Station Name: CHURCH FENTON
Station still open but included for completeness

[Source: Nick Catford]

Date opened:

Probably 30 May 1839

Location: North side of Station Road
Company on opening: York & North Midland Railway
Date closed to passengers: Still open
Date closed completely: Still open
Company on closing: Still open
Present state: Still open. The main station building from the second Church Fenton station still stands in private occupation immediately west of the tracks to the north of the present station. The entrance building to the present station at road level is now used by the Sunar Bangla restaurant and take-away. In the booking lobby, through which the platforms are reached, the booking office window is still in place.
County: Yorkshire
OS Grid Ref: SE509370
Date of visit: 26 April 2013

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.

Further development of the station took place in 1869, when a 5-mile link was opened by the North Eastern Railway from Church Fenton to Micklefield on the former Leeds & Selby Railway to create a new main line between Leeds and York. The NER had, for some time prior to this, been looking to shorten the previous, indirect route between the two cities via Castleford, but plans to build a direct line via Tadcaster had come to nothing and so this alternative route was chosen. The station lost its ECML status in 1871 when the new direct line from York to Doncaster via Selby was opened, but trains from London to Harrogate continued to stop, and yet another addition to the list of routes serving the station came in 1879 when the Swinton & Knottingley Joint Railway - via Pontefract Baghill and Ferrybridge - was opened.

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.

Today the station remains busy, even though the Harrogate line fell victim to the Beeching Axe in January 1964 and passenger trains towards Castleford ended six years later. The Leeds to York line carries a frequent passenger service (including CrossCountry and First TransPennine Express services) whilst the line towards Sherburn-in-Elmet, Milford Junction and thence to Knottingley, Castleford and Pontefract carries large quantities of freight. Only certain trains on the Northern Rail-operated Leeds to York, Dearne Valley and Hull to York routes actually call at the station's four platform faces; it is possible that the imminent closure of RAF Church Fenton might result in fewer trains calling, given the limited traffic offered by the village itself. The track through the west side of the west island has been lifted.

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 York & North Midland Railway (Y&NMR) opened in 1839, connecting York with the Leeds & Selby Railway and, in 1840, with the North Midland Railway at Normanton near Leeds. The line was largely financed by ‘Railway King’ George Hudson who invested a substantial inheritance in the North Midland, becoming a director. He then took an active part in the promotion of the route and commissioned George Stephenson to construct the line. Having completed the York line, George Hudson then turned his attention to Harrogate, proposing a branch to the town from a junction with the Y & NM at Church Fenton, ten miles south of York.

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 Y&NMR obtained their Act for the Church Fenton - Harrogate line in 1845, and the eighteen-mile route was staked out in September of that year. It was opened in two stages, with the first 13-mile section between Church Fenton and a temporary terminus at Spofforth opening on 10 August 1847. There were intermediate stations at Stutton, Tadcaster, Newton being conveyed the last five miles into Harrogate by horse-drawn omnibus. The only engineering feature of note was a two-span iron girder bridge over the River Wharfe between Newton Kyme and Thorp Arch.

The shorter five-mile section between Spofforth and Harrogate took a further year to complete owing to much more difficult terrain, with a gradient of 1 in 36 taking the line up to the unusually narrow 825yd Prospect Tunnel in which trains were not permitted to pass; then 300yd from the tunnel portal, the line crossed the 624yd, 31-arch, Crimple Viaduct which towered 110ft above the valley floor at its highest point.  Beyond the viaduct the line went through the 400yd Brunswick Tunnel before entering the terminus at Harrogate Brunswick. (This was the official name of the station, although in timetables it was shown only as Harrogate). The extension to Harrogate opened, without prior announcement or ceremony, on 20 July 1848. 

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.

In 1849 George Hudson was forced to resign as chairman of the York & North Midland Railway following his involvement in dubious business activities. The collapse of railway investment in 1849 resulted in the abandonment of the project, but a ten-arch stone viaduct over the River Wharfe at Tadcaster had already been constructed. The need for the line evaporated with the opening of the Micklethorpe to Church Fenton line in 1869 although the viaduct did eventually see rail traffic in the form of a siding serving a flour mill on the east side of the river. The siding closed in 1955. The viaduct is Grade II listed and is owned by Tadcaster Town Council; it now carries a public footpath and cycleway.

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.

It was linked to the London & North Eastern Railway, which was used in its construction, for supplying raw materials and for transporting away filled munitions. The factory was served by a 6½-mile single-track circular railway with four platforms for munitions workers: these were named River, Ranges, Roman Road and Walton. Special workmen's trains ran from Leeds and Bradford Exchange and from as far afield as Hull and Doncaster on Monday to Saturday calling at the four halts. The last passenger traffic was in 1957 when the five unadvertised trains were withdrawn.

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.


