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The "Straight" Line.


Wireboy

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Thanks pommie lass and Dizzy for posting that old photo. I took a look at Google Maps (Earth view and street view) and now have a better understanding of the area. It also helps to look at the National Library of Scotland website to view an old Ordnance Survey map (http://maps.nls.uk/view/101104097) of Warrington to see the rail alignment.

 

That view of the street would have been just as my Mum knew it as a child in the 1930s. She spoke of being taken to Orford Park by one of her great aunts (born c.1880) and, as most of the family lived on Winwick Road, they would have walked up Orford Lane, Orford Avenue and then under the railway to get to the park.

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So that is still Orford Ave. Sid ? :oops:

well sort of, if you go on google maps orford avenue goes up to where the railway brige crossed the road. At that point it becomes alder lane as it goes under the bridge.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.4016089,-2.5833423,3a,75y,181.41h,73.32t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMXXX5veJ9h08tJirJYSR7g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

 

if you rotate the map you will see what i mean.

 

this looks like the place where the photo was taken from give or take a foot or two.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.3997151,-2.5845234,3a,75y,33.36h,72.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6-Epy10khSzAn10prXspWg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

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To be honest the bridge has always been a nasty little chicane that doesn't need to be there any more. I am surprised that since the alternative use for the rail bed was abandoned that the buttresses are still in place.....removing them would make the bend safer for all road users & pedestrians.

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Yes that's the spot Evils.  The road on the left on your google map has a sign on the side of the house saying Synge Street and the road on the old photo has the same name sign.  Hard to read on my uploaded photo but I've just zoomed in on my original and can make it out on there.

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Well if you can get onto street view, then you should be able to "drive" through where the bridge was so yes the buttresses are still there, narrowing the road to a single lane at that point. Given that the council are intentionally building restrictions into roads as part of their traffic calming, it wouldn't make much economic sense to remove one that history provided for free.  :lol:

 

Pommie Lass, you asked if Orford Hall was still there so I'm guessing it's been a while since you were last in the town. I've lived here all my life and while I can remember the trains going over that way, I can't recall the hall ever being there. Many areas of the town have changed beyond recognition over time and so people like yourself who've been away for some time would hardly recognise the place these days.

 

Oh and BTW Happy New Year to everyone on here!

 

Bill :)

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Yes I can see where the bridge used to be.  The hall was gone before I was born so I wouldn't remember it.   You are right Bill about all the changes in Warrington.  It is the same everywhere.  This place has changed for the worse since we arrived.  They are pulling down old buildings an putting up ugly flats everywhere .   The skyline is full of cranes in every direction. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Fascinating to think of what was once there, and is now houses and open space. If you look on Google satellite, you can roughly make out the formation of the once "straight" line.

 

If only Beeching could see the potential of retaining this line, an express railway to rival Chat moss!

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  • 6 years later...

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