1936

"A very familiar sight even if the trams are by now a very distant memory." That is what I wrote when I first started showing people old pictures. Now it has all gone.

The station canopy and clock, the glass canopy on the left for passengers at the tram stops, this remained for the buses well into the 1960s.

 Trinity Street Station was opened in 1904, eighty years after Great Moor Street Station, though the line to Manchester had opened in May 1838 and that to Preston in 1847. At least two previous stations had existed to the left of Trinity Street and at Bradford Square / Byng Street (further left).

Picture posted on Facebook by Peter Lodge

Tram stops and tram on Trinity Street bridge

On the left the Snack Bar and the entrance to the footbridge.

1962   The bus stops on the Trinity Street bridge, Snack Bar and the start of the footbridge to Great Moor Street (Johnson Street).

Tram jam

Some dirtiness at the top of the photograph, but the dark marks are clips holding up the electrical wires for the trams. On the road the rails take an unexpected turn to the left, apparently along Station Street.

Picture posted on Facebook by David Whenlock

"The Triangle", Preston line to the left, Blackburn line to the right. The Bolton West signal box. The footbridge from the station behind us across to Johnson Street and Great Moor Street with St Patrick's RC Church. A the far end of the bridge can be seen the steep walkway down to the street. The "new" shops on the other side of Great Moor Street are visible.

Picture supplied by Roy Gilbert.

An evocative picture of the Triangle with the footbridge and the Bolton West signal box. The Preston line swings left under Newport Street.

Picture posted on Facebook by ?Gene Watts.

The Triangle looking to the back of Newport Street on the left, Newport Street towards the right.

The Triangle. The Blackburn line going under Bradshawgate. Kings Hall.

 on Facebook posted by Gene Watts

Picture from David Whenlock

The footbridge being demolished.

In the distance St Patrick's, County Grammar School, Parish Church

A fairly familiar view for anyone who took the footbridge across from Trinity Street to Great Moor Street. The station canopy still exists and buses still have their stops on the bridge.

April 1986 - Trinity Street bridge has now been rebuilt but we still have the old station.

May 1988 - The old station has been demolished and the new station is in use. The station clock has been rebuilt at a lower level close to the new station. The link line from the Preston line to the Blackburn line which formed "the triangle" has been removed allowing access to the central area which is now a car park.

An unusual view of the end of Newport Street and the Trinity Church from the railway triangle.

David Whenlock's picture.

Bolton Evening News published a picture of the Johnson Street footbridge supplied by a reader.

Trinity Street Station 1920s

Picture posted on facebook by D Hitchen.

1980s - after the canopy has been demolished.

Trinity Street Station interior

Around New Year 1939 but anyone familiar with the station in the 1950s 60s would recognise this.

Trinity Street Station interior 1960

no change from its pre-war appearance.

1953

Buses now instead of trams but there is still a gantry for the tram wires which is surprising since trams stopped in 1947. Perhaps you remember the taxi cabin.

We have a 28 bus for Seymour Road. fleet number 262? and a number 8 for Manchester

The poster cleverly says - After work have a SSENNIUG on the way back

For people of a certain age this is exactly how they remeber Trinity Street.

A similar scene. At right - & SONS LTD is on the side of a water tank which in earlier days had Magees painted on it. This is a metal water tank on top of a brick building dating from the times of steam engines. One might guess that it supplied water for the loco boilers but I have had it suggested that the innovative pneumatic points changing system had water as ite operating fluid and this was the header tank.

David Whenlock's picture.

1958

The station canopy comes down

June 1968

At some point during the widening and reconstruction of Trinity Street.

"Two 45-ton girders were being installed temporarily to carry a portion of the existing bridge while the remainder was being reconstructed. Workmen were on site shortly after dawn toget the 113 ft long girders into position on a quiet Sunday morning.

February 1987

"It was the beginning of the end for Bolton's historic Trinity Street Station. The old buildings were coming down as the wraps came off the new bus/rail interchange being finished across the street. Workmen had already started dismantling the roof canopies as Bolton prepared to enter is new age of the train. The old station, a feature of Trinity Street for decades, was being knocked down before it could fall down. The problems lay under the brickwork where the old metal supports lifting the station to road level had rotted away.

Repair costs climbed ruling out an expensive rescue package and bus and rail chiefs drew up a joint project to give Bolton a modern integrated terminus for both buses and train.

The new building on the corner of Newport Street was due to open in the March and in about two years from then rail travellers would be able to travel to Piccadilly Station via the new Windsor Link cutting out the frustration journey across Manchester from Victoria.

1987

The bridge has been rebuilt and widened, the station clock has already been moved across the street, the old station building will be demolished soon.

Bland, boring and blank compared with previous views.

This water tank for refilling steam trains was always visible from the top of the bus as you went down Trinity Street, Magee’s Ales is very faded but just visible painted on the side. It was behind the Queen's Cinema. later World of Leather and World of Fashion,later Waynes Meat Market, now demolished This view is from the other side of the tank looking towards Trinity Street It was demolished in 1996. Threlfall's chimney and Bolton College can be seen.

Long view from the bottom of Trinity Street. Station canopy still there. Bolton Corporation buses still running. Railway water tank still there.

just up from the Queen's Cinema were these tall, slightly gark slightly forbidding buildings, four storeys above ground and almost certainly a basement. Classics of their time but not retained.

George Henry's, if I remember correctly, the other writing on the picture is not clear enough to read, was a stationers and between the white doorway and the pale hoarding is a small white rectangle which was a iron and vitreous enamel plaque with a thermometer on it, advertising Stephen's ink.

In these buildings were also a pronters and a philatelists (probably who moved ot Mawdesley Street.

Picture posted on Facebook by Edward Thompson.

May 1988    The station with the old clock is now operational on the other side of the road. The old station building has been demolished giving a clear view through to Manchester Road, The Technical College, the FOCUS DIY shop and the mill just down Bridgeman Place.

By 2021, the station has been connected to a new bus station by an aerial walkway, the Technical College has been demolished, Trinity Church is flats and FOCUS after a couple of identities is now B&M

Sept 2009 (C)WDC The bottom of Trinity Street looking towards Bradshawgate on the left, Manchester Road on the right and Bridgeman Place straight on.

We see R D Threlfall’s and J Parker Ellison’s Pelso works. They made pram rugs, quilts etc and invented the Karri Kot in 1935. It was quite recently a golf shop and Lomas’s Copyplan before being burned down in July 2008 (more later). On the left is World of Fashion which replaced the Queen's Cinema.

On the next page we will look at Bridgeman Place and The Haulgh and then Manchester Road as far as Burnden after which we will explore Bradshawgate