REALLY SideTracked - Cheadle North
Driver Burg & Guard 9956 welcome you to a Community Celebration Event, which will be held inside a former railway station, and therefore it is only right to jointly host this as a REALLY SideTracked event. Attending the event will give you the opportunity not only to attend to add the Cheadle North station name to your REALLY SideTracked found list, but a Celebration Event as well as we wind the clock right back to 1866. There is an existing SideTracked cache here that is based on the BR name of the station when it closed on 30th November 1964, Cheadle, but in fact it had only held that name for 14 years. This station was originally named Cheadle North for the 84 years before that so here you will have to imagine yourself before 1950... no special outfits required (although feel free if you wish!).
The event will officially take place between 6:30pm - 8:30pm, or until LTL on Tuesday 29th November, 2022. The event will follow the standard format of simply being a pub social - a chance to drink, eat and generally be merry (or grumpy if you prefer!). Guard 9956 has reserved an area under the name of "Suliman", with the pub standard food menu available on the night.
Venue History
Cheadle North Railway Station opened in the golden age of steam on 1st February 1866. It was opened by a company called Cheshire Lines Committee.
The first trains ran between Godley and Altrincham and later on between Liverpool and Stockport. Goods trains used this line to carry coal from Yorkshire to the port of Liverpool. At it’s height in the 1950’s this track actually became one of the busiest double track lines for carrying goods in the country, with more than 200 trains passing through each day!
The station platform was one of the shortest in the country and sometimes the train driver had to move his train along, stopping more than once to allow the passengers to get off and on!
On 1st January 1948 the station became part of British Rail bought about by nationalisation of the railways. With the Beeching cuts, the station sadly closed to passengers on 30th November 1964 but the busy freight use continued until into the early 1980’s. The single track is still used today, mainly for carrying stone from Derbyshire to Liverpool. There are also occasional chartered luxury passenger trains passing through. The station building became derelict until 1988 when Banks’ Brewery purchased it and converted the building into a pub called The Station.
Today, the pub having been renamed The Cheshire Line Tavern, is thriving and serves a selection of cask conditioned ales along with traditional pub food and are kindly hosting the event as well as provding this history of the station from their website.
Community Celebration Events - 2020 until 2022
This Event is part of a limited release of Community Celebration Events to celebrate 20 years of geocaching. Geocachers hosted events between May 2, 2020 and December 31, 2022. Learn more about Community Celebration Events on the Geocaching Blog.