Whittingham Hospital Railway
Coordinates: 53°48′50″N 2°38′13″W / 53.814°N 2.637°W The Whittingham Hospital Railway (W.H.R.) was a private light railway operated by Lancashire County Council to serve Whittingham lunatic asylum. Opened in 1889, it carried goods and passengers between Grimsargh on the Preston and Longridge Railway and the hospital grounds. It closed to all traffic in 1957.
The asylum was built in 1873 and enlarged in 1879 to accommodate 2895 patients. Before becoming the hospital, it was the long-time residence of the Waring family. The house was built in 1869 by Cooper and Tullis of Preston, to the designs of Henry Littler for £338,000.
In the early days of the hospital, all supplies, including coal and provisions, had to be transported by horse and cart from Preston – a distance of 7 miles (11 km) – or from Longridge at the terminus of the Preston and Longridge Railway some 3 1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) distant. The cartage was expensive; permanently staffed with a stud of horses and vehicles. In 1884, the significant costs of this operation prompted the authorities to consider building a railway between the hospital and the village of Grimsargh 2 miles (3.2 km) to the southeast.
A four-man committee made its first report in August, 1884 when it estimated the cost of the 2,863-yard (2,618 m) line at £12,000 giving an annual saving of £1,050 over road haulage but this assumed that the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and London and North Western Railway – joint owners of the Longridge branch line – would work the service. They refused, but did grant junction facilities at Grimsargh.
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