In 1961 the recently introduced diesel service between Liverpool and Newcastle was switched from the Arthington route bringing new traffic to the Wetherby line. Although this route was slower it avoided a reversal at Leeds.  This renewed importance could not however save the lines. At the time of the Beeching enquiry, there was a maximum of eight passengers on the one train a day between Church Fenton and Leeds via Wetherby, with no regular passengers. There were a few more passengers on the Leeds to Wetherby route but competition from an improving bus service
eventually made passenger numbers unsustainable despite the increase in the number of commuters living in Wetherby. Stations had received minimal investment since Nationalisation, amounting to little more than painting the nameboards in BR(NE) tangerine and installing totem name signs at Wetherby.

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.

In the late 1960s, it was evident that Wetherby was going to grow. In 1965 it was estimated that by 1981 the town's population would double to 12,000 and this estimate proved quite accurate.
There were ambitious plans to relieve growing congestion through the town centre and on the A58 and A661 by converting the disused railways into relief roads. These suggestions never came to fruition. In Railways around Harrogate, Volume 3 (1998) Martin Bairstow presents a compelling case, headed ‘A lost commuter route?’ for the restoration of passenger services between Leeds and Wetherby. He also remarks that the dieselisation of the service in January 1959 could have increased the use of the trains, but without improved frequency of trains that some neighbouring lines enjoyed, there was really no incentive to use them.

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:

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)


Looking north towards Church Fenton station from Station Road bridge c1904, shortly after the station was re-sited. The previous station building is seen in the distance to the left of the track. The ‘Railway Hotel’ is seen on the far left.
Copyright photo from John Alsop collection

1849 1:2,500 OS map. The station was originally sited at the level crossing. When the Harrogate line opened in 1848 the station was re-sited to the north.

1892 1:2,500 OS map shows that the station now has an island and two side platforms spanned by a footbridge at the south end. The main station building is on the west side platform; the east side platform has a small waiting room. Wide canopies, or a trainshed, span the west side platform and the island. A saw mill and gas works to the north of the station both have private sidings. The goods yard is seen between the station and the road bridge on the west side of the line; it has three sidings. Two signal boxes are shown, one on the south side of the level crossing and the other north of the station, between the tracks. The engine shed is at the top, to the right of the saw mill.

1908 1:2,500 OS map shows the station after re-siting to the south in 1904. There are now five platform faces, with the main station building sited at the east end of the road bridge that has replaced the level crossing. The earlier L-shaped station building is still seen to the north. The station has a new goods yard to the south of the road bridge. Both of the signal boxes seen on the 1892 map have been replaced with new boxes: one is seen on the up side at the top of the map; the other is on the down side off the bottom of the map.

Church Fenton station looking south from the island platform c1906. This NER 2-4-2T was built to a Wilson Worsdell design between 1886 and 1892. 420 was one of 60 locos built, they were designated Class A by the NER later changing to F8 classification under the LNER. Withdrawals started in 1928, and the last was withdrawn in 1938; none are preserved.
Copyright photo from John Alsop collection

Church Fenton station looking south from the west island c1908. At that time the platform canopies were of the same length The central island remained much the same until all of the platform buildings and canopies were removed in 1990; by that time the canopies on the outer platforms had been substantially shortened.
Copyright photo from John Alsop collection

The second station building still survives alongside the westernmost track to the north of the present station. The building was designed by G T Andrews and, as with many if his stations, there is a bay window in the stationmaster's office to allow him to look both ways along the platform.
Photo by Alan Lewis from his Flickr photostream

Church Fenton station looking south at the central island platform in February 1979. The buildings remained largely unaltered until 1990.
Photo by Alan Lewis from his Flickr photostream

Church Fenton station looking north from Station Road bridge in 1980. Note the long, sloping timber ramps that were initially used instead of steps from the footbridge.
Copyright photo from Stations UK

Church Fenton station looking north from the footbridge in April 1985, shortly after the ramps were replaced with wide steps. The canopies on either side of the central island have been shortened. The main building of the second Church Fenton station is seen in the distance.
Photo by Alan Young

The distinctive street level building at Church Fenton in April 1985. Today it remains largely unaltered, though the boarding in place of the glazed façade has marred its appearance.
Photo by Alan Young

Church Fenton looking north from Station Road bridge in June 1988. The up express from York is bound for the Sheffield line, headed by Class 31 No. 31441 piloting Class 47 No. 47448.
Photo by Ben Brooksbank

Church Fenton station looking north from the footbridge in January 1990. The canopy on the side platform to the right has already been removed and replaced with a bus shelter. The remaining platform buildings would all be demolished later in this year.
Photo from Peter Tuffrey collection

Church Fenton station looking north from the footbridge in November 2012. A three-car Class 185 'Desiro' DMU 185 142 speeds through on the centre road whilst forming the 08.50 Middlesbrough-Manchester Airport service. The building in the background is the main station building from the second Church Fenton station. It was designed by YNMR architect G T Andrews.
Photo by Andrew Gallon, from his Flickr photostream

GT Andrews main station building for the second Church Fenton station still stands beside the track to the north of the present station. This view from April 2013 shows that externally the building remains unaltered. Andrews' trademark bay window allowing the stationmaster to look both ways along the platform is seen.
Photo by Alan Young

Click here for more pictures of Church Fenton station

 

 

 

[Source: Nick Catford]


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