Received from Ted who will explain the diagram.  Leeds DOS area transferred to NE region.

To continue:-

Milnrow is the first station out of Rochdale on the Rochdale to Oldham Mumps branch line which had opened on 1st December 1863.

Contrary to the alleged public perception of the nationalised railways, good managers at all levels were continually on the lookout for staff economies. In pursuit of this aim it was therefore the practice to review jobs as and when they became vacant. Milnrow, and the adjoining station of New Hey (both situated in the Milnrow Urban District Council area}, had been under the supervision of one SM/GA located at Milnrow with a complement of one clerk at each station. When the SM, Jack Livesey, was promoted to Broadfield it was decided to create Class 4 SM/GA posts at both stations and do away with the clerical positions. Therefore, on the same days as I arrived at Milnrow, Harry Potts reported at New Hey and, after three days training we were both put in charge of our respective stations on 12th July. Neither post carried any out of hours `on call' responsibilities, our stretches of line being covered outside normal working hours by the SMs at Shaw & Crompton and Rochdale. My regular rostered hours of duty were 9am to 6pm, with one hour meal, Monday to Friday, and 9am to 1pm Saturday only, a 44 hour week. Cash was to continue to be banked at William Glyn's Bank at New Hey which meant that the takings and monies for wages and salaries had to be conveyed in a `registered' sealed leather cash bag between the stations. For obvious security reasons banks would only provide monies on receipt of the signature/s of asuthorised paying officers. Therefore, at most small stations, where the SM was the only salaried member of staff, this could create problems when he was absent at short notice. Whenever it was known that the SM would be absent on a pay day, the specimen signature of the relief SM would have to be sent to the District Office who would in turn forward it to the Chief Accountant. That personage would then authorise the bank to supply monies against that signature for a specified period or until further notice. This performance took a few days and there were invariably difficulties in the event of sudden illness or demise of a sole paying officer. Harry Potts was appointed Paying Officer, with myself as deputy, which normally removed the problem.

At Milnrow I had a staff of three signalmen, three porters, and one junior porter. The porters were `jacks of all trades' as their work included booking tickets and parcels, answering telephones, enquiries, cleaning, signal lamping, and dealing with trains.  They were also responsible for all the goods yard work which comprised assisting with the shunting, numbertaking, sheeting, labelling, and securing wagons, cleaning out wagons and weighing traffic. Most of the junior porter's work was the collection and delivery of parcels traffic in the village with the help of a two wheeled barrow, sheet and bicycle with large front basket. The delivery area extended for a radius of well over a mile from the station and an average of more than 30 parcels delivered, and around 10 collected daily normally resulted in between four and eight sallies forth and a tired lad come his signing off time of 4pm. Main parcels forwardings were from John Holroyd's (renowned gear manufacturers), Swales (paper makers), and Jackson's (motor vehicle exhaust manufacturers) Nearly all Holroyd's was packed in stout wooden boxes, most weighing well in excess of one hundredweight, some as much as five or six. These were normally brought to the station on a sack barrow by a warehouseman called Sam. On some days he would do little else but trundle his barrow to and fro along Harbour Lane with the `permissable' halts in the Booking Office for a pipe full of `baccy', warm, and `blow up'. Stuart, the Junior Porter, always collected Jackson's traffic, and the thought of him riding around with numerous exhaust systems of various lengths and shapes wrapped round his neck still makes me break out in a cold sweat in these health and safety days.

Another location on my patch was Buckley Hill Sidings which comprised six dead end sidings on the down side of the line with a signal box of the same name. The box was 1591 yards from Rochdale East Junction and 1073 yards from Milnrow Station Box. In its heyday these sidings received and sorted traffic from the Oldham Branch from where it was tripped into Rochdale. Although no longer in use, the box and sidings were still in situ when I took over.     

Milnrow had boasted a large goods shed of substantial stone construction which had been demolished a few weeks prior to my arrival. The traffic had been mainly in connection with the cotton spinning industry and the goods office, with accommodation for up to four clerks, adjacent to my office on the up platform, bore witness to those halcyon days. By 1951 all cartage traffic had been concentrated at Rochdale, leaving a small amount of `station only' traffic. This traffic comprised petroleum products in private owned fuel tankers  received for the adjoining Esso Depot on Station Road, scrap metal tipped into mineral wagons by means of the excellent hish loading dock, and occasional seasonal traffic in wagons/vans of potatoes, seeds and fertilisers. Household coal for the area had already been concentrated at New Hey so, unusually, the only coal wagons received were one or two weekly for John Smith's, cotton spinners, from East Ardsley. Fairly often, up to a dozen cattle wagons containing cattle, or horses for slaughter, would be detached from up through trains for unloading at the cattle dock. The cattle emanated from such diverse points as Holyhead (Eire traffic), Dumfries of Oswestry.

To be continued 

Just happened to have one handy Tom and Ted, not trying to be clever.  This was taken in 1991 and clearly shows the railway passing under the M62.  If you look below the junction of the west-bound sliproad and the main carriageway you'll see there is enough room to make an access into the clover-leaf.  Ideal for a park and ride with a footbridge across to a new station.  I don't care what they say but it's a brilliant idea........

Butterworth hall mill ,Ted,its been demolished now,within the last 10yrs but not quite sure when,I dont know who owned the mill but iam sure Stanleys the man for that information.

