When the plans became known in the late 1840s that the East Lancashire Railway were in town looking to purchase land to put a new Liverpool to Preston rail line in, it created quite an upheaval. Where the line was planned cut right through dozens of businesses on both sides of Moor Street. Small shops, several Cabinet Makers and some cottages were demolished. A new road was put in, Railway Road, the engineers and architects created the row of buildings that became known as Coffin Row and they dug through the sandstone ridge to put the lines at a much lower level than the natural ground level. The line opened in 1849 and the town thrived.
Looking across the Moor Street Railway Bridge from the bus station, with Coffin Row in the background. A 1935 Lancashire Evening Post article about Ormskirk's ancient market recalls "There was a time when pigs and geese came to market in crates, being offered for sale from the Moor Street bridge over the railway line, near the grimly named and quaintly designed block of property known as "Coffin Row". That part of the market has now gone". It is hard to imagine the hustle and bustle of live animals being bought and sold from the bridge on market days, but this was clearly still within living memory in 1935.
