Recent articles

  • Blind Peter Barker

    Remembering Hampsthwaite’s Blind Joiner - an article by Shaun WilsonLike the market town of Knaresborough, who had ‘Blind Jack’ – John Metcalf, the road builder of Yorkshire in the eighteenth century, the small rural village of Hampsthwaite had it’s blind hero also, almost a century later – Peter Barker who became known as ‘The Blind Joiner of Hampsthwaite.’ Though there are some similarities between John Metcalf and Peter Barker’s lives, these are purely co-incidental and each fulfilled a life, character and career in their own right.
  • Jane Ridsdale

    JANE RIDSDALEAged 33 years, born at Hampsthwaite, near Harrogate, Yorkshire, her height is 31 ½ inches.She is remarkably chearfull & enjoys very good health.Published July 1st 1807 by Jane Ridstale, at Harrogate where purchasers of this Print will have the opportunity of seeing and conversing with her
  • Joshua Tetley

    Joshua Tetley was the founder of Tetley’s Brewery in Leeds, and he retired with his wife Hannah to Hollins Hall on the outskirts of Hampsthwaite (Hollins Hall Retirement Village).
  • The Execution of Hannah Whitley

    Arsenic Poisoning in Hampsthwaite - The Execution of Hannah Whitley In 1789, Hannah Whitley of Hampsthwaite used a pie as the delivery medium for a fatal dose of arsenic, with the poison concentrated in the crust. She claimed She had been coerced into the act of poisoning by her employer, a local linen weaver named Horseman, who was involved in an on-going feud with the intended victim.
  • Scrubbers and Stones

    SCRUBBERS & STONES - Sat 29th June 10.30am - 2.30pm - Entry FREE! Explore the Memorials at St Thomas a'Becket Memorials Treasure Trail - for children if all ages Self-Service / Self-Checkout BBQ from 12 noon (inc. veg option) Food £2, Drink £1, Donations? - yes please! Hot & Cold Drinks Laptop & Screen to show Mapping Hampsthwaite’s Past Use a Bucket & Brush to help reveal Inscriptions on the older memorials . . . or just Sit & Enjoy CORPUS CHRISTI BRASS BAND . . . from 11.30am . . . followed by Afternoon Tea & Cakes at the Memorial Hall!
  • Hampsthwaite Open Gardens

     Hampsthwaite Open Gardens - Sat 29th June 12.30am - 5.00pm - Entry £5.00 (accompanied under 15's FREE) Tickets on the day from Hampsthwaite Memorial Hall Plant sales - many named varieties of plants Delicious homemade refreshments Afternoon tea and cakes served from 12.30pm at the Memorial Hall
  • Genealogy Websites

    Free genealogy websites will help you start your family history research at no cost as listed by the 'Who Do You Think You Are' magazine.
  • Kitchen Refurbishment

    Memorial Hall kitchen is now completely, and expertly, refurbished by Neil,Batty Builders Ltd as a result of a grant awarded by the National Lottery's 'Reaching Communities' fund.See also the equivalent
  • Amy Woodforde-Finden

    A highly successful composer of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, Amy Woodforde-Finden, together with her husband and step-son, is laid to rest in the churchyard of St Thomas à Becket Parish Church. Inside the church there is an impressive marble monument of her, created by the renowned sculptor George Edward  Wade. It was unveiled in 1923 and a few years later, Finden Gardens in Hampsthwaite was named in her honour.[Click on title or image to link to articles]
  • Amy Woodforde-Finden Centenary Events (2)

    Amy Woodforde-Finden : 'An Evening with Amy'A centenary concert to celebrate the life and works of Amy was held in Hampsthwaite Memorial Hall on April 21st 2023 Click on images to open full-size in new window and use the Browser back arrow to return to here.  
RSS Feed of this page

Station House (the old station)

Link to 399

(click photo to enlarge)

Link to http://archive.hampsthwaite.org.uk/history/images/1000/004.jpg

Looking north from the river bridge it is possible, even today, to see the route of the railway which passed through Hampsthwaite on its way to Pateley Bridge before the line was closed in the 1950s.

