Completion of the loop line

The loop line was completed in three distinct phases.

Phase 1

Etruria - Shelton Works: authorised for construction on the 2nd of July 1847 opening for goods in 1850 - this line was built before a loop line was envisaged and it served Shelton Bar works and the collieries giving them a link to the main line.
 

"Hanley forms the north-eastern and highest part of town, and from it and Earl Granville's Coal and Iron Works, an old tram road, now worked by a locomotive engine, extends down to the Trent & Mersey Canal, at Etruria, where it now also forms a junction with a station on the North Staffordshire Railway."

William White, Sheffield.
"1851, History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire"  

 

Phase 2

Shelton - Hanley: authorised for construction on the 13th of August 1859 opening to goods on the 20th of December 1861 and passengers on the 13th of July 1864.
This was an extension to the line which served Shelton Works and terminated in a station on the south side of Trinity Street - on the opposite side of the road from the Grand Hotel.

"The town has a post office under Stoke upon Trent, two railway stations, [Hanley & Etruria] two banking offices, and several good inns;"

Wilson's 1870-2 Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales

 

Phase 3

Hanley - Kidsgrove: the loop line as we know it was authorised 5th July 1865. The rail line into Hanley was modified, the track ran under Trinity Street and a new station built alongside the Grand Hotel.
The line opened in sections between 1873 and 75.

• Hanley - Burslem: opened on the 1st of November 1873.
• Burslem - Tunstall: opened on the 1st of December 1873.
• Tunstall - Goldenhill: opened on the 1st of October 1874.
• Goldenhill - Kidsgrove: opened on the 15th of November 1875.

"Hanley Station is on the Loop Line of the N.S. Railway, which runs in one direction to Waterloo-road, Cobridge, and Burslem, and in the other to Etruria and Stoke. Etruria Station, which is on the main line, is practically on the boundary line of Stoke and Hanley."

1907 Staffordshire Sentinel
'Business Reference Guide to The Potteries, Newcastle & District'