Notes: Beal is a farming hamlet on a low hill a quarter of a mile east of the station. The surrounding landscape is tranquil, and the station is close to the coastline with its extensive sand flats and marshland. The Newcastle & Berwick Railway spent generously on its stations, providing lavish facilities even in sparsely populated countryside, and Beal was given a fine building ‘of manorial proportions’ (Biddle 1973) and more than adequate goods facilities as it was the closest approach by the railway to Holy Island (or Lindisfarne). The island had a population of about 250, but as the cradle of Christianity in Northumberland it traditionally drew pilgrims who revered the seventh century SS Aidan and Cuthbert, and the evocative ruined monastery and the castle on its rock outcrop also brought visitors who crossed the treacherous causeway from the mainland.
A G Bradley visited Beal over a century ago, and offered his observations on the station and the causeway in The romance of Northumberland (1908): ‘Holy Island, the ancient Lindisfarne, is an object of pilgrimage which everyone makes an effort to achieve, and it is well worth it … The island is severed from the mainland by some three miles of wet, holding, and rather muddy sand, which is covered by the sea for some hours at every tide. In the intervals, however, there is ample time to drive across, spend two or three hours on the island, and return again. The little station of Beal on the main line … is only a mile from the crossing place, and from here the jarveys* ply into whose hands you commit yourself for a passage that might be exciting if they were not so familiar with it.’
‘The state of the tide regulates, of necessity, your day and hour for venturing to Holy Island, and the vehicles awaiting fares at Beal station are, of course, in accord with the same changeable conditions. A two-wheeled dogcart fell to our lot, and with the driver we just filled it. … The ladies of our party thought it would be fun to drive back through the in-flowing tide … a prospect I admit I did not hail with particular enthusiasm, having regard to the nature of our cargo, the heaviness of the going, and the labouring of the horse.’
* A ‘jarvey’ is a neglected word meaning the driver of a ‘jaunting car’, or a coachman
The origin of the place name Beal is Old English beo-hyll (‘bee hill’). Lindisfarne is thought to mean either ‘island of the people from Lindsey’ (now part of Lincolnshire) or ‘island of travellers to Lindsey’, perhaps denoting a settlement of regular traders with that area.
The station at Beal opened with the line in 1847, and its ‘Jacobethan’ building was a typically dignified and commodious Newcastle & Berwick Railway design. It stood south-west of the line on the down platform. In common with other N&B stations it was constructed of sandstone ashlar under a Welsh slate roof, and was given the distinctive raised gables, ball finials, gable-end kneelers and tall chimneystacks.
This building gave the immediate impression of being two substantial houses with a recessed single-storey block between them, the roof swept down to form a verandah. The larger of the two houses was for the stationmaster and his family, and the smaller was the porter’s family home. On the platform elevation the north-western house possessed a two-storey gabled bay whist the south-eastern one did not have this refinement. Equal care was taken over the side elevations, the north-western having three gables of differing sizes and a charming wooden porch. The south-eastern elevation was given only one gabled ‘half-dormer’ and a single storey block extended south-west.
Facilities on the up platform were much less flamboyant, but the stone-built waiting shed nevertheless possessed dignity. It was of the standard N&B design with a pent roof sloping down towards the platform edge, originally open-fronted but eventually given a timber-and-glass front by the NER.
Passengers transferred between platforms via the level crossing. No footbridge or subway was provided.
Although it is not clear on the earliest maps of the station, later maps indicate that the down platform stretched much further south-east than did the up platform.
As to goods facilities Beal was provided with a very large stone-built goods warehouse, its design complementing the station building. The 1898 OS plan shows two sidings trailing north-west from the up line, one entering the goods warehouse, and a crane (5-tons capacity) is also marked. A further short siding is shown branching from the down line and ending behind the down platform.
A gate cabin was provided at Beal, but the 1873 ‘Block Report’ noted that it was too small for block working and the new box was constructed by October 1877. This was probably an N1 stone design, extended to N2 from 1901. In 1891 a 20-lever frame was in use, but in 1901 a McKenzie & Holland 30-lever frame was installed.
