Dicconson Lane and Hilton House Stations

There was a line from Wigan via Hindley to Horwich and Chorley, which opened in 1858. On this line were two simple stations or halts, called Hilton House and Dicconson Lane. These happen to fall within the boundary of Westhoughton. They are in the north-west corner of this map.

The purpose of the line was to open a route for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway from Wigan to Chorley and Blackburn. They could achieve this by making a short, 3-mile link between two existing lines from Crow Nest Junction near Hindley to Red Moss at Horwich. Trains serving this route diminished in the 1950s and finished completely in 1960. These two stations had already closed on 1st February 1954.

The rudimentary station buildings at Dicconson Lane. It was opened as “Dicconson Lane and Aspull”.

There was an additional use of this route. By adding a connection in 1888 from the Manchester direction at Dobb Brow Junction, the L&YR was able to run expresses from Manchester (bypassing Bolton) to Blackpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow. These of course just whistled through these two stations. Trains last ran as expresses on this route in September 1968.

Dicconson Lane with a class 8F freight locomotive passing through light engine (i.e. no train) in the 1950s.
Hilton House, looking towards Horwich. The signal box was probably the grandest building there.