Stanley, I think the water extraction applied in my time. To continue:-

I originally lodged with Mrs. Livesey, the former SM's wife, but after a few weeks transferred to the Tripe Shop on Dale Street in the centre of the village. My number one priority was to obtain a house so that Joan and our tiny daughter, Lesley, could join me. With the country still recovering from the effects of the war, houses were not easy to come by. As I was in receipt of a lodging allowance I was regularly required to produce evidence of my efforts to obtain a house and, after a few weeks, was offered a small railway house on Milnrow Road at Rochdale, just at the entrance to the Coal Yard. Joan came over and we visited the house which `enjoyed' gas lighting and a tiled illustration of a canal barge over the fireplace in the front room. As was `par for the course' at that time , the house did not have a bathroom and the toilet was situated across the communal yard at the rear. These facts and the real danger that our 2 year old daughter, Lesley, could have got straight out onto the busy main road were sufficient to justify out declination of the railway Board's kind offer.

Around 4.00am on the morning of Saturday, 4th August I was `knocked up' by the guard on the down mail who advised me that the engine on his train had struck a horse on the barrow crossing at the south end of the platforms and Control requested my attendance. On arrival at the station I found that the tissue of the animal had been strewn all over the lines between the platforms and it was obvious that, as I would have anticipated, the train had been travelliing at maximum speed. As the engine and coaches were not damaged, the train was sent forward and I called out the platelayers with a view to getting the mess cleared up before the first passengers of the day arrived on the scene. This was no easy task as the three men involved filled six sacks with bits of tissue and the `knackerman' complained that so little of the carcase was available that his visit was not  worthwhile. As the temperature warmed up the smell was atrocious and swilling the sleepers and ballast with strong disinfectant seemed to have little effect. Passengers waiting on both platforms were giving a fair impression of the Bisto Kids for some time. Surprisingly this was the first fatality I had been called upon to deal with and the stench remained with me ( in my imagination) throughout the weekend at home and was most certainly still there at the station for most of the next week.. After I left Milnrow I had to deal with numerous human and animal fatalities but none had anywhere near the affect on my that this small incident had.

Our search for a house continued although very few properties for sale (or to let for that matter) were coming on the market. We `dallied' with a semi detached house at Firgrove but decided that the price of £2,100 was rather beyond our means. Eventually we settled on 28 Moss Street, Rochdale, a two up and two down plus cellar terraced property, for what seemed to Joan and I, an immense price of £650. We obtained an endowment mortgage with the Co-op Insurance with the conditions that we installed a new modern fireplace in the front room, updated the `electrics, and provided a handrail on the stairs in place of the existing piece of rope. These requirements were stretching our resources to the limit as we had little furniture and Joan had, quite rightly, insisted from the start that we must have hot and cold water and a bath.

We visited a local plumber at Milnrow, who quoted a price of £100 to fit an Esse Stove with back boiler, bath, kitcken sink and hot water cistern along with all necessary pipes and fittings. It was said in the village that the plumber had not enjoyed  such a large contract for a long time and it was noted that the lights in the storeroom over his shop burned long into the night as he searched out the various materials for the project. The work was performed by one plumber who conveyed all the components between the shop and our house, a distance of well over two miles, on a two wheeled handcart. The job lasted about two weeks and involved three or four trips with the handcart and shows just how cheap labour was in those days.

We eventually moved into the house in early October. So soon after the war, good furniture was hard to come by, and whlst we were able to furnish the two bedrooms reasonably with second hand items, we started off downstairs with a set of drawers, a table and four chairs in the kitchen, and a sideboard, table and one cane chair in the front room. Further items were considered a luxury which could be purchased as they, and funds, became available.

In October 1951 a bonus was offered to railwaymen  who introduced recruits to the railway service in areas of acute manpower shortage. A man  who secured a new recruit in one of the specified areas received ten shillings, and a further ten shillings when the new entrant completed two months service. The object of this scheme was not only to alleviate the shortage of staff but also to lessen the difficulties arising from excessive wastage of manpower through men leaving after only a short time in the service. There was a shortage of staff in the Manchester area and two of the Milnrow staff got the first ten bob but did not qualify for the second. Certainly the turnover in recruits in the wages grades was terrific at that time but the scheme did not really improve matters and was soon abandoned. I still smile when i recall the entry on one application for employment form under the heading of `Previous employment' which read `Employer: Irish Republican Army. Duties: General'.

Ear;y in 1952 it was decided to uplift the sidings at Buckley Hill and the track was purchased by a scrap merchant from Alfreton. In view of the close proximity to Castleton Central Material Depot this firm then decided to establish a depot in the Goods Yard. Wagons of chaired sleepers were received from Castleton where they were stripped, the chairs and screws being sent out in wagons as scrap metal and the sleepers sold, mainly locally. This required a large quantity of sleepers to be stored on the site and agreement was made for a fixed space area with any `excess' being measured each month on a day decided at fairly short notice by the District Goods Manager, Bolton. As can be imagined a few dubious characters were attracted to the site and one of these arrived in a decrepit car (Austin 12, I think). Having completed his business the gentleman got into his car and sped away but unfortunately struck the front side of his vehicle on sleepers protruding from a stack. This had the surprising effect of ripping off the body shell behind the windscreen except the flooring, the driver apparently being so shocked that the car was well out onto the station approach before he brought it to rest.