Notes: This station opened with the line on 1 July 1847 and, despite its rural location with limited local population to enjoy it, a fine sandstone ashlar building was provided, and it was one of the more expensive of the minor stations, costing £1,281 to build; by comparison Stannington (Netherton) cost £1,200, and Killingworth £1,129, whilst Warkworth was a more ambitious outlay at £1,649.

Standing on the down platform the structure contained two distinct houses, one for the stationmaster and the other for the porter, linked by a single-storey office range with an enclosed verandah in front. The northern section projected towards the platform and had a two-storey bay. The usual decorative stone ball finials were in evidence on the gables. The up platform had a more modest waiting shed with a pent roof, and it was also enlivened with ball finials. Two goods sidings were located south of the station, east of the tracks with trailing junctions from the up line; one of them served a lime depot. A further siding, added by 1897, was also south of the passenger platforms and branched northwards from the down track. The signal box was erected in 1873.

In May 1849 Reid’s Monthly Time Table showed the following service:

The East Coast main line through Northumberland was not seen primarily as catering for local needs and its route sought gentle gradients rather than centres of population; consequently many of the roadside stations were inconveniently sited for the settlements that they claimed to serve. Longhirst was no exception, the small village being a mile west of the station. However by the 1860s a colliery was operating a short distance south of the station with some miners’ terraced cottages close by. The colliery’s output was limited, and by the 1920s some of the cottages had been demolished. The North Eastern Railway timetable, below, for October 1912 shows a generous, though irregular service:

# signifies a limited-stop service

The Railway Clearing House Handbook of 1904 noted that Longhirst station was equipped with a one-ton capacity crane and that the normal range of goods traffic could be handled: this included furniture vans, carriages, portable engines and machines on wheels; livestock; horse boxes and prize cattle vans; and carriages by passenger train. Ashington Junction and Longhirst Hall Colliery are also recorded under the Longhirst station entry. In 1911 the station served a local population of 1,022 and 11,083 tickets were issued. Goods traffic two years later was principally barley and livestock, and coal would also be dispatched by the nearby pit.

At the ‘Grouping’ in 1923 Longhirst came under London & North Eastern Railway administration, and little changed at the station. Oil lighting was retained, but the company’s wooden running-in nameboards with relief lettering were installed. The winter 1937-38 LNER timetable (below) shows that the frequency of train departures had decreased markedly since NER days. The local population would have declined with the run-down of the nearby colliery and its closure in 1934. (click here to see surviving colliery buildings)

# signifies a limited stop service

Longhirst was administered by British Railways’ North Eastern Region from January 1948, but the station’s passenger traffic had diminished to the point that closure was inevitable, and this took place on 29 October 1951. The final timetable, effective from 10 September consisted of one daily departure to Newcastle, at 10.59am on weekdays and 6.01pm on Sunday, and three weekday down departures at 8.15am (to Berwick) and at 2.10 and 10.54 pm (to Alnwick).

The platforms were demolished in March 1957 but the station continued to handle goods traffic until 10 August 1964. The up side waiting shelter has gone, but the main station building is in use as semi-detached residences and can still be admired from passing trains. The level crossing gates were replaced with barriers in October 1975. The signal box was reduced to a gate box, released by Morpeth, in January 1977 and it closed in January 1979, its base being retained as a relay room. In April 2015 the station building was for sale with a guide price of £350,000.

Click here for a brief history of the East Coast Main Line
in Northumberland.

Route maps drawn by Alan Young. Tickets from Michael Stewart

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)
• Biddle, Gordon Britain’s historic railway buildings (Oxford University Press, 2003)
• 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)
• Quick, Michael   Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (RCTS 2009)
• Clinker, C R   Clinker’s register of closed passenger stations and goods depots  (Avon Anglia 1978)
  

See other ECML stations :Tweedmouth, Scremerston, Goswick, Beal, Smeafield, Crag Mill, Belford, Lucker,
Newham, Fallodon, Little Mill, Christon Bank, Longhougthton, Lesbury, Warkworth, Ashington Colliery Junction, Morpeth, Stannington, Plessey, Annitsford (1st), Annitsford (2nd),, Killingworth, Forest Hall, Heaton (2nd), Heaton (1st), Durham, Croft Spa, Eryholme, Otterington, Alne & Tollerton