The May 1849 timetable shows that Beal was served by the ‘stopping trains’ that called at each of the intermediate stations:
Up trains: weekdays |
Destination |
Down trains: weekdays |
Destination |
7.32am |
Newcastle |
9.26am |
Berwick |
11.02am |
Newcastle |
4.05pm |
Berwick |
5.47pm |
Newcastle |
6.18pm |
Berwick |
- |
- |
9.20pm |
Berwick |
Up trains: Sunday |
Destination |
Down trains: Sunday |
Destination |
7.17am |
Newcastle |
9.40am |
Berwick |
5.32pm |
Newcastle |
8.40pm |
Berwick |
From 1854 the East Coast main line became part of the expanding North Eastern Railway empire, and this company provided the following service at Beal in February 1863:
Up trains: weekdays |
Destination |
Down trains: weekdays |
Destination |
6.36am |
Newcastle |
8.10am # |
Berwick |
12.11pm |
Newcastle |
9.16am |
Berwick |
5.41pm |
Newcastle |
11.38am |
Berwick |
- |
- |
3.58pm |
Berwick |
- |
- |
9.12pm |
Berwick |
Up trains: Sunday |
Destination |
Down trains: Sunday |
Destination |
6.46am |
Newcastle |
8.10am # |
Berwick |
- |
- |
8.43pm |
Berwick |
It will be noted that a ‘limited stop’ train calls each morning in the down direction. Beal became established as one of the more important wayside stations because of its role in serving Holy Island, and for this reason it outlived most of the other stations between Newcastle and Berwick. In 1911 NER statistics showed that it served a population of 2,143 and issued 10,683 tickets – somewhat more than other wayside stations on the route, but a modest quantity in comparison to many of the NER’s stations. Two years later the goods statistics indicate that roadstone and barley were the principal traffic, together with 485 wagons of livestock which were dispatched from the station. In 1904 the RCH Handbook of stations showed that the full normal range of goods traffic could be handled at Beal. The 1912-13 winter timetable shows a passenger service at irregular intervals, with extra trains on Saturday:
Up trains: weekdays |
Destination |
Down trains: weekdays |
Destination |
7.04am |
Alnwick |
8.17am |
Berwick |
7.52am |
Alnwick |
11.00am # |
Edinburgh |
9.34am |
Alnwick |
11.07am ¶ |
Berwick |
11.12am |
Alnwick |
1.06pm |
Berwick |
1.52pm |
Alnmouth |
2.10pm (Sat only) |
Berwick |
2.36pm (Sat only) |
Alnmouth |
4.11pm |
Berwick |
3.53pm (Sat only) |
Alnmouth |
5.49pm (Sat only) |
Berwick |
5.39pm |
Alnmouth |
9.41pm |
Berwick |
8.27pm |
Newcastle |
- |
- |
Up trains: Sunday |
Destination |
Down trains: Sunday |
Destination |
6.40am |
Newcastle |
8.07am # |
Berwick |
6.12pm |
Newcastle |
10.31am |
Berwick |
|
|
12.19pm # |
Berwick |
|
|
9.02pm |
Berwick |
# Limited stop train ¶ Arrives at Beal 10.38am
The role of Alnwick as the regional shopping and employment centre can be seen as it is the destination of up trains in the morning, which reversed at Alnmouth, and later in the day the town could be reached by changing trains at Alnmouth. In the down direction the 11.07am departure is the 8.00am from Newcastle, stopping at all stations (including Smeafield on certain days) to Berwick, which reaches Beal at 10.38am and is then shunted aside to allow the semi-fast Edinburgh train to call at 11.00am. Passengers from stations to the south could change at Belford or Beal from the stopping train to catch the semi-fast to Berwick or Edinburgh. The timetable shows the 10.38am arrival and 11.07am departure as separate trains as passengers would officially be permitted to remain aboard during the shunting procedure.
By the turn of the century the ECML in Northumberland was becoming congested, and the NER undertook major re-signalling schemes to ease traffic flow at several places (Belford, Tweedmouth, Morpeth, Alnmouth and Benton Bank) between 1901 and 1908, and work at Chathill in 1911. Slow-moving goods trains were a particular impediment, and the NER addressed this problem by providing ‘Independent’ lines – essentially long loops – at intervals to accommodate goods trains while faster passenger services could overtake them. In 1901 an ‘Up Independent’, about two miles in length, was installed between Goswick and Beal, with a complementary ‘Down Independent’ added in 1918.
