Shipley and Windhill railway station was a railway station in Shipley,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

between 1875 and 1931. During the 1860s, two small railway companies were formed to promote suburban railways in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, the ''Bradford, Eccleshill and Idle Railway'' and the ''Idle and Shipley Railway''. Their schemes and the companies themselves were taken up by the Great Northern Railway, which built a line looping through the villages to the north-east of Bradford: from

Laisterdyke Laisterdyke is an area of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, situated to the east of the city on the border with City of Leeds and located in the Bradford Moor ward and in the Bradford East parliamentary constituency. Laisterdyke borders Bark ...

, through Eccleshill,

Idle Idle generally refers to idleness, a lack of motion or energy. Idle or ''idling'', may also refer to: Technology * Idle (engine), engine running without load ** Idle speed * Idle (CPU), CPU non-utilisation or low-priority mode ** Synchronous ...

and

Thackley Thackley is a small suburb near Bradford, West Yorkshire in England. The village is loosely bordered by the village of Idle to the south, to the west by the West Royd area of Shipley and elsewhere by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Thackley is ...

to Shipley. The line was open to goods traffic on 4 May 1874 and to passengers on 18 January 1875. The terminus of the new line was called Shipley and Windhill Station (According to Dewick, it was first ''Shipley (Great Northern)'' and then ''Shipley Bridge Street'') or possibly Shipley East. The station was on the north side of Leeds Road, west of the

Bradford Canal The Bradford Canal was a English canal which ran from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Shipley into the centre of Bradford. It opened in 1774, and was closed in 1866, when it was declared to be a public health hazard. Four years later it reop ...

, and less than from the existing Shipley Station on the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

. It was built to the same distinctive pattern as other stations on the line, with a short mitre-roofed tower in the centre. Passenger service on the line ceased on 2 February 1931, and the passenger station closed, but goods traffic continued on the whole line until October 1964 and as far as

until 1968. The railway line is featured in Simon Ormondroyd's ''Windhill Tales'', based on life in the area in 1964. The station building survives: in 2005 it is occupied by several local businesses. However, proposals put forward in 2016 are for the building to be demolished to make way for apartments. The site has not been given any heritage designation.

References

* Whitaker, Alan & Brian Myland 1993 ''Railway Memories No. 4: Bradford'' Bellcode books.

External links

Ticket to Shipley and Windhill railway station
{{Railway stations in the City of Bradford Disused railway stations in Bradford Former Great Northern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1875 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1931 Shipley, West Yorkshire