Glazebrook Station, Including Station House and North Platform Building, Rixton-with-Glazebrook, Warrington

Description

RIXTON WITH GLAZEBROOK

23/0/10016 GLAZEBROOK LANE
04-DEC-09 (Off)
GLAZEBROOK STATION, INCLUDING STATION
HOUSE AND NORTH PLATFORM BUILDING

II
Railway station, 1872, on Liverpool to Manchester line of Cheshire Lines Committee

MATERIALS: Brick, English garden wall bond, sandstone dressings, Welsh slate roof incorporating fishscale bands

PLAN: Eight-bay linear plan, single-storey with cross-gable towards north-east end and wider two-storey cross-gable former station master's house to south-west end. Large early C20 extension to centre rear with small mid C20 extension attached to north-east side.

EXTERIOR: Eclectic Old English style with Gothic influences, single storey with two-storey cross-gable station master's house. Brick set upon a sandstone plinth, ridge stacks (two truncated) with tapered off-sets, deep eaves. Windows (mainly paired) and doors with Gothic-style shallow segmental pointed heads and splayed reveals, angled sills. All paired windows set within shared surrounds with shaped timber mullions in style of buttresses and upper lights with pointed arched heads.

Platform (north-west) elevation: Doorway to bay one with four-panel door incorporating raking board infill to panels, segmental pointed heads to upper panels. Single-storey cross-gable to bay two (probably original booking office) projects above roofline slightly with two tall windows containing paired lights (blocked-up to lower part, original sills retained), curved three-sided opening set within gable with timber infill incorporating pierced trefoil decoration. Wider two-storey cross-gable former station master's house to bay six with two paired windows to both floors (taller to ground floor), short projecting stone stringcourse below first floor sills with carved foliage bosses. Both gables have deep eaves with decorative carved fretwork bargeboards of different design supported on timber brackets (brackets missing to right side of gable to station master's house) and carved stone angle corbels. Wide three-bay canopy underneath main roof between cross-gable bays, supported on octagonal cast-iron columns with stiff-leaf capitals and tapered square bases displaying trefoil motifs. Original four-panel doors set behind canopy to each bay with raked boarding infill and large overlights (boarded up), glazed upper panels (boarded over) to two doors to right, each door with flanking slender sash windows (boarded over), window to far right incorporates round clock by G. Eccles & Son of Liverpool, replaced door to left inside return of canopied area, paired window to right inside return in same style as front elevation (forming part of station master's house). Lower two-bay flat-roofed section to right of former station master's house with mounted drinking basin in plastered stone with elaborate back displaying shell, lily and bullrush relief imagery and the date '1872'. Doorway with segmental pointed head to right return wall.

North-east side elevation: Gable end with shaped bargeboards incorporating pierced eyelet decoration, partly bricked up paired windows in same style as those to platform elevation, original sill, projecting stone stringcourse below sill continues around to rear elevation.

Rear (south-east) elevation: Single storey flat-roofed section to far left of elevation with off-centre door. Adjacent former station master's house with doorway to ground floor left with small mid-late C20 lean-to glazed porch, paired window to right, further paired window above to centre of gable with short projecting stringcourse below sill with carved foliage bosses, small altered window to first floor left, original decorative bargeboards replaced with plain versions. Two-bay early-C20 gabled single-storey extension to centre of elevation in Flemish stretcher bond with paired two-over-two sash windows (boarded over) to three sides with segmental arched heads, roof skylight, ridge stack to south-east gable end, short metal-clad vent rising through roof to north-east side. Small mid-C20 flat-roofed extension to right of extension with eight-light metal windows (not of special interest). Rear of single-storey cross-gable booking office to right of elevation with paired window to ground floor, further paired window to far right (both blocked up to lower part, original sills retained) forming left return of north-east gable end, shaped bargeboards to cross-gable in same style as north-east gable end.

INTERIOR: Three rooms originally to centre of building behind platform canopy; waiting room to north-east end with inserted suspended ceiling (moulded cornicing believed to possibly survive underneath), painted panelled dado and bench seating to south-west wall next to chimneybreast, later inserted hatch to north-east wall into cross-gable booking office. Two rooms to south-west now opened-up into one large room with moulded cornicing, two chimneybreasts, panelled dado to north-east half, floorboard floor, original and early partly glazed panelled screens forming office cubicles, early-C20 skylight. Original paired sash window to rear right in original external (now internal) wall, window to left replaced with a partly glazed screen and doorway leading into large early-C20 rear extension. Open-plan storage space to rear extension with two king post roof trusses, chimneybreast (fireplace/stove removed) to rear south-east wall, fragmentary survival of parquet flooring. Small partly glazed panelled cubicle to north-east corner, adjacent 4-panel door leads into small area with blocked-up opening to south-west wall (possibly originally a fireplace), north-east wall knocked through to incorporate small mid-C20 extension, original external wall and stone plinth of station building to north-west side. Interior of booking office and former station master's house not inspected.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Enclosed passenger shelter to north platform in similar style to main station building. Three-bay front elevation facing platform with central wide multipaned glazed screen (lower part of screen underneath glazing originally panelled, now replaced in brick) and door, flanking slender one-over-one sash windows with Gothic arched heads. Gable ends to each side with shaped bargeboards incorporating small pierced eyelet detailing and taller windows in same style. Wall stack to centre rear.

Interior: Diapered tiled floor with diamond pattern, painted panelled dado, bench seating to three sides at south-west end, suspended ceiling, hearth (fireplace removed), panelled screen to north-east end with open hatch and door leading into small office/ticket room.

HISTORY: 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, and was 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 (MR) became a joint partner with the Cheshire Lines group and the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) was formed (also known as the Cheshire Lines Railway). 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.

SOURCES:
Pollard R & Pevsner N. The Buildings of England Series: Lancashire: Liverpool & the South-West (2006) 54, 175 & 656. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
The London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) Encyclopaedia (2009) 'The Cheshire Lines Committee'. Available on http: http://www.lner.info/co/CLC/ (accessed Jan 2009)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Glazebrook Station is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* It is a good example of a mid-Victorian C19 rural intermediate railway station
* It has an elegant design with a high level of architectural embellishment that is above the purely functional, particularly for its rural location
* It is well preserved both externally and internally, and although it has incurred some minor alteration and extension, these changes do not detract from the special interest of the building
* It retains numerous original and early interior features to both the main station building and the north platform's enclosed shelter, including moulded cornicing, partly glazed screens, panelled dados, bench seating, and floorboard and tiled floors
* It has group value with the nearby Grade II listed railway stations at Sankey, Widnes, and Hough Green, which are similarly designed and were built by the same railway company, also in 1872.

Reasons for Listing

Glazebrook Station is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* It is a good example of a mid-late C19 rural intermediate railway station
* It has an elegant design with a high level of architectural embellishment that is above the purely functional, particularly for its rural location
* It is well preserved both externally and internally, and although it has incurred some minor alteration and extension, these changes do not detract from the special interest of the building
* It retains numerous original and early interior features to both the main station building and the north platform's enclosed shelter, including moulded cornicing, partly glazed screens, panelled dados, bench seating, and floorboard and tiled floors
* It has group value with the nearby Grade II listed railway stations at Sankey, Widnes, and Hough Green, which are similarly designed and were built by the same railway company, also in 1872

External Links

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