In 1923 the NER became part of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) at the ‘Grouping’. Shortly before World War II the LNER train service was remarkably similar to that provided by the NER in 1912-13, although the extra Saturday trains were no longer provided. The durability of the down late morning service which paused at Beal for about half-an-hour, will be noted in the winter 1937-38 timetable:
Up trains: weekdays |
Destination |
Down trains: weekdays |
Destination |
7.41am |
Alnwick |
8.33am |
Kelso |
8.51am |
Alnmouth |
11.00am # |
Edinburgh |
1.46pm |
Newcastle |
11.08am ¶ |
Berwick |
3.37pm |
Alnmouth |
2.01pm |
Berwick |
4.58pm |
Alnmouth |
3.17pm |
Berwick |
5.43pm |
Newcastle |
5.30pm # |
Berwick |
- |
- |
6.05 pm |
Berwick |
- |
- |
8.26 pm |
Berwick |
Up trains: Sunday |
Destination |
Down trains: Sunday |
Destination |
6.34am |
Newcastle |
8.21am # |
Berwick |
5.54pm |
Newcastle |
10.14am |
Berwick |
- |
- |
11.38am # |
Berwick |
- |
- |
8.42pm |
Berwick |
# Limited stop train ¶ Arrives at Beal 10.40am
Several of the ECML wayside stations in north Northumberland were closed by the LNER from 1941 until 1946, but Beal was one of the few to remain open throughout this period, the others being Alnmouth , Chathill, Belford and Tweedmouth. The legacy of the LNER at Beal was limited, although the company’s distinctive running-in nameboards with metal letters pegged to a wooden board were installed as neighbours to the NER oil lanterns which lit the platform. The nameboards read ‘Beal for Holy Island’. The lanterns and nameboards were never to be replaced.
In 1948 Beal station was allocated to the nationalised British Railways’ North Eastern Region (BR[NE]). The passenger station changed little during its BR(NE) days (1948-64), the nameboards receiving a coat of tangerine paint, with the wood and metal surfaces being painted in ‘Oriental Blue’, but at some stage the goods warehouse was demolished. During the 1950s a purge began of the most unprofitable stations between Newcastle and Berwick, with ten closing on 15 September 1958. Although booking very few passengers (only 1,677 tickets were sold at the station in 1951) Beal was not affected. The summer 1958 timetable, below, was the final one for many of the ECML Northumbrian stations:
Summer 1958
Up trains: weekdays |
Destination |
Down trains: weekdays |
Destination |
7.45am |
Newcastle |
9.41am |
Berwick |
8.39am |
Newcastle |
10.34am # |
Edinburgh |
12.06pm * # |
Newcastle |
10.54am (Sat only) # |
Edinburgh |
1.40pm (Sat only) # |
Newcastle |
1.58pm (Sat only) # |
Edinburgh |
4.21pm (Mon-Fri) # |
Newcastle |
2.20pm (Mon-Fri) |
Edinburgh |
4.51pm (Sat only) # |
Newcastle |
6.09pm (Mon-Fri) |
Berwick |
7.53pm Mon-Fri) # |
Newcastle |
6.55pm (Sat only) |
Edinburgh |
9.04pm (Sat only) |
Newcastle |
8.08pm (Mon-Fri) |
Berwick |
|
|
8.29pm (Sat only) |
Berwick |
Up trains: Sunday |
Destination |
Down trains: Sunday |
Destination |
4.53pm # |
Newcastle |
12.12pm # |
Berwick |
7.53pm # |
Newcastle |
9.30pm # |
Berwick |
|
|
|
|
# Limited stop train * 3 minutes later on Thursday (delayed by call at Goswick)
By this time many of the wayside stations between Newcastle and Berwick had a minimal service, and some had no Sunday calls. Sunday trains ceased to stop at Beal in September 1963.
