Hanley Station

"They arrived at Hanbridge Railway Station, which was a tempest of traffic that Saturday before Bank Holiday. The whole of the five towns appeared to be going away."

Arnold Bennett - "Under the Clock"

Hanley Station area on the Loop Line - 1898

The purple line running of the loop line was the original line from Etruria into Hanley opening to goods on the 20th of December 1861 and passengers on the 13th of July 1864 - nearly 10 years before the loop line proper opened from Hanley to Burslem and then on through Tunstall to Kidsgrove.

This original line terminated in a station on the south side of Trinity Street (shown in green) - on the opposite side of the road from the Grand Hotel.

When the loop line was taken on to Burslem the line was run under Trinity Street and a new station (shown in light blue) was built in a deep cutting next to the Grand Hotel

A price of £1,600 was submitted in June 1872 for the new Hanley station alongside the Grand Hotel - this was though to be too much and by reducing the length of the covered roof the cost was reduced to £1,200.

In comparison the much larger and grander station at Burslem costs just under £5,000

Hanley in 1947

photo: The Warrillow Collection - Keele University Library

many of the features on the 1898 map above can be identified on this photo
- the track on the near right is the original line terminated in a station on the south side of Trinity Street.
The loop line curves off to the left, the Grand Hotel can be seen in the upper centre and behind it the tower of St. John's Church on Town Road (the High Street)

Hanley station "in a deep cutting and on a very sharp curve"
photo: Trevor Ford - taken in the early 1960's not long after the line closed 
photo looking towards Cobridge

The curve was on a very tight 175 yards radius which limited the size of locomotives which could run on the loop line.

 

Hanley station slowly rots away summer 1975
photo: © Loose_Grip_99/Peter Hackney

photo looking towards Hanley, a small part of the Grand Hotel just visible on the left.
The newly build civic centre - Unity House can be seen - below Unity House are the Goods Sheds on the opposite side of Trinity Street.
The chimney of Masons pottery works on Broad Street can also be seen.