Visitors to the picturesque village of Delph may be
forgiven for thinking that they are in the West Country instead of the
West Pennines, or that little has changed in the settlement over the
past 150 years.
When you see the many fine examples of weavers’ cottages, you
can well understand why this charming village has become a popular backdrop
for films such as ‘Brassed Off‘ and ‘The Parole Officer’.
Add to these the record of local customs by Ammon Wrigley, and the safety
of Delph’s heritage is assured.
Many people arrive via the Delph crossroads - a crucial village link
to the rest of Saddleworth. It is here they will see the old Delph station,
built in the 1850s at one end of the Delph Donkey single railway line,
which ran from Greenfield to Delph.
When the line opened on the 1st September 1851, the service consisted
of one coach drawn by a white horse, and Ammon Wrigley states: "When
people missed the train at Delph or Greenfield, they walked along the
line and overtook it. Paul Scholes of Lees was the first driver of the
gee-gee engine... gardeners were often seen with spade and bucket gathering
horse dung from the line."
On 5th July 1856, the line to Oldham was completed and the horse was
retired, the line then being considered as worthy of railway engines.
Even so, from then on the service was known as the Delph Donkey.
When the line first opened to steam, nine weekday trains operated in
each direction between Delph and Greenfield, with four each way on Sundays.
But after a century of use, the Delph Donkey became a White Elephant
in the 1950s when more often than not the little train chugged along
the Saddleworth valleys without a single passenger.
The Delph Donkey line was officially closed in 1955. However this was
not the last time the line was used. On the night of 2nd June 1960,
the late Queen Mother, when paying a visit to the area, spent the night
in the Royal train near to Dobcross station. The final section of the
line, between Moorgate (Uppermill) and Delph was taken up in 1964.
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