Notes: The York & North Midland Railway (YNMR) opened the first part of its route to the west of Church Fenton village, and on to Milford, on 30 May 1839, completing it the following year. Originally, the railway crossed Common Lane on a level crossing, and it is likely that a small station serving Church Fenton was provided on its north side when the line opened. In 1848 the station was enlarged and rebuilt by the Y&NMR a short distance to the north, with the addition of workshops and an engine shed to coincide with completion of a branch from there to Harrogate via Tadcaster and Wetherby. This gave the modest wayside station new importance, and within two years it had become a stopping place on the new East Coast main line (ECML) from York to London with the opening of a line from Burton Salmon to Knottingley, trains continuing southwards via Askern and Doncaster.

The station had an island platform and two side platforms. The main station building was of stone construction and designed by G T Andrews; it stood on the western side platform, and other buildings were on the island platform. Fawcett (2001 and 2011) notes that the construction of the new station was taking place at a time when relations between the YNMR chief George Hudson and the architect G T Andrews were becoming strained, as indicated in a memorandum from Hudson to lawyer William Gray, Secretary of the YNMR. Hudson had approved Andrews’ design for a two-platform station at Church Fenton, with a 400ft-long, rather narrow trainshed, but took a dislike to the trainshed once he saw it nearing completion and ordered its walls to be demolished, leaving the iron roof trusses stacked up at the side of the railway. As a consequence Henry Burton, contractor for this and many YNMR stations, submitted bills for both the construction and destruction of Church Fenton’s trainshed.

There was only a waiting room on the east side platform. The goods yard, which comprised three sidings, was between the station and the road bridge on the down side of the line. There was a two-road brick engine shed with coaling stage, workshops and a large water tank to the north of the station on the down side. The date of its closure is not known, but it lasted into the 1960s as a civil engineers' depot. The station had two signal boxes, one immediately south of the level crossing on the up side, whilst the other was between the tracks at the end of the island platform to the north of the station.

The existing line from Church Fenton to York was subsequently quadrupled to handle the increased levels of traffic, and the station was rebuilt to the south, back at its original site, with the addition of extra platforms and connections between the two pairs of lines. This was authorised on 23 September 1903 at a cost of £7348 and opened in September 1904.

In its final form, the station employed a stationmaster, porters, shunters, office staff, signal men, platelayers and a telegraph messenger. The station now had two island platforms and a side platform on the easternmost track. Access was from the road bridge that replaced the level crossing at the south of the station. Here there was a two-storey rectangular brick building with a pitched slate roof. At street level, the upper floor was T-shaped with the gable end of the short side containing the booking office, facing onto the road. On either side, an enclosed timber verandah filled in the gap between the gable and the end of the building. Fawcett (2005) describes the structure on the road frontage as ‘a welcoming entrance in the form of a glazed wooden loggia, erupting in the centre into a broad, half-timbered gable’. The verandah was typical of NER practice at that time, strongly resembling buildings constructed at Staddlethorpe (now Gilberdyke), the Goole-Selby line stations and those on the Ponteland/Darras Hall branch. The booking office gave access through a porch to a lattice footbridge which was supported on brick towers, with gently inclined timber ramps down to the platforms. There was a timber waiting room on the west island platform with toilets and other rooms, including a newsagent’s shop on the central island platform. The side platform had no buildings.

All three platforms had generous, fully-glazed canopies with pitched roofs and end screens. In this form Church Fenton station became one of the largest stations in Britain relative to the size of the settlement it served: a claim also made by Hellifield and Crewe. There were two new signal boxes, one to the north of the station on the up side of the line and the other, which also controlled access to the goods yard, to the south of the station on the down side.

In 1937 an RAF base opened at Church Fenton, bringing additional status and traffic to the station. Although still in use the RAF intends to close the base by the end of 2013.

In British Railways’ days North Eastern Region tangerine platform number signs were installed, but the station was not given totem name signs, and it is thought that LNER wooden running-in boards were retained until the early 1970s when corporate identity signage was fitted. At some time, the outer platform canopies were substantially shortened and that on the island platform was removed and replaced with a bus shelter in the 1980s. At the same time the footbridge and ramps were replaced with wide steps. The platform buildings and remaining canopies were demolished in 1990 and replaced with bus shelters. The once attractive and important-looking station is now a bleak and far less welcoming place.

