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THE WEST
LANCASHIRE RAILWAY
PRESTON - SOUTHPORT |
 The River Douglas Bridge at Hesketh Bank. From early days, schooners had used the town’s two estuaries, the Ribble and the Douglas, to transport stone and coal from the surrounding areas through the then port at the nearby village of Tarleton. At Tarleton Lock there was a connection into the extensive inland waterway network; an Act having been passed in 1720 to permit linking of the Douglas estuary to the Rufford Branch of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. Alty's Brickworks also had their own landing stage in the vicinity. The coming of the railway in 1882 necessitated provision of an opening span on the new River Douglas bridge as an integral part of its construction. Although not visible on this view, another interesting feature alongside the railway here were the very lofty telegraph poles necessary to clear the tall masts of shipping. Although signalling cables could be fairly easily disconnected at such times as the bridge was being opened, it was essential that the railway telegraph communications were not disrupted at any time and it must have taken a very brave man indeed to scale the masts in order to undertake routine maintenance.
With all remaining structures such as surviving semaphore signalling posts, at the start of the twenty-first century, being reduced to absolute minimum proportions, the mind boggles at how the present-day Health & Safety Executive would have viewed the situation ! Although the steelwork of the opening section of the bridge remained in-situ until demolition following closure of the railway, it had been many years since this had actually operated for river traffic and the span was soon to be permanently locked out of use (and the telegraph pole height reduced!). Tall-masted ships were becoming a thing of the past by the turn of the century and the river had also started to silt up, preventing access in any case by larger vessels. This picture, one of a set of locally much-published views of the bridge opening for a sea-going vessel, was taken in 1899.
1899 - Anon - photo courtesy Alan Castle
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 The 13-17 Southport - Preston, hauled by Lostock Hall's long-time resident, Fairburn 2-6-4 tank No. 42158 has just crossed the River Douglas's former swing-bridge shortly after departing from Hesketh Bank and the regulator is now being opened wider for the one-mile short sprint downgrade towards Hoole, the train's next booked stop. This interesting view is taken on 16th August 1964 from the front carriage of the 13-16 Preston - Southport, the latter being hauled by yet another 2-6-4 tank, Southport's No. 42558. In the distance and to the right of the picture can be seen the smoke-belching chimneys of Alty's Brickworks, a one-time major employer and long-standing rail-traffic provider for this otherwise very rural village. Part of the brickworks site is much later to be utilised for the trackbed of the 2ft-gauge West Lancashire Light Railway and there will also be talk of converting the remainder, including a large lake, into an extensive leisure park. However, at the time that the original West Lancashire Railway was in its final death-throes, all of these plans were still several years in the future.
16th August 1964
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