The Preston and Wyre Railway (P&WR) was built to connect Preston, on the London and North Western Railway West Coast Main Line, with the port of Fleetwood, at the mouth of the River Wyre. It opened in 1840. An associated company built the dock leading to the company, changing its name to the Preston and Wyre Railway, Harbour and Dock Company. Passenger business was more buoyant than expected, and the company built branch lines to the nascent resort of Blackpool and Lytham that opened in 1846. At that time the line was leased by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and later the London and North Western Railway took a share in the lease which was later converted to outright ownership. The Preston and Wyre Railway continued to be jointly owned as the Preston and Wyre Joint Railway.
The Blackpool and Lytham Railway built a line without making any junction with the Preston and Wyre railway in 1863. In 1871 it was taken into the Preston and Wyre group. Passenger traffic in connection with steamer sailings at Fleetwood continued throughout the 19th century and fishing was important but the huge expansion of Blackpool as a holiday and trippers' destination dominated the network. There were massive peak flows of traffic on summer Saturdays to and from the industrial towns of Lancashire, Yorkshire and elsewhere. The railway carried local pleasure journeys by holidaymakers during their stay, and Blackpool to Fleetwood was a prominent route, served by a frequent railmotor service in the early 20th century.
After 1960 the railways' near-monopoly of passenger transport to Blackpool declined steeply, and Blackpool Central station was closed and the site sold for development. A revival started in 2018 when electrification of the Blackpool North line brought through trains to and from London and Manchester Airport.
Origins
The North Union Railway opened a line from Parkside on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Preston on 31 October 1838. Before that, a local line had been authorised to connect agricultural districts in the Fylde to a sea harbour in the north-west and the Lancaster Canal at the eastern end.Martin Bairstow, Railways of Blackpool and the Fylde, published by Martin Bairstow, Leeds, 2001, , page 3 The Fylde, north of the Ribble estuary and straddling the River Wyre, had agricultural land with rich potential, but the roads were poor and there was no harbour for shipping.
Peter Hesketh succeeded to the Rossall Hall estate in 1824 and in 1831 acquired royal authorisation to add Fleetwood to his name. He saw that the estate could be developed if a railway connection could be made to Preston and a harbour created in the sheltered estuary of the River Wyre. The harbour became Fleetwood, although at the time there was no settlement.Bairstow, p. 8
On 3 July 1835 an act of Parliament, the (5 & 6 Will. 4 c. lviii) was passed authorising the Preston and Wyre Railway and Harbour Company with authorised capital of £130,000. Another act of Parliament, the (7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. xxviii) of 5 May 1837 authorised a connection to the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway which was authorised on the same day.Bob Gregson, The London and North Western Railway Around Preston, Atkinson Publications Limited, Preston, 2012, , p. 21 Also authorised was access to the North Union Railway's station at Preston. A dock was considered to be essential and the company was authorised to construct docks at Fleetwood with capital of £100,000.John Marshall, The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway: volume 1, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1969, , pp. 81–83G O Holt, revised Gordon Biddle, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume X: the North West, David St John Thomas, Newton Abbot, 1986, , pp. 203–206Barry McLoughlin, Railways of the Fylde, Carnegie Publishing, Preston, 1992, , p. 10 The Preston and Wyre Dock Company constructed the dock and the two companies were combined on 1 July 1839, forming the Preston and Wyre Railway, Harbour and Dock Company. Peter Hesketh Fleetwood founded the town of Fleetwood in 1836.Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador Publishers, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, , p. 461McLoughlin, p. 6
Route and opening The line ran from a terminus at Dock Street on the southern part of the promontory that forms Fleetwood.There was no dock yet, but the street name existed because Hesketh's plans were already formulated. It continued south in a straight line for two miles across tidal marshes known as Cold Dubbs where it was to be carried on embankment. The intention was to reclaim the marshes which would be contained by the embankment but engineering difficulties were encountered during construction and several sections of timber trestle viaduct were substituted.
