Middlewood Station

[Stuwhu]

I have a bit of an interest in this station, as it seems like something left over from the pre-Beeching era. A station in the middle of nowhere, with no road access and that you can only access along a dark unlit path.. yet has a better service in the evenings than during the day.
Anyway does anyone know when it became de-staffed? And also I've seen pictures of its platforms with small buildings on, when did these get demolished.

Thanks for any help

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I have a bit of an interest in this station, as it seems like something left over from the pre-Beeching era. A station in the middle of nowhere, with no road access and that you can only access along a dark unlit path.. yet has a better service in the evenings than during the day.
Anyway does anyone know when it became de-staffed? And also I've seen pictures of its platforms with small buildings on, when did these get demolished.

Thanks for any help

I would hazard a guess at 1988-1990, this was the time about 30 other stations over Britain of a similar status became unstaffed - are these photos available to view online?

 

[Stuwhu]

I probably exaggerated when I said pictures..

But there is a picture here taken in 1989 that shows a station building.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/827177

 

[Chapeltom]

Its 7-10 minutes walk from the A6 at High Lane. You could consider it to be High Lane's station, certainly the nearest to the village and that is presumably why it gets such a good service, plus it serves walkers and cyclists on Sundays.

I still don't understand the hourly evening service though


Having said that it outperforms Furness Vale and Dove Holes!

 

[323235]

It also serves Higher Poynton which is within a short walking distance and I walked to it last Sunday to get the train from Poynton (took me about 1h10,although I can do it in 40-50 Minutes if I go quicker way) as my station only gets 3 trains each way.

It's quite good really as you can use/buy a GM Rail Ranger from there as it's just within the Greater Manchester (Stockport Council) Boundary being the other side of a brook which marks the boundary. It has also had financial support from Poynton Town Council due to the fact it and Middlewood itself are on the edge of Poynton and are essentially (although Poynton is in East Cheshire Council Administration) in/Middlewood is a district of Poynton. Plus with it has a better Sunday service despite being less busy than Poynton station.

Middlewood also does have a few houses 20-30 near The brickworks.

 

[trickyvegas]

Its 7-10 minutes walk from the A6 at High Lane. You could consider it to be High Lane's station, certainly the nearest to the village and that is presumably why it gets such a good service, plus it serves walkers and cyclists on Sundays.

I still don't understand the hourly evening service though


Having said that it outperforms Furness Vale and Dove Holes!

I used to work in High Lane and the winter before last used it to get to work instead of the 199 bus when the snow was causing chaos. You can get to the A6 along the Middlewood Way (The old line to Rose Hill) but it its about another 10 minutes walk into High Lane itself. The more direct route is along another path and along the Macclesfield Canal, normally its pretty muddy put prefect on frozen ground.

Never seen anyone else get on or off when I've used it in the mornings.

 

[CosherB]

It used to have 'high level' platforms serving the Macclesfield, Bollington, and Marple line, now the Middlewood Way path, as well as the present low level platforms. There was also a connecting line between the two levels; one could travel from Macclesfield to Buxton on one train!

 

[Leslie Fletcher]

Some interesting stuff on Middlewood station and the curve mentioned in earlier posts here

 

[Guilty Clouds]

Stumbled across this site just now while trying to find some of photo's of the station......thanks, found some!
I agree, it does seem odd that the evening service is better than the daytimes, but there are other similar instances of this (Entwistle, between Bolton and Blackburn). My "theory" is that it is assumed that most people are at work during the day, and after returning home for the evening, may have either a) sufficient leisure time, or b) sufficient disposable income to use the service. Ie. there are more people in the locality in the evening who may/may not require a train. The only reason I can think of, is to get into town to the pub, and back!
That said, on the odd occasion i've used the station, there has always been others using it too, be it people boarding or alighting. That includes one night when I staggered along the Middlewood Way after an evening in the Boars Head, by the old Higher Poynton station for the last train to Stockport.

 

[scrapy]

Having said that it outperforms Furness Vale and Dove Holes!

As Middlewood is a TFGM boundary station there are many instances where it is cheaper to split here. Also people who have free travel in Greater Manchester travelling into Derbyshire will buy tickets from here to their Derbyshire destination. I would guess that fewer than 25% of people with Middlewood as the destination on their ticket actually alight here.

Passenger numbers for Bramhall, Appley Bridge, Blackrod, Strines etc will also appear higher than they actually are for the same reason.