The new goods yard was to the south of the road bridge on the east side of the line. Here there was a small goods shed and two docks. In 1911 the station had a catchment area with a population of 1,304. 21,0528 tickets were sold that year, and the main freight handled was potatoes, 1022 tons, vegetables 1037 tons, and barley, with 556 tons being dispatched; 152 wagons of livestock were also loaded at the station. Church Fenton closed to goods traffic on 3 September 1966.

Currently the station is served every two hours (hourly in the peaks) on weekdays by trains on the York to Leeds route (most of which continue to Bradford Interchange and Blackpool) and by a limited service on the York to Sheffield line (two trains per day each way) and towards Selby and Hull (one northbound and two southbound trains each way, peak hours only). Sundays see a two-hourly service to Leeds & York and two trains each way on the Dearne Valley line.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH FENTON - HARROGATE RAILWAY & THE CROSS GARES TO WETHERBY RAILWAY
Notes: Harrogate was known as 'The English Spa' in the Georgian era, after its mineral-rich waters were discovered in the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the chalybeate waters (containing iron) were a popular health treatment, and the influx of wealthy, but sickly, visitors contributed significantly to the wealth of the town.

With the country in the grip of 'railway mania' in the 1840s Harrogate was an obvious target for railway entrepreneurs who were eager to cash in on the town’s popularity, with its wealthy clientele able to pay high fares.  In Harrogate local townsfolk and businesses initially opposed the railway, fearing that an influx of people from Leeds and Bradford would lower the tone of the area; but this opposition was overcome. It was going to be a race to see who would be first to reach the town.
 
The Great North of England Railway (GNER) made the first proposal. Having opened their main line between York and Darlington in 1841 they proposed a branch from Pilmoor, 16 miles north of York, to Harrogate via Boroughbridge and Ripon.

The final player was the Leeds & Thirsk Railway (L &TR) who had an ambitious scheme for a new main line linking the industrial regions around Leeds with the north-east. George Hudson had an interest in this scheme as well.

George Hudson was clearly keen to increase the size of his empire, and by 1845 he had taken a lease on the GNER, and he immediately withdrew the Pilmoor - Harrogate proposal to leave the way clear for the two other routes.

The initial service was five trains per day in each direction with no trains on Sunday. Within two years this had been reduced to three trains each day, probably owing to the opening of the Leeds & Thirsk Railway just five weeks later on 1 September 1848; their station was 1¾ miles to the east at Starbeck.  When completed in July 1849, this line provided a more direct route to Leeds without the need to change at Church Fenton.  The L&TR had planned to extend their line into Harrogate, but this had to be shelved because of the higher than expected cost of completing their line between Leeds and Starbeck.

In an attempt to prevent competitors from encroaching on its territory, a direct Leeds to York railway was promoted by George Hudson through the Y&NMR. The construction of the line was authorised in 1846 and was to run from Copmanthorpe on the outskirts of York to Cross Gates, several miles east of Leeds, joining the Church Fenton to Harrogate line between Tadcaster and Stutton.

The L&TR was renamed the Leeds Northern Railway in 1851, and it was joined by the East and West Yorkshire Junction Railway from York at Knaresborough, east of Harrogate. In 1854 the York & North Midland Railway amalgamated with the Leeds Northern Railway and the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway to form the North Eastern Railway (NER) which brought control of all the railways in the region under one company.  The fledgling NER was quick to improve the railway layout around Harrogate.

The NER built a spur from the former L&TR line at Pannal to join the Y & NMR line west of Prospect Tunnel. Just short of Brunswick Tunnel another new line was built to join the line from Starbeck enabling trains to run into a new central station which opened on 1 August 1862. Brunswick station was closed; initially it was retained for goods traffic, but this was short-lived.  By 1880 the service between Harrogate and Church Fenton was restored to five trains per day. 

