Cuerdley

Cuerdley est une paroisse civile du Cheshire, en Angleterre.

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Cuerdley

Cuerdley is a civil parish in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England. It has a population of 107 (2001 census) and much of its area is farmland. A large part of Cuerdley is occupied by the Fiddlers Ferry Power Station, which was decommissioned in 2020. The small settlement of Cuerdley Cross is on the A562 (Widnes Road) to the north of the power station site. The parish is crossed by a railway line, which used to serve the power station, and the disused St Helens Canal is alongside it. There was a short-lived station named Cuerdley in the 19th century. A small part of the parish is detached from the rest, being south of the River Mersey, between the river and the Manchester Ship Canal.

Industrial Neighbourhood

Fiddler's Ferry power station

Fiddler's Ferry power station is a decommissioned coal fired power station in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England. Opened in 1971, the station had a generating capacity of 1,989 megawatts and took water from the River Mersey. After privatisation in 1990, the station was operated by various companies, and from 2004 to 2022 by SSE Thermal. The power station closed on 31 March 2020. The site was acquired by Peel NRE in July 2022. With four of its original eight 114-metre (374 ft) high cooling towers still standing and its 200-metre (660 ft) high chimney, the station is a prominent local landmark and can be seen from as far away as the Peak District and the Pennines. The power station's four northernmost cooling towers were demolished on 3 December 2023, with the remaining four southernmost towers set to be demolished at a later date.

Industrial Landmark

1.6 km

Fidlers Ferry & Penketh railway station

Fidler's Ferry & Penketh railway station was on what is now the southwestern edge of Warrington, England. It was located at a point where the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway, the Sankey Canal and the River Mersey come side by side and where a ferry at one time plied across the river. In modern times the station site is at the southern, canal end of Station Road, Penketh. The station was built and operated by the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway, which was absorbed into the London and North Western Railway from 1 August 1864. The line and station duly passed to the LMS at grouping and to London Midland Region of British Railways at nationalisation in 1948. Sources spell the station variously as "Fidlers...", "Fidler's..." "Fiddler's..." and "Fiddlers...", sometimes in successive paragraphs. The conjunction used between the words varies between "and" and "&" and "and Penketh" sometimes gains and loses brackets. Nearby signalbox names add to the mix. The 1922 timetable uses "Fidler's Ferry and Penketh". where it shows twelve "Up" (towards Manchester) trains calling on "Weekdays" (Mondays to Saturdays.) Ten called at almost all stations between Liverpool Lime St and Manchester London Rd, as it then was, a journey of over 2 hours for the 37 miles via Warrington Bank Quay Low Level. Of the other two, one terminated at Warrington and the other at Altrincham. "Down" services were similar. No trains called at the station on Sundays. The station was closed to passengers on 2 January 1950 and closed completely on 2 December 1963. The station was demolished step by step over the following years. By 2013 only the base for the crane in the former goods yard and the station master's house survived, the latter as a private residence. The line through the station continued in normal passenger use until 10 September 1962 when the Liverpool Lime St to Warrington via Widnes South service was withdrawn, though a lone late-night Liverpool to York Postal continued to use the route until 9 September 1963, when it was diverted via Earlestown to reduce operating costs. Warrington Bank Quay Low Level remained open until 14 June 1965 but it is unclear what traffic this served along the route after the Postal was diverted. In 2015 the tracks through the station site remained heavily used, primarily by trains to and from Fiddlers Ferry Power Station, though a few other booked freights and occasional diversions used the line through to Ditton Junction.

Historic Site Train

St Ambrose Church, Widnes

St Ambrose Church, in Widnes, England, was built in 1882 to a design by James Francis Doyle of Liverpool (c. 1840–1913).

Church Landmark

2.1 km

Cuerdley railway station

One source gives Cuerdley railway station as being on what is now the southeastern edge of Widnes, England, stating that it was located near the then bone works which the 1849 OS Map shows as at the convergence of Moss Lane, the railway, the Sankey Canal, a creek and the north bank of the tidal River Mersey. Of these only Moss Lane is no longer readily identifiable on a modern OS Map. The authoritative Disused Stations website does not include an article on Cuerdley station, however, it does repeatedly use a map which places Cuerdley station some distance nearer Warrington. This is corroborated by the Engineer's Line Reference (ELR) database which gives Cuerdley station as 1 mile 10 chains from Fiddlers Ferry and Penketh station and 1 mile 31 chains from Carterhouse Junction. Furthermore, the ELR data gives the station site as only 31 chains west of the modern-day junction for Fiddlers Ferry Power station. The station was reluctantly built and opened by the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway in response to persistent local lobbying. Receipts were as low as the company feared, so they announced the decision to close the station on 5 January 1858. Furthermore, they added a policy that to remain open any station had to generate receipts of £3 per week. The station was demolished and no trace remains.

Landmark Train