Mostyn No. 1 Signal Box

Cadw's description

Location

Situated to the SE of Mostyn Station, set between the up and down tracks and formerly reached from the main road by a footbridge, now removed.

History

The Chester to Holyhead Railway was proposed to improve links between London and Dublin. The bill was passed in July 1844 with Robert Stephenson as engineer and Francis Thompson of Derby as architect. Mostyn Station was opened in 1848.

One of two new signal boxes built in 1902 which were contemporary with the large expansion of facilities that provided Mostyn Station with four platforms. No 2 signal box has since been removed but No 1 box is still in use.

Exterior

LNWR type 4 signal box; this example is characteristic of those built between c1880 and 1904 although it is unusually tall. The type 4 boxes have gabled roofs with pendants and finials to each apex over flush-set bargeboards; slate roof (now grouted). The whole of the operating floor is weatherboarded and lit by an almost continuous band of 4-pane sliding sash windows. The glazing on the SW side is divided into five-bays, the 2nd and 4th bays wider. On the NE side the operating floor is cantilevered on brackets and lacks the central window; old photographs show that this side formerly had a narrow bracketed walkway. Sign reading 'Mostyn' to each gable. The entrance is on the SE gable end, offset to the R, the half-glazed door reached by an open timber staircase. Below the operating floor, the structure is of brown brick and each side is 2-storey and 4-window, with 2 tall recessed panels with header brick corbels. Segmental-headed 4-pane windows are set into the panels, that to NE side pierced by higher 1st floor windows. The footbridge has recently been demolished, but the rubble stone base still survives.

Reason for designation

Listed as a rare well-preserved early C20 signal box and for group value with Mostyn Railway Station and Goods Shed.