The North Eastern Railway soon had plans for other new lines in the region. One of the most ambitious was for a direct route between Leeds and Scarborough by-passing York.  For much of its route it would utilise existing lines, but it included new construction from Cross Gates to a junction with the Church Fenton - Harrogate line at Wetherby. On 5 May 1866 The York Herald reported that the Leeds - Wetherby Railway Bill had been put before the Select Committee of the House of Commons for a single line to run from the Leeds and Selby branch, near Cross Gates, to the Church Fenton and Harrogate Branch at Wetherby - a length of 10 miles 66 chains. New capital to be raised was £210,000, with borrowing power of £70,000. The work was to be completed in five years, under penalty. Tenders for the project were invited in November 1871 and seven firms responded with bids.

The Leeds to Scarborough line was eventually abandoned owing to the economic downturn, although some sections were completed including the Cross Gates - Wetherby line which opened on 1 May 1876 with intermediate stations at Scholes, Thorner, Bardsey and Collingham Bridge.  The junction at Wetherby faced Church Fenton so it was not possible to run trains into Harrogate. This was rectified in 1901 when the line was doubled and a new curve facing Harrogate was built at Wetherby.

Cross Gates - Harrogate now became an important alternative route to the L&TR which was used increasingly by goods traffic and by the recently introduced Liverpool to Newcastle passenger expresses, which we now able to avoid a reversal at Leeds. As this route by-passed Wetherby station, which was sited to the east of the town, a new Wetherby station opened on 1 July 1902 at the south end of the new triangular junction, with the old station being retained for goods.

In 1902 the Great Northern Railway started running express services from Kings Cross to Harrogate via the Church Fenton to Harrogate line, with three daily trains in each direction. These continued after the grouping in 1923 and included the prestigious 'Harrogate Pullman'.  Although the Cross Gates to Harrogate line was always considered the major route, the August 1906 timetable shows a good service on both lines with a mixture of stopping and express services. Express trains from London over the Church Fenton - Wetherby line had stopped running by 1947. 

Wetherby racecourse opened in 1891, and an untimetabed station was opened c1924 to serve it.  This was last used on 18 May 1959, but racecourse specials continued to run to Wetherby station from Bradford Exchange on race days until 1963. A new station called Penda's Way, between Scholes and Cross Gates, was opened on 5 June 1939 to serve the growing residential development in that area.

In March 1940, additional traffic came to the Church Fenton to Wetherby line when a Royal Ordnance Factory was opened at Thorp Arch just to the north of the station. It was constructed for the Ministry of Supply and built on a 450 acre site. It took 18 months to build and cost £5.9 million. Thorp Arch was considered to be an ideal site, away from the large centres of population, possessing a reliable water supply, good rail links and proximity to the A1 trunk road. Workers were brought in from Leeds, Selby, York and all surrounding areas. 10,000 people, mainly women, were employed there at the height of production, and it is believed to have had 619 buildings. In World War II it produced light and medium gun ammunition, heavy ammunition, mines and trench mortar ammunition for the Army; medium and large bombs for the RAF; and 20mm and other small arms ammunition for all three services.

ROF Thorpe Arch closed twice: once after World War II and then finally after the Korean War in April 1958. Once production had halted, the site was gradually de-contaminated. In the early 1960s George Moore, a local businessman, bought most of the site and the development of the area as a trading estate began. The estate was later owned by Thorp Arch Limited Partnership, but is now known as Thorp Arch Estate and is owned by the trustees of Hanover Property Unit Trust. It comprises an area of over 100 businesses, including the Thorp Arch Retail Park. The most notable addition to the estate is the Northern Reading Room, Northern Listening Service and Document Supply Centre of the British Library, occupying what was the locomotive shed and engineering department. Another part is a prison, originally HMP Thorp Arch, now HMP Wealstun.

Whereas the route between Cross Gates and Harrogate maintained a reasonably frequent weekday service the train frequency via Tadcaster was drastically reduced after WWII. The winter 1937-8 LNER timetable showed 7 trains from Church Fenton to Leeds via Tadcaster on Monday to Friday in each direction, whilst there were twice as many between Leeds, Wetherby and Harrogate. No trains ran on Sunday. The first British Railways (North Eastern Region) timetable of summer 1948 had only three Monday-Friday trains via Tadcaster, but five on Saturday.  In summer 1950 only three trains to Leeds and two to Church Fenton were shown. By 1961 there was only one local morning train between Church Fenton and Leeds via Wetherby, and another, also in the morning, from Leeds to Tadcaster, which ran only as far as Thorp Arch on Saturday. No passenger service was shown from Tadcaster to Church Fenton. By 1963 only the 7.44 am departure from Church Fenton to Leeds was shown in the public timetable, the train actually having run from Leeds via Garforth. It is likely that its principal role was to carry parcels. In 1961 there were four trains between Harrogate and Leeds in each direction, with two additional trains between Wetherby and Leeds and one in the opposite direction. Long distance traffic between Leeds and Newcastle had continued to use the line, but this ended with the completion of the quadrupling of the East Coast main line in 1959. The earlier twenty freight trains between Harrogate and Wetherby (in each direction) had fallen to five by 1960.

