William Barton Wright (1828-1915), Mechanical Engineer, was born in Murton House, near North Shields, Northumberland on 13 November 1828 to father William Clark Wright and mother Charlotte Sarah Parr (married on 25 Jan 1825 in Tynemouth parish). In 1839 the Wrights moved to Bayswater, London, where William’s father died in 1844. In 1845 William started a six-year apprenticeship at Great Western Railway, Swindon, under Daniel Gooch. He worked in the erecting shop, then as draughtsman and lastly as assistant to the works manager Archibald Sturrock. In 1851 he was placed in charge of the GWR loco depot at Paddington, London. In October 1854 he was appointed the first loco carriage and wagon superintendent on the Madras Railway India, where he arrived in March 1855. In 1875 William was appointed as the locomotive superintendent at the Miles Platting works, Manchester. In ten years he renewed almost entirely the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway (LYR) locomotive stock and was responsible of the establishment of new loco works at Horwich, near Bolton. He resigned from LYR in June 1886 to give more time to private practice as an engineer in London. William became the director of the Balmadies Estates Co Ltd and Assam Rs & Trading Co Ltd in India. He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (associate from 1859, member from 1896 until 1906) and the Institution of the Mechanical Engineers (1878-1892). William Barton Wright married Janet Forlonge in London 1858 and at least three sons and two daughters survived to adulthood. Son Edward William Barton Wright (1860–1951) worked also as a civil engineer and surveyor. In 1892 William retired following the death of his wife and moved to an ancestral home in Dover, then 1907 to St Leonards on Sea, Sussex, where passed away on 7 May 1915.

Incorporated on 4th July, 1836, the Manchester & Leeds railway was opened in 4th July 1839. Superintended by George Stephenson, its engineer was Thomas Longridge Gooch, a brother of Daniel Gooch of the GWR. It was incorporated into the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1847.

Mirfield station was originally a part of Manchester & Leeds Railway. Line from Hebden Bridge to Normanton, passing Mirfield, was opened in 1840. At first Mirfild was a stop without buildings, the first station was opened in April 1845 and a larger one due to increased traffic in March 1866. The engine shed was probably built between mid-1840s - 1860s. In 1847 Manchester & Leeds changed its name to Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Being one of eleven of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway sheds Mirfiled had both passenger and goods engines. Decline in freight traffic and elimination of steam power led to the closure of Mirfield engine shed in 1967, being demolished in 2007.