Rose Grove station is situated in the western suburbs of Burnley. The railway reached here in 1848 when the East Lancashire Railway Company opened a station. Originally named Rose Grove for Padiham, the station is situated in a cutting. Early reports confirm that the station was originally built to serve the town of Padiham.

At this time the areas adjacent to Rose Grove were agricultural but with print works and cotton mills developing at nearby Lowerhouse. Rose Grove’s development started in earnest when the railway expanded building an engine shed and large marshalling yards. Unlike many local Lancashire towns whose census figures showed large percentages of mill workers Rose Grove statistics showed the railway as being a major employer with guards, porters, firemen, platelayers and the like well represented.

The loco sheds closed at the end of steam during August 1968 and with the closure of the goods yards and de staffing of the station the railways presence in the town was drastically reduced.

Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth (1886 – 1967) was the last of her family to live at Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham, which can be found at the bottom of the Greenway (see below) and can be accessed from Rose Grove station. She was a talented embroiderer and lace maker and started the Gawthorpe Textile Collection.  A short film has been made by Huckleberry Films about Rachel and this can be seen on this link: Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth

Padiham Greenway

Rose Grove station sits close to the Padiham Greenway, a cycling and walking route that has recently been constructed and that runs over the old track bed of the Padiham Loop Line from Padiham to the towpath of the Leeds Liverpool canal close to the station. The Greenway is just one section of a longer cycling route that takes in the whole of the loop line from Blackburn through to Burnley. A poster showing details the Padiham Greenway can be downloaded by clicking this link Padiham Greenway and there are two leaflets showing the full route and these can be downloaded by clicking the links below:

Cycling into Railway History – Blackburn to Clitheroe
Cycling into Railway History – Padiham to Rose Grove

A brand new film has just been made in partnership with Huckleberry Films and this can be seen on YouTube by clicking the link below;

In 2015 Lancashire County Council working with train operator Northern Rail carried out a £150,000 upgrade of the station facilities including new waiting shelter, additional platform seating, CCTV and an automatic ticket machine.

As part of this upgrade and to raise the profile of the station in the local area Community Rail Lancashire introduced a multi school project called ‘Rose Grove Revived’

Two local schools Lowerhouse and Padiham Green took part in six classroom based sessions with CRL Resident Artist, Alastair Nicholson, where they researched the history of Rose Grove as a railway village and the Old Padiham loop line which is now a public greenway. Lowerhouse focused on the history of Rose grove station and how the railway shaped their community and Padiham Green researched the engine shed history and that of the Padiham loop. Both schools produced art work which was then displayed at the station.

Operation Stickleback

Rose Grove engine shed was one of the last steam loco sheds to close in the country and was an inspiration to Padiham Green School who after looking into the folklore of the shed wrote an innovative story of a journey a stickleback made from Rose Grove to Manchester via the Todmorden Curve. Both a book and DVD of this story were produced.

Rose Grove engine shed was once home to lots of steam engines which worked local lines delivering goods and passengers all over East Lancashire and beyond. The water used to fill up the water tanks of the steam engines was drawn from the nearby Leeds and Liverpool canal which ran alongside the rear of the engine shed. When the engines were sent away to Crewe Locomotive Works for repair it was said that the men who worked at Crewe could tell that the engine came from Rose Grove because when they came to drain the engine tanks they were full of sticklebacks which had been sucked in with the water from the canal.

History Posters

A history poster has been prepared for Rose Grove station and this can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail below or on this link: History Posters

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