Wigan Chapel Lane railway station

The station opened as Wigan on 3 September 1832 as the terminus of the Wigan Branch Railway (WBR) when it opened the 6 miles 47 chains (10.6 km) long line from Parkside on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.^[a][1][2]

The station building was located to the south of the running line adjacent to Chapel Lane, no other details are known.^[3] The station was only known as Wigan and Chapel Lane was added in an explanatory way as to the location of the Railway's office.^[4]

The station was short-lived as the line was extended northwards to Preston in 1838 necessitated taking it over Wallgate, the turnpike to Warrington, which required the building of substantial embankments, a new station, Wigan North Western was constructed to the south of this new bridge over Wallgate.^[5][6]

After closure in 1838 the station site became Wigan goods station.^[6] The goods station and yard gradually expanded until there were three sheds, it was able to accommodate most types of goods including live stock, and was equipped with a ten-ton crane.^[7][8][9] Sometime between 1938 and 1956 the yard lost its capacity to deal with livestock and its crane was downgraded to one of four tons.^[10][11]

The goods yard was still in use in 1957 but by 2008 the goods sheds had been demolished and the goods yard site was occupied by a retail warehouse and car park.^[3][8]