page_title: Garstang and Knot-End Railway
section_title: Authorisation
hierarchical_section_title: Garstang and Knot-End Railway / Authorisation
caption_attribution_description: English: The site where the former Garstang and Knot-End Railway met the London and North Western Railway (part of the modern-day West Coast Main Line), near Garstang, Lancashire, England. The branch line passed through a cutting, now filled with trees, on the left, joining the main line immediately left of the visible bridge. The branch line continued on its own separate single track, parallel to the main line, to Garstang and Catterall railway station, one mile (1½&#160;km) south of this location.
context_page_description: The Garstang and Knot-End Railway [sic] was a railway line, between Garstang and Pilling, in the Fylde of Lancashire. It was built by local agricultural interests to develop unproductive land. It had been intended to continue to Knott End but ran out of money. It eventually opened in 1870. In 1898 the Knott End Railway was authorised to continue to Knott End; it opened in 1908. The two companies were associated and the KER acquired the earlier company. The KER was still desperately short of money, and local people who were owed money bought rolling stock to keep the company going.
  Salt extraction near Preesall became a dominant industry from 1890, and the railway conveyed some remarkable tonnages of salt and coal. The passenger service was discontinued in 1930 and the line closed completely in 1965.
context_section_description: In the mid-nineteenth century, the tract of land to the west of Garstang, in the Fylde area of Lancashire, was an unworked expanse of moss. Attempts were made over time to reclaim the land and put it to agricultural use. In 1863, local landowners led by Wilson F France, the Squire of Rawcliffe, promoted a branch line railway. They saw that transport links to market for agricultural produce were essential; their line was to connect Knott End, opposite Fleetwood on the estuary of the River Wyre, by way of Pilling, to Garstang station on the London and North Western Railway main line between Preston and Lancaster.
  In December 1863, a prospectus was produced for the proposed Garstang and Knot-End Railway. Six directors were named: John Russell, Julian Augustus Tarner, Henry Gardner, Colonel James Bourne, Richard Bennett and James Overend. The prospectus explained that the object was to improve the outlets for agricultural produce by giving easy access to the markets at Preston and in the towns and cities of industrial Lancashire. The line, it claimed, would link up with Yorkshire, Humberside and Newcastle upon Tyne, and could become part of a main artery between the east and west coasts. A harbour might be built at Knott End to rival and even outgrow Fleetwood. Their scheme went to Parliament, where it was opposed by the London and North Western Railway and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Facing that danger, the promoters now asserted that their line was "a simple and unpretending line, proposed entirely for the accommodation of the local traffic of the district". Accordingly, the Garstang and Knot End Railway was authorised by Act of 30 June 1864. Authorised capital was £60,000; the line would be 11 ¹⁄₂-mile-long (18.5 km).
caption: The site where the line met the LNWR main line. The branch line passed through a cutting, now filled with trees, on the left, joining the main line immediately left of the visible bridge. The branch line continued on its own separate single track, parallel to the main line, to Garstang and Catterall railway station, one mile (1.6 km) south of this location.
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