidings. More photographs, including one taken when the connection and sidings were still in place in the 1930s, can be seen here.
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London
Pixie Lott patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young 'takes to the stage' with young singers from Sandcross Primary School (Reigate) at the charity's Christmas Carol concert at St.John's, Smiths Square, London