Beal station was a late 1960s closure for which Dr Beeching cannot be held responsible. The Reshaping of British Railways (‘Beeching Report’) of March 1963 was remarkably kind to the Northumbrian ECML stations. The appendix map No.3 (with its crude division of station annual receipts into three bands – £0 to £5,000 / £5,000 to £25,000 / £25,000 and over – and its equally inept cartography) indicated that between Newcastle and Berwick every station apart from Morpeth and Alnmouth (and Alnwick, on its branch) fell into the lowest revenue band; Cramlington, Heaton and Manors were not shown on the map, being omitted from a ‘congested’ area. Despite the light usage of almost every station, only Pegswood was recommended for closure; this station had already survived a TUCC closure enquiry in 1958 and the enquiry into the’ Beeching’ proposal for its closure was deferred until 1966. Tweedmouth was named in the report, but as a station already under consideration for closure. The omission of Beal from the proposed closures seems remarkable.
On 26 April 1965 Beal’s goods facilities closed.
A further review of the financial viability of passenger stations and services between Newcastle and Berwick, and on the Alnwick branch, took place with a traffic census on the weeks ending 10 July and 16 October 1965 to represent summer and winter use. At Beal station the July census found 7 passengers joining and 11 alighting on Monday-Friday while 6 joined and 6 alighted in October; Saturday figures showed 4 joining and 20 alighting in summer, but only 6 joining and 10 alighting in winter. No trains had called on Sunday since September 1963.Travel was found to be almost entirely to or from the south. Interviews in March 1966 identified no regular passengers at Beal station (being defined as those known to use the train services on three or more days a week).
As intimated earlier, the use of Beal station by residents of, and visitors to, Holy Island was governed by the tides, the timings of which change from day to day – a situation possibly unique among British stations; therefore passengers would not be able to use the same trains repeatedly for access to the island. Moreover it is likely that a fair proportion of passengers who joined trains at Beal were using ‘Holiday Runabout’ or ‘Rover’ tickets, and such passengers would therefore not be recorded as having tickets issued at the station. Consequently the paltry 201 tickets issued at Beal in 1967 understated the number of passengers who used the station.
The outcome of the traffic review of 1965 was the publication on 3 March 1966 of a proposal to close Pegswood, Widdrington, Belford and Beal stations, as well as Alnwick on its branch from the ECML at Alnmouth.
The Transport Users’ Consultative Committee (TUCC) files provide some illuminating views on the controversial proposals to close Belford and the other stations. At a public hearing on 23 June 1966 a railway representative opined that the ‘wayside’ ECML stations perhaps provided enough passengers to warrant only one morning and one evening train, and that it was not the intention of British Rail to ‘develop’ the Newcastle-Berwick line as the ultimate aim was to route all Newcastle-Edinburgh trains via Carlisle. This was one of the excesses of the so-called ‘Beeching 2’ report, which sounded the death-knell for the Newcastle-Berwick-Edinburgh main line. Objectors suggested that if further intermediate stations were closed - in addition to those which had already gone – the service would become progressively less attractive. The suggestion by objectors that stations could stay open but as ‘unstaffed halts’, to reduce expenditure, was dismissed by British Rail as being inappropriate for a main line (overlooking the fact that four of the nine calls at Pegswood were already unattended by station staff, and that Plessey was unstaffed for its final seven years!)
Regarding Beal station British Rail assured the TUCC that its closure (‘with only ten passengers’) would be unlikely to deprive Holy Island of visitors, and that they could use buses to reach a point near Beal station and then take taxis to the island. BR noted that in their summer 1965 survey ‘Holiday Runabout’ ticket users were included in the summer survey of passengers joining and alighting at Beal, but stated that ‘the use of these tickets is declining’ [hardly surprising as closures were reducing the choice of destinations to visit!].
Beal would be left some distance from a railhead as a result of the proposed closures, being approximately midway between Berwick (9 miles north) and Chathill (12 miles south). A strong case was made at the closure hearings for the retention of Belford station (seven miles from Beal) in preference to Chathill: these are outlined on the Belford station page.