Given that all stations were manned, together with sixteen signal boxes and three manually
operated level crossings (requiring 35 staff in total), and the number of steep gradients requiring the use of banking engines, it is of little surprise that it was considered uneconomical. At Wetherby station alone, 14 staff were employed attending to the needs of only 30 passengers per day. The economics of the Wetherby lines were, in fact, worse than the cautionary examples given in Beeching's report. It had a yearly operating cost of £57,000 compared to receipts of £9,000, though some argue that the Wetherby to Leeds route could have been made profitable with some adjustments. Local freight now consisted largely of house coal, the use of which was declining.

A notable headline at the time read 'First lamb to the Beeching slaughter', cheerfully further stating 'No regular passengers object at inquiry’, which was the case, but only for the Wetherby - Church Fenton line. It was also inaccurate in that the Newcastle – Washington service, earmarked by Beeching, had closed the previous September!  A decision was reached on 24 October 1963, the inquiry having taken just three months, with both lines closing to passengers from  6 January 1964. The original Wetherby station remained open for goods traffic until 4 April 1966.  The only section of the original route to remain open is the short section of line from the Crimple Viaduct (where the spur from Pannal joined the Church Fenton route to the junction with the line to the former Brunswick terminus. This section is used today by the frequent Leeds – Harrogate – Knaresborough – York services. A new station called Hornbeam Park opened just south of this junction on 24 August 1992.

The track was lifted in 1966. Some parts of the former railway tracks between Wetherby and Leeds have been used for housing development at Bardsey and Collingham Bridge. Sustrans National Cycle Network routes 66 and 67 use some of the remaining trackbed. This line is walkable from Cross Gates to a point south of Collingham where a landowner refuses access to a short section of the line. At Scholes muddy conditions are encountered, but this soon gives way to a grassy embankment with lots of sandstone bridges in situ. The most impressive stretch is just north of Thorner where the line passes through a very deep, narrow cutting with the Seacroft road soaring above on a high brick bridge. At Collingham the road bridge must be used to cross the Wharfe, but from the north bank a footpath follows the embankment, sandwiched between a golf course and the river, into Wetherby. A public footpath and cycleway follows the trackbed from the A1 (M) to Thorp Arch station and from Wetherby to Stofforth - this section of the path is known as Harland Way..

Click here to see Church Fenton to Harrogate gradients.

Tickets from Michael Stewart. Bradshaw and BR timetable from Chris Totty. Route map drawn by Alan Young.

Thanks to Martin Bairstow (author/publisher), Peter Tuffrey (author) and the Wetherby Historical Trust who supplied many of the photos used in this feature.

Sources:

• Railway Memories No 24 - Harrogate & Wetherby by Stephen Chapman (Bellcode Books 2011)
• Railways around Harrogate, Volume 3 by Martin Bairstow (Martin Bairstow 1998)
• Lost Railways of North & East Yorkshire by Gordon Suggitt (Countryside Books 2006)

To see other stations on the Harrogate - Church Fenton line
click on the station name:
Harrogate Brunswick, Hornbeam Park, Crimple, Spofforth, Wetherby (1st site), Wetherby Racecourse, Thorp Arch, Newton Kyme,
Tadcaster & Stutton
See also River Platform, Ranges Platform, Roman Road Platform &
Walton Platform on the ROF Thorp Arch Militery Railway.
Special feature: Royal Ordnance Factory 8 - Thorp Arch

To see stations on the Cross Gates - Wetherby line click on the station name: Cross Gates, Penda's Way, Scholes, Thorner, Bardsey, Collingham Bridge and Wetherby (2nd site)