Giggleswick is a railway station on the Bentham Line, which runs between and via . The station, situated north-west of Leeds, serves the

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Settle Settle or SETTLE may refer to: Places * Settle, Kentucky, United States * Settle, North Yorkshire, a town in England ** Settle Rural District, a historical administrative district Music * Settle (band), an indie rock band from Pennsylvania * ''S ...

and the village of

Giggleswick Giggleswick, a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England, lies on the B6480 road, less than north-west of the town of Settle and divided from it by the River Ribble. It is the site of Giggleswick School. T ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

. 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

Opened by the

"Little" North Western Railway The North Western Railway (NWR) was an early British railway company in the north-west of England. It was commonly known as the "Little" North Western Railway, to distinguish it from the larger London and North Western Railway (LNWR). The NWR w ...

in 1849, the station was originally known as "Settle", as it was the first station to serve the town, although situated some distance west of its centre. When the Settle and Carlisle Railway opened on 1 May 1876, the name was changed to "Settle Old" to distinguish it from on the line a mile to the east; Settle Old became "Giggleswick" on 1 November 1877. The station did have more substantial buildings in the past, along with a goods yard, water tower and signal box. These were all demolished/removed after the station closed to goods traffic and was downgraded to unmanned halt status in 1970.

Stationmasters

*Joseph Smith ca. 1862 - 1876 (station master at New Mills from 1879) *Richard Bentham 1876 - 1904 *N.R.W. Leaton 1904 - 1908 *Charles Frederick Robinson 1908 - ca. 1911 *E.M. Jackson ca. 1914 - ca. 1927 *Harry Pearson ca. 1928 *W. Tinniswood 1933 - 1935 (afterwards station master at Kirkby Stephen East)

Facilities

The only buildings now provided here are standard waiting shelters - a new bespoke one was opened on the westbound platform in November 2016. The two platforms are of differing construction - the westbound is wooden, whilst the eastbound equivalent is stone/concrete. They are linked by a

barrow crossing There are around 6,000 level crossings in the United Kingdom, of which about 1,500 are public highway crossings. This number is gradually being reduced as the risk of accidents at level crossings is considered high. The director of the UK Rail ...

, so the station is fully step free (though the National Rail Enquiries service and Northern recommend that disabled passengers only use this with assistance). Train running information provision is provided by posters, new information displays and a telephone link to the signal box at Settle Junction. Tickets can only be bought on the train, as no ticketing facilities are available here (though operator Northern is planning to install one).

Service

On Monday to Saturdays, five trains a day headed from Giggleswick southbound to and Leeds and westbound to Lancaster. All but the first westbound service of the day continue to Morecambe and there used to be a single through train to and from to connect with the sailing to the

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. Four trains ran each way on Sundays throughout the year since the May 2011 timetable change (an improvement on the former twice-daily winter frequency). From the start of the May 2018 summer timetable, additional services have been introduced. Eight trains each way now run to Lancaster and Skipton, with five of the former continuing to Morecambe and seven of the latter to Leeds (though the direct train to and from Heysham has ceased on weekdays and Saturdays). One additional train each way runs on Sundays. One additional train each way was introduced from 20 May 2019 on weekdays and Saturdays, with two additional trains running to and from Morecambe.Northern Rail Timetable 7 - Leeds to Carlisle, Leeds to Morecambe & Heysham Port, 19 May to 14 December 2019
'Northern'' website; Retrieved 16 May 2019 The winter 2019 timetable update has seen all five departures extended from Lancaster through to Morecambe, with one running right through to/from Heysham.

References

External links

* * {{Railway stations served by Northern Trains Craven District DfT Category F2 stations Railway stations in North Yorkshire Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Northern franchise railway stations 1849 establishments in England