Upton and North Elmsall railway station, was a railway station on the
Hull and Barnsley Railway (H&B) in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
, England. The station served the villages of
Upton
Upton may refer to:
Places United Kingdom England
* Upton, Slough, Berkshire (in Buckinghamshire until 1974)
* Upton, Buckinghamshire, a hamlet near Aylesbury
* Upton, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough
* Upton, Huntingdonshire, a location in Cambridge ...
and
North Elmsall
North Elmsall ( ) is a village and civil parish in the City of Wakefield district in West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 4,093 in 2001 and 3,873 in 2011. Until 1974 it was part of Hemsworth Rural District. The parish is seven miles ...
, (both now in the
Wakefield District
The City of Wakefield is a local government district with the status of a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Wakefield, the largest settlement, is the administrative centre of the district. The population of the City of ...
of
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 ...
). The station closed completely in 1959 and the track was lifted in 1967, however, in 2020, a proposal was forwarded to reinstate over of line for a new heritage railway.
History
Upton and North Elmsall was opened in July 1885 and was closed to passengers in January 1932. The station was west of
Hull Cannon Street, west of railway station and east of the lines' first terminus at .
Passenger services were always limited as the line had been built to exploit the
South Yorkshire Coalfield
The South Yorkshire Coalfield is so named from its position within Yorkshire. It covers most of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and a small part of North Yorkshire. The exposed coalfield outcrops in the Pennine foothills and dips under Permian ro ...
, and export the coal through Hull Docks, but part of the Parliamentary approval for the line was conditional on the company providing a passenger service to the communities that the line went through.
from 1906 has seven workings in each direction daily, whereas by 1922, just two services are shown running between Cudworth and Hull Cannon Street. The station lost its passenger trains when the service from Hull only went as far west as ; all other H&B branches being closed to passengers in January 1932.
Although the station closed to regular passenger traffic in 1932, it was still used for rail tours and special traffic such as football excursions until 1954. Closure of the station to goods came in 1959, but the line from the western portal of Barnsdale Tunnel to Cudworth, remained open for colliery traffic until 7 August 1967. The old trackbed in the area is now part of Upton Country Park.
In 1996, a cutting to the east of the station site was designated as a nature reserve.
Heritage site
In June 2020, a proposal was put forward to revamp the site and use it as a heritage railway centre. The proposal also includes laying of track through the Barnsdale Tunnel and stopping just short of the
A1 road
A list of roads designated A1, sorted by alphabetical order of country.
* A01 highway (Afghanistan), a long ring road or beltway connecting Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar
* A1 motorway (Albania), connecting Durrës and Kukës
* A001 highwa ...
at
Barnsdale Bar.
References
Sources
*
External links
Mapping of the station from 1906Map of the Hull and Barnsley systemImage of the station in 1961
{{s-end
Disused railway stations in Wakefield
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1885
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1959
Former Hull and Barnsley Railway stations
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...