Vintage café and children’s play area opened at Heywood Railway Station

New children’s play area at Heywood Railway Station

A vintage café and children’s play area at the East Lancashire Railway’s Heywood Station was unveiled to the public on Saturday (10 June).

Councillors Peter Rush, Liam O’Rourke, Jacqui Beswick, Carol Wardle and Susan Emmott met with East Lancashire Railway chiefs for the opening of the £30,000 facility.

The new play area, funded by Heywood Township, has been constructed by Stockport based Massey & Harris, and contains a play train, two railway carriage springies, a water tower climbing frame with slide and a swing set.

The station will now benefit from a new catering facility, housed within a vintage railway carriage. 'Heywood Café Coach' will serve a range of sandwiches, snacks, cakes and hot and cold drinks, and will be open on selected special event days.

Councillor Rush said: “The Township is working hard to bring visitors to Heywood.

“We hope to attract visitors to use the café for booking afternoon teas and for private meetings, and to attract schools for heritage tour and talk.

"In the future, we hope to open the Manchester Road end for easier access to the station. We have also been promised a vintage foot bridge and look forward to Riley & Son (E) Ltd Steam and diesel locomotive engineers coming on site.”

Mike Kelly, East Lancashire Railway Chairman, said: “The new development at Heywood Station is very exciting.

“We hope that Heywood Station with its new facilities will be a ‘must visit’ destination for our visitors to enjoy.”

The East Lancashire Railway is one of the UK’s best kept heritage railways and operates over two sections of line, both originally built in the 19th century. Built to serve separate routes, both passed through the important mill town of Bury.

The companies amalgamated in 1859 and operated the lines until the 5 June 1972, when passenger services were stopped on the line in.

Four miles of line were reopened between Bury and Ramsbottom on 25 July 1987. Engines began to visit the Heywood extension in August 1993 after a long battle.

The Bury-Heywood line finally reopened in 2003 after ten years of repairs to the track and structures, re-signalling at Bury Bolton Street and construction of the new station at Heywood, plus legal and statutory ‘hurdles’ after new legislation was passed in connection to railway privatisation.