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Location
	Maudland Bridge Location in Preston Maudland Bridge Location in present-day Lancashire, England

Maudland Bridge
Maudland Bridge
	Site of former station in 2007. The bridge in the foreground was over the Lancaster Canal
General information
Location	Maudland Road, Preston, Preston; England
Coordinates	53°45′45″N 2°42′37″W / 53.7626°N 2.7103°W
Platforms	1
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway
Pre-grouping	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway/London and North Western Railway
Key dates
1 November 1856	Opened
1 June 1885	Closed
Location
Location
	Maudland Bridge Location in Preston Maudland Bridge Location in present-day Lancashire, England

Maudland Bridge railway station was once the Preston terminus of the Longridge Branch Line, in Lancashire, England. It was located on Maudland Road, between a bridge over the Lancaster Canal and Cold Bath Street. The Maudlands district of Preston gets its name from the medieval St. Mary Magdalen's leper hospital, which once stood near the present-day St Walburge's Church.^[2]

History

In 1850, the Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway (FP&WRR) built the 862-yard (788 m) Miley Tunnel to connect two existing lines, the Preston and Longridge Railway at Deepdale, and the Preston and Wyre Joint Railway (P&WR) at Maudland. The plan was to link Fleetwood on the Fylde coast to Skipton in the West Riding of Yorkshire. However the plan collapsed in 1852, and so the tunnel was initially used for goods traffic only.^[3]

In 1856, the FP&WRR revived and diverted passenger trains via the tunnel to a new Maudland Bridge station. By 1867 the line was owned jointly by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). In 1885, the track layout at Maudland was altered to allow Longridge trains to run on the adjacent LNWR West Coast Main Line to Preston railway station, and Maudland Bridge was closed. A goods station, to replace the demolished P&WR Maudland station, was built nearby.^[4]

Although the line through Maudland Bridge station closed to passengers in 1930, it continued to be used for goods until the 1990s. Some of the tracks, now rusty and overgrown, still exist, although the station itself (which was situated on the northern side of Maudlands Street opposite where the University of Central Lancashire's Foster and JB Firth buildings are now located) is long demolished.^[5]

Accidents

The disused Miley Tunnel has been the site of several accidents in recent years. Two young men were injured in separate incidents in 1998 and 2000, each falling over 30 feet (10 m) into the tunnel off a wall near Moor Lane. On Christmas Day 2002, a drunken youth fell to his death at the same point. Network Rail erected 10-foot (3 m) fences six weeks later.

In October 2003 another drunken man fell onto the disused line at Maudland Bank but escaped serious injury.^[6]

The future

In 2003, the Preston City Link Canal Trust was formed with a plan to reopen part of the Lancaster Canal to a new marina to be constructed in the vicinity of the former Maudland Bridge station. One option being considered is to reopen the Longridge line as far as Deepdale or Ribbleton, the line passing by viaduct over the new marina.^[7]^[8]

Railways in the Maudlands area in 1849	1892
	2012
Maudlands railway station and first goods station Maudland Bridge railway station Engine shed St Walburge's RC Church Second Maudland Goods Station from 1885 Roeburn Hall Leighton Hall

Notes

^ ^a ^b Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
^ Hunt, p.81
^ Hunt, p.117; Till, pp.91–92; Suggitt p.50
^ Hunt, p.117; Till, p.101; Suggitt pp.50–51
^ "Map of UCLAN Preston City Campus" (PDF). Retrieved 18 November 2021.
^ "Man falls 20ft near railway death site" Archived 24 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Lancashire Evening Post 4 October 2003, accessed online 5 July 2007
^ Broom, E. "Answer to Preston’s transport problems?"^{[permanent dead link]}, Lancashire Evening Post 12 February 2007, accessed online 18 June 2007
^ "Preston City Link Canal Trust" Archived 9 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine accessed 13 June 2007

References

Hunt, D. (2003) The Wharncliffe Companion to Preston — An A to Z of Local History, Wharncliffe Books, Barnsley, ISBN 1-903425-79-4.
Suggitt, G. (2003, revised 2004) Lost Railways of Lancashire, Countryside Books, Newbury, ISBN 1-85306-801-2
Till, J.M. (1993) A History of Longridge and its People, Carnegie Publishing, Preston, ISBN 0-948789-92-1