Harrogate–Church Fenton line

Harrogate–Church Fenton line
Prospect Tunnel
Overview
StatusClosed from Crimple junction to Church Fenton junction
LocaleNorth Yorkshire
Termini
Stations8
Service
TypeHeavy rail
Operator(s)
Depot(s)Harrogate Low (Brunswick, closed 1862)[1]
History
Opened10 August 1847
Closed6 January 1964 (passengers), 30 November 1966 (goods)
Technical
Line length18.5 miles (29.8 km)
Number of tracksdouble
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Highest elevation393 ft (120 m)
Route map

Legend
Harrogate Line
 Harrogate
Harrogate (Brunswick)
Crimple Valley Viaduct
Leeds–Northallerton Railway
 Crimple
(closed 1869)
Harrogate Line
Prospect Tunnel
 Spofforth
Cross Gates to Wetherby Line
 Wetherby (York Road)
Wetherby Racecourse
Thorp Arch
ROF Thorp Arch
River Wharfe
 Newton Kyme
Tadcaster
Stutton
Church Fenton
This diagram:

The Harrogate–Church Fenton line was a railway line in North Yorkshire, opened by the York and North Midland Railway between 1847 and 1848, linking Harrogate and Church Fenton.

History

[edit]
Viaduct near Spofforth Castle

The Harrogate–Church Fenton line ran from Harrogate to Church Fenton.[2] It was staked out by York and North Midland Railway in September 1845 and opened from Church Fenton to Spofforth on 10 August 1847.[3][4] The line from Spofforth and Harrogate was opened on 20 July 1848,[5] after the completion of the major engineering structures on the line, the 31-arch, 624 yards (571 m) Crimple Viaduct and the 825-yard (754 m) Prospect Tunnel.[6]

A short-lived station named Crimple, located on the junction with the Leeds–Harrogate line immediately east of the viaduct, only appeared in timetables from 1867 to 1869 and has been demolished.[7] The curve from Pannal Junction to Crimple Junction was opened on 1 August 1862 and enabled trains from Leeds to reach the new station at Harrogate across Crimple Viaduct.

In 1901, a new south-to-west curve was built at Wetherby to enable trains from Harrogate to Wetherby to use the Cross Gates–Wetherby line without reversing.[8] Following that, a new passenger station serving Wetherby was opened on the Cross Gates–Wetherby line, and the Wetherby station on the Harrogate–Church Fenton line became goods-only.[9]

In April 1942, the Thorp Arch circular railway was opened to serve Thorp Arch Royal Ordnance Factory, which produced munitions. Trains accessed the single-track railway from the Harrogate–Church Fenton line near Thorp Arch station.[10] The ROF at Thorp Arch closed in 1958 and the circular railway was closed and lifted in the same year.[11]

Stutton station closed to passengers on 1 July 1905 but remained open for goods until the end of July 1964.[12] The station master at Stutton in the 1890s was named Wilson Mortimer and his story, along with the traffic dealt with at this small station, is covered in a research paper.[13]

The whole line between Crimple Junction and Church Fenton North Junction was closed to passengers in January 1964, being one of the first casualties of the Beeching cuts,[8] and closed entirely in 1966.[14]

Harrogate Brunswick

[edit]

The original terminus was at Harrogate Brunswick, on a line that left the present one just north of Hornbeam Park railway station and headed westwards through the 400-yard (370 m) Brunswick Tunnel, exiting at the site of the Leeds Road and Park Drive roundabout. It then went through a cutting before terminating at Brunswick Station.[15]

The railway was routed through a tunnel rather than across The Stray parkland because the townsfolk were worried about the railway lowering the aristocratic tone of the spa town.[16] The station was in operation from 1848 to 1862, and was replaced when the North Eastern Railway built a station on the site of what is the modern day Harrogate railway station.[17]

During the Second World War, Brunswick Tunnel was used as an air raid shelter.[18]

The line today

[edit]

A very short stretch of the original line (2-mile (3.2 km)) is still in use as part of the Harrogate line, with services to and from Leeds.[19] Whilst the southern portal of the tunnel is still visible, all traces of the station site at Brunswick have been removed.[20]

In 1992, a 3-mile (4.8 km) stretch of the former trackbed between Spofforth and Wetherby was converted into a cycle track.[14] By 2003, the path had been extended to Thorp Arch and also included the former triangle of lines at Wetherby, thereby linking with cycle paths to Linton and Collingham on the West Yorkshire Cycle Route.[21]

In January 2019, the Campaign for Better Transport released a report identifying the line as Priority 2 for reopening. Priority 2 is for those lines which require further development or a change in circumstances, such as housing developments.[22]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Catford, Nick. "Harrogate Brunswick". Disused Stations. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  2. ^ Bertram, D. (February 1961). "The lines to Wetherby and their traffic". Trains Illustrated. pp. 99–106.
  3. ^ Rogers, J. (2000). The railways of Harrogate and district. North East Railway Association. OCLC 867992093.
  4. ^ "Disused Stations:Spofforth Station". disused-stations.org.uk. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  5. ^ Burgess, Neil (2014). "Church Fenton - Harrogate". The lost railways of Yorkshire's West Riding: Harrogate and the north. Catrine: Stenlake Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-84033-655-9.
  6. ^ "Prospect Tunnel". Forgotten relics of an enterprising age. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  7. ^ Catford, Nick (17 May 2017). "Crimple". Disused Stations. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  8. ^ a b Holland, Julian (2013). "Northern England". Dr Beeching's Axe 50 Years On: Memories of Britain's Lost Railways. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 135. ISBN 9781446302675.
  9. ^ Catford, Nick. "Wetherby Station 2nd site". Disused Stations. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  10. ^ 28 Days Later. Map of Royal Ordnance Factory No8., [1]. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  11. ^ Young, Alan (2015). Lost stations of Yorkshire; the West Riding. Kettering: Silver Link Publishing. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-85794-438-9.
  12. ^ Catford, Nick. "Stutton Station". Disused Stations. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  13. ^ Mitchell, Ian. "Mortimer's Turnips - The Stutton Papers, 1890 to 1898". Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  14. ^ a b Suggitt 2005, p. 26.
  15. ^ Davison, Phill (8 February 2008). "The Harrogate Underground". BBC York & North Yorkshire. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  16. ^ "Light at the end of the abandoned tunnel". Harrogate Advertiser. 7 February 2008. Archived from the original on 25 April 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  17. ^ Suggitt 2005, p. 23.
  18. ^ "Harrogate Brunswick Tunnel". Forgotten relics of an enterprising age. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  19. ^ Jacobs, Gerald (2006). Railway track diagrams book 2: Eastern. Bradford-on-Avon: Trackmaps. p. 42D. ISBN 0-9549866-2-8.
  20. ^ Historic England. "TADCASTER BRANCH RAILWAY (53043)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  21. ^ "Wetherby Railway Path" (PDF). Leeds City Council. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  22. ^ "The case for expanding the rail network" (PDF). Campaign for Better Transport. p. 42. Retrieved 22 April 2019.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Suggitt, Gordon (2005). Lost Railways of North & East Yorkshire. Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-85306-918-5.
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