Cark & Cartmel is a railway station on the

Furness line The Furness line is a British railway between and , joining the West Coast Main Line at . A predominantly passenger line, it serves various towns along the Furness coast, including Barrow-in-Furness, Ulverston and Grange-over-Sands. It runs th ...

, which runs between and . The station, situated north-east of Barrow-in-Furness, serves the villages of

Allithwaite Allithwaite is a small village in Cumbria, England, located roughly west of Grange-over-Sands. Most of its residents commute to local areas of Ulverston, Barrow-in-Furness, Kendal or Lancaster to work. Historically in Lancashire, Allithwaite, ...

Cark Cark (sometimes Cark in Cartmel) is a village in Cumbria, England. It lies on the B5278 road to Haverthwaite (and to the A590 road) and is ½ mile north of Flookburgh, 2 miles southwest of Cartmel and 3 miles west of Grange-over-Sands. It is ...

Cartmel Cartmel is a village in Cumbria, England, northwest of Grange-over-Sands close to the River Eea. The village takes its name from the Cartmel Peninsula, and was historically known as Kirkby in Cartmel. The village is the location of the 12t ...

and

Flookburgh Flookburgh is an ancient village on the Cartmel peninsula in Cumbria, England, until 1974 part of Lancashire. Being close to Morecambe Bay, cockle and shrimp fishing plays a big part in village life. Flookburgh is sometimes thought to derive ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

. It is owned by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

and managed by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

History

The station is architecturally interesting, with buildings constructed by the

Ulverstone and Lancaster Railway The Ulverstone 'sic''and Lancaster Railway Company was short-lived as a business but the line that it built is still in daily use. The line runs from Lindal-in-Furness to Carnforth railway station, Carnforth where it joins what was then the La ...

. The station opened on 1 September 1857 as ''Cark-in-Cartmell''. The station was then renamed a number of times, including ''Cark'', ''Cark and Cartmel'' and ''Cark-in-Cartmel'', with the current name adopted on 13 May 1984. The

Furness Railway The Furness Railway (Furness) was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England. History Formation In the early 1840s, the owners of iron ore mines in the Furness district of Lancashire became interested i ...

took over the Ulverstone and Lancaster Railway on 21 January 1862. It was later absorbed into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway on 1 January 1923. The station had a particular importance, as it serves

Holker Hall Holker Hall (pronounced Hooker by some) is a privately owned country house located about 2 km to the southwest of the village of Cartmel in the ceremonial county of Cumbria and historic county of Lancashire, England. It is "the grandest ...

, the home of Lord Cavendish of Furness formerly belonging to the

Dukes of Devonshire Duke of Devonshire is a title in the Peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This (now the senior) branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the wealthiest British aristocratic families since the 16th century and has b ...

. Special

waiting room A waiting room or waiting hall is a building, or more commonly a part of a building or a room, where people sit or stand until the event or appointment for which they are waiting begins. There are two types of waiting room. One has individuals ...

s were provided for the dukes and their guests. The actual building retains many original features and is now a private

residence A residence is a place (normally a building) used as a home or dwelling, where people reside. Residence may more specifically refer to: * Domicile (law), a legal term for residence * Habitual residence, a civil law term dealing with the status ...

. It extends to approximately one acre of

gardens A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

and

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

Facilities

The station is unstaffed but has been provided with ticket machines to allow intending travellers to buy tickets prior to travel. There are shelters and digital information screens on each platform, along with a long-line PA system for train running information provision. The platforms are linked by a

footbridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

, but step-free access is also available on each side for disabled travellers.

Service

The station is on the Furness line linking Lancaster and Barrow (though some services extend south to Preston or north east to Carlisle). The station receives a roughly hourly service to

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of B ...

, with a limited number of services continuing to Carlisle via

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It i ...

. There is also a roughly hourly service towards Lancaster, with a limited number of services continuing to Preston. A number of services continue through to . These were formerly operated by

First TransPennine Express First TransPennine Express was a British train operating company jointly owned by FirstGroup and Keolis which operated the TransPennine Express franchise. First TransPennine Express ran regular Express regional railway services between the major ...

up until the end of the old Northern and TransPennine franchises on 31 March 2016. Sundays see an hourly service each way (with some longer gaps).

References

External links

* * Railway stations in Cumbria DfT Category F2 stations Former Ulverston and Lancaster Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1857 Northern franchise railway stations 1857 establishments in England {{DEFAULTSORT:Cark and Cartmel railway station