As the road (Station Lane) winds it way up from the river and towards Clint it bends sharply right as it passes on its left the remains of the old railway embankment and railway bridge.

Link to http://archive.hampsthwaite.org.uk/history/images/1000/002.jpg

The embankment is clearly visible as it heads west but to the east the ground has been levelled somewhat and the land on that side of the road gives no immediate clue as to its former use.

Link to http://archive.hampsthwaite.org.uk/history/images/1000/003.jpg

However, over to the east can be seen the station building now converted to a dwellinghouse as seen in the first photograph above.

The railway line opened in 1862 and carried both passengers and freight. Hampsthwaite station was opened in 1866 but was the first of the branch line's stations (the others were Ripley, Birstwith, Darley, Dacre and Pateley Bridge) to close - in 1950.

In the following photograph we see a view of the station probably taken when the line had been closed to passenger traffic but when freight was still being carried (1951-1964).

Link to http://archive.hampsthwaite.org.uk/history/images/1000/Station002.jpg

In the next photograph we see one of the station masters, Harry Robinson, standing on the platform which still remains and can be glimpsed in the photograph of the modern house at top of page.

 Station Master Harry Robinson

Shown below is a similar view of the same platform taken in 2010 . . .

Link to http://archive.hampsthwaite.org.uk/history/images/1000/StationHouse005.jpg
By kind permission of Colin Waite the following edited extract from his book “Reflections of Killinghall” is reproduced here

[It was the 1st of May 1862 when the single line railway connecting Nidd with Pateley Bridge was opened for traffic.

The first sod in the construction of the line had been cut by Sir Henry Ingleby of Ripley Castle at Killinghall Bridge in September 1860.

Sir Henry, along with two other prominent Nidderdale landowners, the Greenwoods and the Yorkes, was a member of the branch line’s management committee. Other members of the committee represented the dale’s economic interests in lead mining and flax spinning.

It was due mainly to the enthusiasm and determination of one of the flax mill owners, George Metcalfe junior, from Glasshouses, that the Nidd to Pateley Bridge line was opened at all. George’s father, John, had become a director of the Leeds-Thirsk Railway Company, which had opened in 1848, on the understanding that it would operate a branch line from Nidd Bridge to Pateley, a project envisaged as early as 1845. But the company, which was eager to extend its main line from Thirsk to Stockton and Hartlepool, postponed the construction of the Pateley branch.

At a meeting of shareholders in August 1851, the directors were criticised so strongly by George Metcalfe for their failure to start the proposed line that the chairman demanded a public apology. Not that George’s words fell on deaf ears because the chairman also promised the meeting that the company would start the line as soon as they had completed the Teesside extension. But a year later brought a change of heart as the directors reported they had doubts about the commercial viability of building the branch line. George Metcalfe’s reaction was to look elsewhere for support and when the North Eastern Railway Company was formed, by the amalgamation of several lines in 1854, he led a deputation to put a positive case for the Pateley Bridge branch line. The board agreed in principle to the proposal but nothing happened for another four years. Finally, probably in desperation, Nidderdale people agreed to raise half the capital required, in the form of £40,000 of North Eastern preference stock with a guaranteed four per cent interest, and work finally began on the branch line fifteen years after it was first envisaged. Not surprisingly, George Metcalfe junior was chaired by an enthusiastic crowd at the 1862 opening ceremony of what was called the Nidd Valley Line, when his dream of bringing rail transport to Nidderdale became a reality.

Built on the northern side of the River Nidd to follow its course from Pateley Bridge to Killinghall, work started on the single branch line at Nidd, on the former Leeds Northern Line between Harrogate and Ripon . . . . .