The line continued to Poulton and Kirkham and arrangements were made on market days to stop trains at Salwick and Lea Road between Kirkham and Preston. There seems to have been no stations at these locations. The Preston station was Maudlands at Leighton Street, a terminus adjacent to the Lancaster Canal. Maudlands was accessed by crossing the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway (L&PJR) on the level. The line was constructed at a level five feet higher than the line which had to be lifted to make the level crossing. A connection into the southbound was made later enabling Fleetwood trains to use the station. The ran an omnibus between Maudlands and the station for connecting passenger trains.Gregson, LNWR, p. 30
The dock and railway companies were amalgamated by an act of Parliament, the (2 & 3 Vict. c. liv) of 1 July 1839 but work on the dock was deferred, although a wharf, pier and lighthouses were constructed. The single line railway opened on 15 July 1840 for a special train and on 16 July to the public.M D Greville, Chronological List of the Railways of Lancashire, 1828 - 1939, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. 105, 1953, p. 196
Traffic exceeded expectations: 20,000 passengers were carried in the first month, and in the six summer months of 1841 the total was 108,000. The line was worked by North Union Railway locomotives and rolling stock.Holt, p. 214McLoughlin, p. 7 The Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway opened on 25 June 1840Gregson, LNWR, p. 22
The Fleetwood line carried traffic from London to Scotland as there was no through railway line. Trains to Fleetwood to and a steamer to Ardrossan and train for the onward journey took about 27 hours. The route ceased to be significant in 1848 with the opening of the Caledonian Railway, providing a through railway route.Holt, pp. 215, 216McLoughlin, p. 8
Branches
In 1844 seaside excursions were run to Fleetwood from Manchester and it became apparent that the emerging resort of Blackpool was an attraction. Hoteliers arranged road connections to their town from Poulton. The Preston and Wyre Railway decided to build a branch to Blackpool from Poulton and an authorising act of Parliament, the (8 & 9 Vict. c. cxxv) was passed on 21 July 1845. The Blackpool branch (to Blackpool North) was built swiftly. During construction the contractor extended the temporary track used for building the line to the sea front to facilitate tipping spoil into the sea. The line opened on 29 April 1846.Bairstow, p. 13Marshall, pp. 84–85Holt, pp. 217–218McLoughlin, p. 14
The company decided that a branch to Lytham where there was a small harbour was worthwhile. It was authorised in the act of Parliament of 21 July 1845 to run from a junction three-quarters of a mile west of Kirkham. Construction proceeded swiftly and the branch opened on 17 February 1846. Stations were built at Wrea GreenThe railway named the station Wray Green until 1875. and Moss Side and the line forked to a terminus and a spur to serve the dock. Lytham Junction station was provided at the junction on the main line but it closed in 1853. Lytham portions of trains were detached and attached there until 1874.McLoughlin, p. 16
Amalgamation
The Manchester and Leeds Railway (M&LR) ran excursions over the line and amalgamation was agreed. The Preston and Wyre Railway was leased by the from 3 August 1846. The was renamed the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) the following year. The London and North Western Railway (LNWR), that operated of the main line at Preston, was then included in the leasing relationship, and by the (12 & 13 Vict. c. lxxiv), the Preston and Wyre Railway was vested in the two railways, a two-thirds share in the and one-third in the .Gregson, LNWR, page 33Marshall, pp. 85–86Bairstow, p. 9 The continued as a leased company until it was dissolved on 1 July 1888 under the London and North Western Railway Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. clxxvi) on 7 August of that year. A joint committee was appointed by the and the to manage the network. The line was now known as the Preston and Wyre Joint Line.
Preston and Longridge Railway
The Preston and Longridge Railway opened in 1840, connecting quarries north east of Preston to a terminal at Deepdale Street, in Preston. The company was taken over by the Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway in 1847Not "Joint" Railway. which planned to connect the Preston and Wyre line to the Longridge line by building a tunnel through high ground. Its ambitious title was justified by a plan to build eastward from the Longridge line to Clitheroe and Skipton that was never built.Grant, p. 206Gregson, LNWR, page 36
The new section of line in Preston joining the Preston and Wyre Railway near Maudlands with a level crossing of the Lancaster line opened on 14 January 1850. The FP&WRJR was short of money and suspended operating the Longridge line for three weeks in 1852. The Preston and Longridge company resumed control in 1856, and later that year the FP&WRJR took over again. It opened a station at Maudland Bridge on 1 November 1856.Michael Quick, Railway Passenger Stations in England, Scotland and Wales: A Chronology, the Railway and Canal Historical Society, Richmond, Surrey, fifth (electronic) edition, 2019, p. 332
For some time goods and mineral wagons were transferred from the Longridge line to the Preston main line station by crossing from Maudland Bridge to the Preston and Wyre line west of the main line and reversing and using the connection on to the main line. The Longridge line built its own connection southwards, opening for passengers and goods on 1 June 1885.Gregson, LNWR, p. 40
Developments
The main line was doubled as far as Burn Naze by 10 August 1846. The embankment between Burn Naze and Fleetwood was to be retained as the up line and a single line, some distance from the original, following a two-mile deviation around the shore was built as the down line opening on 13 January 1851. Problems with the embankment and timber trestle sections caused the original line's abandonment at the same time. The deviation line was a single line that ran to Dock Street in Fleetwood, but entered the station from the south-west. A goods depot was built beyond the passenger station. The deviation was doubled in 1875.Holt, pp. 213–215
The Blackpool branch was doubled by an act of Parliament, the (28 & 29 Vict. c. xxii) of 26 May 1865, paid for by the companies in proportion.Marshall, p. 86
Blackpool and Lytham Railway, and more improvements