Bygone Burnley, with JACK NADIN

IF ANY one thing can be said to have had the most impact on the village community that is Rosegrove, then the railway must take precedence.

Even today, the three places connected with refreshment all have railway connections, the Junction Hotel, the Railway Hotel and the Railway Club.

The idea of linking the developing East Lancashire towns with its expanding coal and cotton by rails was an exciting one.

To this end the East Lancashire Railway Company was formed around 1840, and began to lease land to extend the line from Accrington through to Burnley and Colne.

The contract for construction of the section from Hapton to Bank Top (now Central Station) was awarded to William and Richard Hattersley and their bid of £128,356.

The first sod was cut in April 1846 near Hapton Station, and the line was officially opened as far as the Barracks Station on September 18th. 1848.

The Hattersley's on completion of the contract built some houses between Westgate and the railway embankment. These were said to be the first brick houses ever built in Burnley and as a consequence were always called 'The Brick Houses' right up to their demolition a number of years ago. Indeed, Hattersley Street still exists, at least in part, off Westgate.

The station at Rosegrove at this time was situated nearer the centre of the village, and reached by the gateway almost directly across from the present Junction Hotel. From a timetable of the day, the early trains were depicted as a four-wheeled engine with a tall chimney and separate coal tender. This pulled two coaches with three narrow compartments, with no other window other than that in the door.

Any luggage was fastened down on top of the carriage, and a "coachman" with folded arms sat on the box in front of the carriage as if prepared to drive a team of non-existent horses.

Inside the coaches were hard wooden seats. Goods sidings were established at Bank Top (Central) Station, although these soon became overcrowded, and sidings were built at Rosegrove.

These were extended in 1894 and soon covered a large area that was to include marshalling yards, turntables, goods sidings and engine sheds.

Rosegrove was to become the busiest and most important locomotive depot in North East Lancashire, which employed a great number of the residents of the village.

The village soon became the home for platelayers, engine men, railway guards, porters and firemen. Rosegrove Station and its huge marshalling yard was described in 1911 as "one of the most extensive in the North of England".

The importance of the sidings can be seen in the fact that during the Second World War, barrage balloons were put up around the Rosegrove sidingshappily their purpose was never proved.

Just what did working at Rosegrove Railway Sidings involve? Here are some of the remarkable statistics relating to the sidings.

There were fifteen roads (lines) at the sidings that stretched from Rosegrove Lane through to Smallshaw Lane, and down Lower Rosegrove Lane as far as the canal.

They served the goods destinations to the west as far as the Fylde Coast, north to Carnforth, east to Todmorden and Mytholmroyd, and south to Manchester.

The Rosegrove marshalling yard dealt with up to 65 train loads a day. There were up to 50 trains loads of coal daily going through to Padiham Power Station, and Preston and Fleetwood Docks would have to be constantly supplied with coal.

The line to Padiham by the way was the steepest section on this part of the Lancashire Yorkshire railway, being 1 in 40 near the former Mullards Works. "Hump-shunting" was particularly dangerous where wagons were "buffered up" and allowed to freewheel down the inclines.

"Hooking on and hooking off" demanded extreme care, and was very dangerous work. Trains arrived from Wakefield and the south Yorkshire coalfields and would be re-loaded for destinations such as Blackburn, Preston and other parts of East Lancashire.

The number of wagons being handled, of course, declined over the years. For instance in 1929, the sidings were handling up to 1,200 wagons a day. The "most ill-favoured" place to work according to tradition at the sidings was under the Liverpool Road Bridge especially in winter.

Here the winds and rain positively howled through. Rosegrove it was said "lit up at night" while all this work was ongoing. It can be imagined, therefore, with such vast movement of goods and minerals, that the railway sidings at Rosegrove could be a dangerous place to work.

There are a number of reports of accidents resulting in injuries or even death at the sidings. William Cunliffe died from injuries he received while shunting in July, 1916.

Peter Lynch, a goods guard was run over at Rosegrove in March 1918, and a most alarming incident occurred in August 1926.

Shunting operations were being carried out at the Cog Lane end of the sidings, when one of the couplings on a wagon broke.

Between thirty and forty wagons ran away down the incline towards Rosegrove, before smashing into four stationary wagons just inside the boundary wall at Rosegrove Lane.

The last steam train pulled out of Rosegrove sidings in August,1968, and in doing so brought to an end an era which many still look back on with sadness and nostalgia.

I can remember when Rosegrove Station was a "proper" station, with separate waiting rooms for the ladies, along with a general waiting room, each with roaring fires.

It now resembles a bus stop, and the trains too resemble buses.