forhs-marple-hall-school

Friends of Rose Hill Station

Improving your travelling experience since 1869
Rose Hill Station, Marple, Cheshire, SK6 6EE

Northern Service Updates

please click below for current service updates

Want to help preserve Rose Hill Station? Membership is FREE Join HERE

Bee Network Rail Plan

'Mayor Andy Burnham reveals plans for Bee Network rail to boost passenger numbers and drive Greater Manchester’s growth with Rose Hill Station's rail line in the First Phase for completion by December 2026. Plans include flagship travel hub stations, tap in tap out tickets, integrated fares, accessible stations and trial of Bee Network branded trains. Approach is expected to boost passenger numbers – with at least 1.3 million more journeys estimated on first eight Bee Network commuter rail lines.'

Best-Staffed-Station
Cheshire Best Kept Station Award 2024

Rose Hill Station has won another award from the CBKS organisation,this time for Best Staffed Station.

We must recognise Northern's, Tony Tweedie, for his role in bringing the award to our Station as well as our volunteers who have worked hard to make the Station area and Waiting Room such a welcoming environment.' 

Welcome..

Based in Marple, near Stockport, Cheshire the Friends of Rose Hill Station was founded in June 2009 and consists of Volunteers who give of their time in improving the station environment and campaigning for a better train service.

We are members of the Goyt Valley Rail Users Group and South East Manchester Community Rail Partnership with good links with Northern Rail, Network Rail, Transport for Greater Manchester and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council.

Celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2019, the station is at the terminus of a spur line of the Hope Valley line with service to Manchester Piccadilly on Northern Trains. There is direct access to Middlewood Way, a ten-mile trail ending at Macclesfield.

If you would like to help us preserve Rose Hill Station for future generations please join us below:

Keep up to date... Follow us online

History

The Opening and first 100 years:
1869
Rose Hill station was opened on 2 August 1869, by the Macclesfield Bollington and Marple Railway (MB&MR). The promoters of the MB&MR hoped to capture some of the London to Manchester traffic. It never succeeded in this aim and the MB&MR spent its life as a local line. Passenger trains ran from Macclesfield to Manchester via Bollington, Rose Hill, Romiley, Hyde and Guide Bridge. It also carried useful amounts of freight. The line opened with a service of four trains per day, each way, with two trains on Sunday. Over the years this increased gradually until, by 1960, Rose Hill had 15 trains/day to and from Macclesfield and 18 trains/day to and from Manchester, with 8 trains on Sunday. The Sunday service was withdrawn on 16 September 1962.

Closure to Macclesfield:
1963
The Beeching Report of 1963 proposed the closure of the whole of the line from Macclesfield. By late 60's more people were commuting into Manchester from Rose Hill. The decision was finally taken to retain the Rose Hill to Manchester service but to close the line south of Rose Hill to Macclesfield. This closure took place on 5 January 1970. 

Modern Times

Middlewood Way:
1971
The tracks south of Rose Hill were lifted in 1971. In the 80's the disused trackbed was turned into a bridleway which was opened on 30 May 1985 as "Middlewood Way", which is now part of the National Cycle Network route NCN 55. In 2012 a bridleway was created north of Rose Hill station via a new Chadkirk Bridge across the Goyt filling in a missing link in NCN 55.

The Station Building:
1980
The station had two platforms until 1980, when the line was reduced to single track and the signal box at the end of the platform was closed and demolished. The main station building on the east side of the tracks was demolished at the same time. The station had been built by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR), one of the original promoters of the MB&MR. It is the most northerly NSR station. The present building was refurbished in 2007 when the original waiting room was brought back into use and the ticket office modernised.

Revival:
After sustained campaigning by the Friends of Rose Hill Station, one train/hour was switched from Marple to Rose Hill. This resulted in an immediate uplift in passenger numbers from 90,478 in 2008/9 to 114,700 in 2010/11. A re-casting of the timetable in Dec 2012, to give a better balanced service, saw a further rise in station usage.

Prepared by Craig Wright with input from Wikipedia, Warwick Burton and Tom Lord

You can also find us on Twitter


Over 150 years of train travel from Rose Hill


Our Gallery

More photos can be found on our Facebook Page

Have a look at our 'walks' page 

Join Us

We are always looking for help at Rose Hill Station, whether that be with events, tidying or ideas. If you would like to preserve our station for future generations and can spare some time to volunteer to help the Friends of Rose Hill Station, please click the button below and send us an email enquiry. We will contact you as soon as possible.

We have many events throughout the year, follow us on Facebook and keep up to date

Address

Rose Hill Station
Marple
Stockport
Cheshire
SK6 6EE


Contacts

Email: forhs142@gmail.com

Feedback
Please send us your thoughts, questions or reviews. We love to hear them

Find Us

Find Rose Hill Station on the map below