On 6 August 1966 the TUCC report was sent to the Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle. On 2 January 1967 BR’s North Eastern Region was abolished and absorbed into the Eastern Region, which was to have no implications for the closure process. Eventually, on 28 September 1967 Mrs Castle announced her decision to close three of the five stations proposed for closure: Alnwick, Beal and Belford. In its coverage of the news under the headline ‘Axe falls on more North stations’ Newcastle Evening Chronicle reported the BR (Eastern Region) assurance that the views of the Northern Economic Planning Council had been taken on board and that the Minister noted the TUCC’s view that there would be some degree of hardship, particularly for regular commuters to Newcastle, and for users of Belford, Alnwick, Widdrington and Pegswood stations. The Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Transport, gave the assurance that ‘she has also concluded that there are reasonable alternative bus services available for the limited number of users of Belford and Beal stations’.
On 23 October 1967 the author used a train from Newcastle to Edinburgh which called at Beal. No passengers joined or alighted at the immaculately presented station. The winter 1967-68 timetable shows a stark reduction of the service in comparison to previous decades:
Up trains: weekdays |
Destination |
Down trains: weekdays |
Destination |
07.42 |
Newcastle |
10.21 |
Edinburgh |
15.58 |
Newcastle |
13.07 |
Edinburgh |
- |
- |
18.47 |
Berwick |
No Sunday departures |
- |
No Sunday departures |
- |
The final trains called on Saturday 27 January 1968 and official closure was two days later. Both platforms were cut back on 1 March 1970, and the up side waiting shelter was removed, possibly at the same time. The station building was, regrettably, demolished in 1979.
Beal signal box received a brick extension at an unknown date. A new 31-lever frame was installed in April 1958. In August 1966 the ‘Independent’ up and down goods lines between Beal and Goswick were abandoned. Barriers replaced the traditional crossing gates on 13 April 1980, and the signal box was abolished on 18 April 1982, the crossing thereafter being supervised from Tweedmouth by CCTV. The stone signal box has been removed but the brick extension is retained as a relay room. ‘Station Cottages’, just west of the former passenger station, are still in use.
Although it might appear outside their geographical heartland, SENRUG (South East Northumberland Rail User Group) has added to its campaign to have passenger trains reinstated on the Blyth & Tyne route (Newcastle-Bedlington-Morpeth/Ashington) the cause of reopening Belford and Beal stations. The group would like to see an extension of local trains (most of which travel no further north than Morpeth) to Berwick, providing a Northumberland Coast service, for commuters, tourism and leisure. Holy Island is enduringly popular with visitors, and in summer and on weekends throughout the year car parking facilities on the island are stretched, suggesting that improved public transport is needed. However, if it reopened Beal station would, of course, be subject to the same constraints of the tides if passengers intended to visit Holy Island, and the walk or cycle ride of more than four miles across the causeway would lie ahead of them to reach the village, priory and castle, unless a taxi was booked. At least today the safe crossing times are readily available by visiting: http://orawww.northumberland.gov.uk/www2/holyisland/holyisland.asp
Click here for a brief history of the East Coast Main Line
in Northumberland.
Tickets from Michael Stewart. Route maps drawn by Alan Young
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
- Addyman, John F (Editor) A history of the Newcastle & Berwick Railway (North Eastern Railway Association, 2011) – especially Chapter 5 ‘The buildings’ by Bill Fawcett
- Biddle, Gordon Victorian stations (David & Charles, 1973)
- Fawcett, Bill A history of North Eastern Railway architecture Vol 1: The Pioneers (North Eastern Railway Association 2001)
- Young, Alan Railways in Northumberland (Martin Bairstow, 2003)
- Hoole, K Railway stations of the North East (David & Charles 1985)
See other ECML stations:
Tweedmouth, Scremerston, Goswick, Smeafield, Crag Mill, Belford, Lucker, Newham, Fallodon, Christon Bank, Little Mill, Longhoughton, Lesbury, Warkworth, Longhirst, Ashington Colliery Junction, Morpeth, Stannington, Plessey, Annitsford (1st), Annitsford (2nd), Killingworth, Forest Hall, Heaton (2nd), Heaton (1st), Durham, Croft Spa, Eryholme, Otterington, Alne & Tollerton |