Station Name: THORNTON-IN-CRAVENThornton-in-Craven Station Gallery 2:  Thornton-in-Craven station looking north-east on 18 March 1965. Having somehow survived a closure proposal in 1959, Beeching included it on his list of threatened stations in 1963. At the time of this photograph British Rail has just launched its modern corporate image, but it has not reached this station, and never would. The LMS nameboard frame is empty but the sign can be glimpsed on the platform beneath it. The lamp standards are decapitated, so’ pity help’ the passengers alighting in hours of darkness. It is indistinct, but there appears to be one lamp beside the hut where the man is standing. Despite appearances to the contrary the station is still staffed: could this be the stationmaster?
Photo by Peter E Baughan courtesy of Martin Bairstow 
On 13 April 1968 Thornton-in-Craven station is still clinging to life. In the previous year the Skipton-Colne line was promised a bright future as the only passenger railway to Skipton included in the ‘Network for Development’ plan, but the threat of closure still hung over Thornton-in-Craven. This view is looking north from the level crossing and only the nameboard, which just appears far left, is evidence that the station might still be open.
Photo by Peter E Baughan courtesy of Martin Bairstow
The line through Thornton-in-Craven station closed in February 1970 and the tracks were soon lifted. In this view looking north-east in 1973 the station building has been removed leaving only a lamp standard on the up platform, and both platforms are being invaded by vegetation: a process that was already underway before the station closed.
Photo from John Mann collection 
Looking south-west at Thornton-in-Craven station in July 1974, 4½ years after it closed. There are no buildings on the platforms, only a lonely lamp standard. Both platforms have lost some of their edge stones. Ballast is still present on the trackbed. The stationmaster’s house is seen far right.
Photo by John Mann  Thornton-in-Craven station looking north-east from the former level crossing in July 1974. No buildings remain on the platforms and the up platform (left) has been stripped of its edge stones and some of the facing stones.
Photo by John Mann 
Looking south-west at the disused Thornton-in-Craven station in April 1976. The trackbed is relatively free of vegetation and retains its ballast, six years after the railway closed, but the station which closed at the same time is in an advanced state of decay. The platforms are collapsing where the edge stones have been removed. One solitary lamp standard has survived. The stationmaster’s house (far right) remains in residential use.
Photo
by Alan Young
The disused station at Thornton-in-Craven looking north-east in June 1984. The down platform has survived better than its neighbour, thanks to retaining its edge stones at the south-western end, but it has been overwhelmed by vegetation. The former level crossing is in the foreground.
Photo by Neil Clifton 
Looking south at Thornton-in-Craven station in May 2008. Part of the down platform (left foreground) has survived, whilst the front of the up platform has disintegrated. The former station house in its extended form can be glimpsed, far right.
Photo by Andrew Boden from his Flickr photostream  Looking north-east at Thornton-in-Craven station in December 2008. The down platform (right) is still intact, albeit somewhat overgrown, but there are only degraded remains of the up platform.
Photo by Mark Bartlett 
In September 2010 the former station house at Thornton-in-Craven has been rebuilt on a much larger scale and its appearance is vastly improved; it looks authentically Victorian. The view is north-westward over the site of the up platform.
Photo by Alan Young 
Thornton-in-Craven station looking north-east in September 2010. The down platform (right) is intact, albeit somewhat overgrown, but the up platform has largely disintegrated.
Photo by Alan Young 
The greatly extended stationmaster’s house at Thornton-in-Craven, looking north-west in August 2016. In the foreground one solitary lamp standard has survived on the remains of the up platform.
Photo by Alan Young 
One solitary lamp standard has survived on the remains of the up platform at Thornton-in-Craven station. The base of the column still carries the name ‘Midland Railway’, the company that operated the station until the Grouping of January 1923.
Photo by Alan Young
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