The heyday of Brierfield Railway Station
Our column travels back in time to the 1920s with an excellent view of Brierfield’s railway station as it looked back in the era of steam and smoke.
The station’s original name in 1849 was Marsden.
Later it became Brierfield in Marsden. And, finally, in the year 1857, all station signage was changed to Brierfield.
See, on the far left, the station master’s house built in 1881, the same year the subway was installed. Today the fondly remembered subway has long gone, however, the imposing stone station master’s house still proudly survives.
Look towards the right, just past the signals and here is the 1876 built Saxby and Farmer signal box, later becoming a Lancashire and Yorkshire box number 280 with a 32 lever frame, which was sadly taken down just last year.
During my days as a British Railways signalman, I was to spend a sublime week in the iconic Brierfield signal box during August, 1963.
Today Brierfield Railway Station is looked after by the genial Derek Jennings and both Derek and myself are looking forward to the rebuilding of Brierfield’s former signal box.