History of Hibel Road

Hibel Road was the main station in Macclesfield.  It opened in 1849, when the LNWR and NSR made an end-on connection giving the Knotty access to Manchester and the LNWR an alternative route to London via Stoke.  Hibel Road bridge was the boundary between the two companies, the Down platform (to Manchester) being entirely LNWR and offering more facilities than the Up platform (to Stoke) which was LNWR north of the road bridge and NSR to the south.

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The LNWR refused to allow the later NSR/MS&L (subsequently NSR/GCR) joint line from Marple and Bollington to access the station, so that line terminated at a new station on the main line just a few yards south at Waters Green called Central Station (opened April 1871).  The two stations were so close that it was possible for the front of a train to enter one station before the rear had left the other one.  The new line ran along the course of the River Bollin and bisected the gasworks, joining the main line just south of Hibel Road.  For a brief period (less than a year) until the junction was completed and Central Station opened, trains on this line terminated at a station on land between Hibel Road station and the river; this station was subsequently used as stables, and the land as the joint NSR/GCR goods yard.  The front of this layout contains a small part of this joint yard, including the station/stables (although these were demolished in 1947).

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Hibel Road station closed to passengers in 1960 when Macclesfield Central Station was extended and became the town’s single station.  (In fact, the LMS prepared plans to do this in 1933, but nothing came of that except major resignalling work in 1934.)  The engine shed closed in 1961, and the goods yard in 1962.