The station started life as part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's Pendleton and Hindley line that grew into the Manchester Victoria to Wigan Wallgate line. Heading from Manchester towards Wigan, the preceding station was at Irlams o' th' Height, and the following station was at Swinton. Pendlebury station was closed in 1960. The existing lines still widen where the island platform existed. By 1922, ownership had passed from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and upon nationalisation in 1949 it became property of British Railways. Junction Diagram showing railways in the vicinity of Pendlebury It was located on Bolton Road, opposite St. Augustine's Church and the former Station Hotel pub which is nowadays the TrattoriaItalian restaurant. The railway station was about 760 yards east of the present-day Swinton railway station. The station was located just before the entrance to a tunnel underneath Bolton Road. From the site of the station the tunnel goes as far as Swinton Hall Road where it comes out and into a cutting on its way towards Swinton. A 1909 Ordnance Survey map shows no buildings on top of the tunnel's location, suggesting that it was not stable to be built upon at this time. In the Black Harry Tunnel collapse of 1953, part of the tunnel collapsed. Two houses fell into the resultant large void in Temple Drive, Swinton. Five people in the houses were killed. http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventsummary.php?eventID=475. The Swinton and Pendlebury Journal of 7 October 1960 reported that the last train to call at Pendlebury railway station was the 23:21 from Manchester Victoria to Wigan on the previous Saturday - there were 6 people aboard one of whom was a 37-year-old shopkeeper Mr Jackson, proprietor of 419 Chorley Road, Swinton. Mr Jackson reportedly bought the last ticket ever issued at Pendlebury station from the porter Mr D. White - a single to Swinton. Mr Jackson also reportedly traveled to Irlams o' th' Height on 3 March 1956 to purchase the last ever ticket issued there. A pub, the Station Hotel, was located on the opposite side of the road. The building still exists but has been refurbished into the Trattoria Italian restaurant. Some of the yellow brickwork of the station is still visible on Bolton Road.
Station Layout
The layout was four tracks wide, with an island platform serving two of the tracks being connected to Bolton Road via a footbridge. Several sets of points lay at the eastern end of the station. The Clifton Hall Tunnel, part of the London and North Western Railway'sClifton Branch, ran underneath the eastern end of the station.
Popular culture
The artist L.S. Lowry lived at 117 Station Road, Pendlebury; a number of documentary films from the late 1950s show him using the station, which was about a mile from his home. Swinton was closer to his home, and it is from Swinton that he used to view the Acme Mill, which featured in two of his iconic paintings: Coming home from the Mill The Mill, Pendlebury.
