A Sandbach company based at the old station house has unearthed some interesting history about the town's railway station.

Lynda Bradbury, a director of the asset finance company TAFCO, based at Station House, Station Rd, Elworth, tasked one of her junior members of staff to do some research into the station.

She had read about a 1950s sign in Sandbach Nub News here. being installed at the station by the Friends of Sandbach Station.

Lynda was so fascinated by the story that she asked 18-year-old Guy Yearn, currently working with the company as part of the Kick-Start programme, to do some research for the company's Linked In page.

Guy came up with some interesting history. He found out that the first train to run through Sandbach station was on May 4th 1842 from Manchester to Sandbach.

The station was primarily used for goods and industrial freight and the station continued to be used for transporting goods for the next 21 years.

In 1863, the LNER (London North East Railway) was granted by Parliament to install a train line connecting Crewe to Northwich via Sandbach.

This was opened on July 1st 1868, which was the first passenger service between Sandbach and Northwich, stopping off at Middlewich, Chelford Bridge holt (Chelford) and Billinge Green holt (Davenham).

This was the beginning of the Sandbach railway station.

During this time, there were three main Station Masters who lived in the building that the TAFCO and Fast'n'Funded offices are now in.

In December 1893, Mr Fredrick Fleming was recently appointed station master. However, shortly after being appointed he fell ill with flu and died aged 34.

In 1896, Mr Robert Thomas Humphreys was the manager of the goods depot and station house.

He also directed the omnibuses from The George, The Swan and the Wheatsheaf hotels to the station in time for the arriving trains.

In 1904, the station master continued his day like a normal man would, however, at 9:30pm the shunter of the railway heard a call from the station master in the signal room, the station master fell ill and was unable to continue to work.

He was taken to Crewe railway company's hospital where he collapsed and died due to an internal disease which had been accelerated due to the over exertion of pulling the heavy signal leavers.

In 1913, Mr Cauldwall was listed as the new Sandbach station master. His main role was to ensure that everyone arriving at Sandbach station got into the town centre and back with a collection of buses and carriages.

Fast forward many years, the town of Crewe had doubled in size which caused Sandbach Railway station to stop travelling to Northwich, and the station in Middlewich was forced to shut down, however, the passenger line from Manchester to Crewe via Sandbach was still running.

This has been the same ever since...

In 1994, the station was refabricated to remove the once brick layout that it has always had, and by 1998 the ticket office was reconstructed to what it is today.

Lynda is delighted with Guy's research. She said: "We love the building and the fact it has so much history attached to it.

"The research which Guy has done is fascinating. It tells us what happened in the past compared with where we are now."