 . . . . .When finished, the line consisted of  11½  miles of track and cost £8,000 a mile to construct. Local historian William Grainge was one of the early passengers and he forecast that the railway would, “open out a new district to the tourist and the health seeker, where they may roam at leasure amid the wildest mountain glens, and imbibe health and strength from the purest mountain breezes, receiving a welcome from people at once hospitable and independent” . . . . .

 . . . . . In its early days the Nidd Valley Line ran four trains in each direction. Those leaving Harrogate departed at 9.30am,12noon,4.20pm, and 8.50pm and returned from Pateley Bridge at 7.45am, 10.30am, 3.00pm and 5.15pm. The opening notice clearly shows that the trains took only ten minutes to reach Killinghall from Harrogate, and 28 minutes to reach Killinghall from Pateley Bridge. Trains connected in Harrogate to offer services to Ripon, Thirsk, Leeds and York . . . . .

 . . . . . One destination that was important to most people in the area was Knaresborough, particularly on market days,  which were opportunities to trade and stock up with provisions. To meet this demand the Nidd Valley Line ran two trains every Wednesday in both directions between Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge via Starbeck Junction. No trains ran at all on the line on Sundays.

By 1874, twelve years after its official opening, there was a slight change to the line’s timetable because the first train from Harrogate at 8.55am connected with the 8.20am Thirsk to Leeds service, which by-passed Harrogate by using Starbeck Junction, north of the junction for the Pateley Bridge line.

Over the years the train service increased to six trains each way per day and by 1923 there were seven trains travelling each way on a daily basis.

All this apparent progress was to come to a halt 28 years later when all the stations on the branch line were closed to passenger traffic on the 2nd of April 1951. Goods traffic did continue, but only until the next decade. (In 1964) . . . the line itself stopped operating a goods traffic service completely.

In 1965, a hundred years after Grainge had promoted the “more ready access given to the ‘great world’ by the recently opened railway”, local people witnessed the sorry sight of the track being taken up.

Today all that remains of George Metcalfe junior’s dream of a new era of commercial prosperity for Nidderdale are the still familiar outlines of the embankments and tunnels along the route from Nidd to Pateley Bridge.]

******

According to the 1871 census the stationmaster was Thomas Chandler aged 34 and he shared the house with his wife Matilda (30) and their four sons Thomas (11), Charles (6), Christopher (4) and George A. (2). Both Christopher and George were said to have been born in Clint (the parish in which Station House actually stands) so, presumably, the family had been in occupation since 1867 or earlier which suggests that Thomas senior was the first stationmaster for Hampsthwaite. By the time of the 1881 census Thomas and his family had moved to Leeds where Thomas was employed as an "agent" and his son Christopher (14!) as a railway porter.

The station-master shown above is identified by his great-grandson who writes to us to say:

"I may be able to help with at least one family who lived at Station House as station master. I also believe that the picture that you have of a station master standing on the platform is Harry Robinson who lived with his wife Maggie at the station until his death on 30th March 1957. He is buried in Hampsthwaite Parish Church. His wife Maggie (nee Winspear) continued to live in the station until the late 1960’s.

At the time of her death, the station had no running water, water being drawn from a hand pump in the kitchen/scullery. All of her cooking was done on an old fashioned range in the backroom of the station.

Their son, William Henry lived in Hyde Terrace with Violet (nee Young) and their two children, Jean and Ian. At the time the houses in Hyde Terrace had no toilets, an earth closet being used, which was at the far end of the houses."

[Michael Entecott, Great Grandson of Harry and Maggie Robinson]

Who the remaining stationmasters at Hampsthwaite were has yet to be established.

Following the closure of the station, the building was converted into a hostel used by such groups as the Scout Association. In 1971 it was acquired by the Lister family and occupied by their gamekeeper Robin Hill and his wife Dorothy. Robin was known for training gun-dogs on the premises and when the house was acquired by the present occupants, Mr and Mrs Weston, in 1991 a number of kennels could still be found in the gardens.

Station House (the old station)

(click photo to enlarge)

Link to 399