Glazebrook Station, Including Station House And North Platform Building

Railway station built in 1872 on the Liverpool to Manchester line of the Cheshire Lines Committee.

Materials and Construction

The station is constructed of brick laid in English garden wall bond with sandstone dressings and a Welsh slate roof incorporating decorative fishscale bands.

Plan and Layout

The building follows an eight-bay linear plan, predominantly single-storey with a cross-gable towards the north-east end and a wider two-storey cross-gable containing the former station master's house at the south-west end. A large early 20th-century extension occupies the centre rear, with a small mid 20th-century extension attached to the north-east side.

Architectural Character

The station displays an eclectic Old English style with Gothic influences. It is built on a sandstone plinth with ridge stacks (two now truncated) featuring tapered off-sets and deep eaves. Windows (mainly paired) and doors have Gothic-style shallow segmental pointed heads with splayed reveals and angled sills. All paired windows are set within shared surrounds with shaped timber mullions designed to resemble buttresses, and upper lights with pointed arched heads.

Platform (North-West) Elevation

The first bay contains a doorway with a four-panel door incorporating raking board infill to the panels and segmental pointed heads to the upper panels. The single-storey cross-gable in the second bay (probably the original booking office) projects slightly above the roofline and features two tall windows containing paired lights (blocked up to the lower part, though original sills are retained). A curved three-sided opening is set within the gable with timber infill incorporating pierced trefoil decoration.

The wider two-storey cross-gable of the former station master's house occupies the sixth bay, with two paired windows to both floors (the ground floor windows being taller). A short projecting stone stringcourse runs below the first floor sills, decorated with carved foliage bosses. Both gables have deep eaves with decorative carved fretwork bargeboards of different designs supported on timber brackets (brackets are missing to the right side of the station master's house gable) and carved stone angle corbels.

A wide three-bay canopy sits underneath the main roof between the cross-gable bays, supported on octagonal cast-iron columns with stiff-leaf capitals and tapered square bases displaying trefoil motifs. Original four-panel doors with raked boarding infill and large overlights (now boarded up) are set behind the canopy in each bay. Two doors to the right have glazed upper panels (boarded over), and each door has flanking slender sash windows (boarded over). The window to the far right incorporates a round clock made by G. Eccles & Son of Liverpool. A replaced door sits to the left inside the return of the canopied area, with a paired window to the right inside the return in the same style as the front elevation, forming part of the station master's house.

A lower two-bay flat-roofed section to the right of the former station master's house features a mounted drinking basin in plastered stone with an elaborate back displaying shell, lily and bullrush relief imagery and the date '1872'. A doorway with a segmental pointed head is located in the right return wall.

North-East Side Elevation

The gable end features shaped bargeboards incorporating pierced eyelet decoration. Paired windows in the same style as those on the platform elevation are partly bricked up, though the original sill remains. The projecting stone stringcourse below the sill continues around to the rear elevation.

Rear (South-East) Elevation

A single-storey flat-roofed section at the far left of the elevation has an off-centre door. The adjacent former station master's house has a doorway to the ground floor left with a small mid-to-late 20th-century lean-to glazed porch, a paired window to the right, and a further paired window above to the centre of the gable with a short projecting stringcourse below the sill featuring carved foliage bosses. A small altered window sits at first floor left. The original decorative bargeboards have been replaced with plain versions.

A two-bay early 20th-century gabled single-storey extension occupies the centre of the elevation, constructed in Flemish stretcher bond with paired two-over-two sash windows (boarded over) on three sides with segmental arched heads. The extension features a roof skylight, ridge stack to the south-east gable end, and a short metal-clad vent rising through the roof to the north-east side.

A small mid 20th-century flat-roofed extension to the right of this extension contains eight-light metal windows (not of special interest). The rear of the single-storey cross-gable booking office to the right of the elevation has a paired window to the ground floor and a further paired window to the far right (both blocked up to the lower part, original sills retained) forming the left return of the north-east gable end. Shaped bargeboards to the cross-gable match the style of the north-east gable end.

Interior

Three rooms were originally located at the centre of the building behind the platform canopy. The waiting room at the north-east end has an inserted suspended ceiling (moulded cornicing is believed to possibly survive underneath), painted panelled dado and bench seating to the south-west wall next to the chimneybreast, and a later inserted hatch to the north-east wall into the cross-gable booking office.

The two rooms to the south-west have been opened up into one large room with moulded cornicing, two chimneybreasts, panelled dado to the north-east half, floorboard floor, original and early partly glazed panelled screens forming office cubicles, and an early 20th-century skylight. An original paired sash window to the rear right is in the original external (now internal) wall, while the window to the left has been replaced with a partly glazed screen and doorway leading into the large early 20th-century rear extension.

The rear extension contains an open-plan storage space with two king post roof trusses, a chimneybreast (fireplace or stove removed) to the rear south-east wall, and fragmentary survival of parquet flooring. A small partly glazed panelled cubicle sits in the north-east corner, with an adjacent four-panel door leading into a small area with a blocked-up opening to the south-west wall (possibly originally a fireplace). The north-east wall has been knocked through to incorporate the small mid 20th-century extension. The original external wall and stone plinth of the station building are visible to the north-west side. The interior of the booking office and former station master's house was not inspected.

North Platform Building

An enclosed passenger shelter on the north platform is built in a similar style to the main station building. The three-bay front elevation facing the platform has a central wide multipaned glazed screen (the lower part of the screen underneath the glazing was originally panelled but is now replaced in brick) and door, with flanking slender one-over-one sash windows with Gothic arched heads. Gable ends to each side feature shaped bargeboards incorporating small pierced eyelet detailing and taller windows in the same style. A wall stack is located at the centre rear.

The interior features a diapered tiled floor with diamond pattern, painted panelled dado, bench seating to three sides at the south-west end, suspended ceiling, hearth (fireplace removed), and a panelled screen to the north-east end with an open hatch and door leading into a small office or ticket room.

Historical Context

The Cheshire Lines group was formed in 1862 by a joint committee of the Great Northern Railway and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) to regulate traffic on four proposed lines in Cheshire, led by Sir Edward Watkin of the MS&LR. The committee was granted powers to build a line from Manchester to Liverpool, which opened in 1873 and passed through Warrington and Glazebrook with a temporary station in Manchester. In 1865 the Midland Railway became a joint partner with the Cheshire Lines group and the Cheshire Lines Committee (also known as the Cheshire Lines Railway) was formed. The CLC originally had its headquarters at Liverpool Central Station (now demolished) and later at Manchester Central Station (now a conference centre).

Glazebrook Station was constructed in 1872, along with three other stations on the Manchester to Liverpool line at Sankey, Widnes and Hough Green (all listed at Grade II). All four stations were constructed to a similar design with only minor decorative variation. Glazebrook Station was later extended to the rear between 1911 and 1929.