Keighley railway station serves the town of

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west 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 ...

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 ...

. The station is located on the Airedale line, with electric services to , and provided by Northern, along with longer distance services to and . The station is split in half, with National Rail operating from platforms 1 and 2, while platforms 3 and 4 are the northern terminus of heritage services to on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.

History

Keighley station first opened on a site slightly further up the line in March 1847 by the

Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway The Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway was an early British railway company in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It built a line from near Bradford through and to . The Skipton–Colne Line closed in 1970, but the remainder of the line is ...

. The volume of traffic over the original level crossing in the town, prompted the Midland Railway, which had absorbed the LBER, to spend £60,000 in 1876 building the road bridge immediately to the north of where the present station is located. A new station was built south of this bridge in 1883–1885. The second station was designed by

Charles Trubshaw Charles Trubshaw FRIBA (1840 – 15 February 1917) was an architect specifically associated with railway buildings on the London and North Western Railway and Midland Railway lines. Career He trained as an architect in the office of his father, ...

, who was a Midland Railway architect. The station is located on the Airedale Line north west of Leeds. It is managed by Northern, which operates most of the passenger trains serving it. Electric trains operate frequently from Keighley towards Bradford Forster Square,

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

and

Skipton Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Ai ...

. Longer distance diesel trains on the

Leeds to Morecambe Line Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

and

Settle to Carlisle Line 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 * Sett ...

also call here. Keighley is also the northern terminus of the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. This is a heritage branch-line railway run by volunteers that was originally built by 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 ama ...

and opened in 1867. Closed to passenger traffic in 1962, it was reopened by the K&WVR Preservation Society six years later and is now a popular tourist attraction. Trains on the Great Northern Railway's

Queensbury lines The Queensbury lines was the name given to a number of railway lines in West Yorkshire, England, that linked Bradford, Halifax and Keighley via Queensbury. All the lines were either solely owned by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) or jointly ...

to and also served Keighley from 1882 until closure in May 1955. The Airedale Line runs from platforms 1 and 2 and Keighley and Worth Valley railway operate from platforms 3 and 4. Keighley Station Flickr 20 April 2022

From 1892 to 1909 the Midland Railway operated a second station on the Airedale line a short distance from Keighley station at . There is now no visible trace of this station having ever existed. In 1986, the station was given a Grade II listing by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The listing mentions the main entrance building to be of coursed, dressed millstone grit. The two westernmost platforms have period furnishings including cast-iron lamp posts; on platform 4 a good cast-iron and glass canopy with decorative columns; and on platform 3 an 8-columned arcade, the remains of a canopy, and a late 19th century engine water-filling pump.

Stationmasters

*William Simpson ca. 1849 (imprisoned and kept for hard labour for 12 months after pleading guilty to embezzlement) *J. Boothe until 1860 *William Torbitt 1860 - 1863 *R. Elliott 1863 - ca. 1869 *Thomas Warwick 1869 - 1870 (afterwards station master at Lincoln) *Ralph Singleton ca. 1875 - 1884 *Henry Towle 1884 - 1890 (formerly station master at Luton) *William S. Carr 1890 - 1900 *William Coles 1900 - 1908 (afterwards station master at Skipton) *David Bennett Smith 1908 - 1924 (formerly station master at Manningham) *Herbert M. Read 1924 - 1929 (formerly station master at Clay Cross) *H.S. Dawes from 1929 (formerly station master at Calverley and Rodley) *James P. Richardson 1940 - 1947 *F.A. Cooke 1947 - 1953 (formerly station master at Dursley) *M.W. Hesseltine ca. 1955

Facilities

The National Rail side of the station is fully staffed, with the ticket office open seven days a week (except evenings). Train running information is provided via a public address system, posters and digital information screens. A waiting room is available on platform 1 and shelters on platform 2. Step-free access to both platforms from the main entrance is via ramps from the road above, whilst platform 1 also has level access from Dalton Lane. The K&WVR has its own ticket office and access ramps from the shared main entrance to platforms 3 and 4. They also have a refreshment stand and bookstall on platform 4, which is open when the railway is operating.

Services

During Monday to Saturday daytimes and in the evenings there is a half-hourly service to Leeds, an hourly service to Bradford Forster Square and three trains per hour to Skipton. The Bradford service formerly ran twice-hourly during the day prior to the spring 2022 timetable change. On Sundays there is an hourly service to Leeds and to Bradford with two per hour to Skipton. The new Northern franchise agreement, starting in April 2016, included provision to increase the Bradford service to hourly from its former two-hourly frequency, and this occurred at the December 2017 timetable change. There are also a number of trains each day from Leeds to Carlisle (eight on weekdays and six on Sundays) and Lancaster (seven on weekdays with five extended to Morecambe, and five on Sundays) - both routes are operated by Northern. There is also a daily service from Skipton to London King's Cross (via Leeds) that calls (except Sundays), which is operated by London North Eastern Railway. A return service also operates from King's Cross to Skipton - this runs all week, including Sundays and calls to set down only. The Keighley and Worth Valley service runs daily during the summer and at weekends in other seasons, but has resisted offers to introduce a true commuter service in conjunction with the local authority. It has a connection to the Airedale Line (via sidings) just north of the Bradford Road bridge for rolling stock transfers and occasional visits by charter trains.

Filming

The station was featured in the

Head & Shoulders Head & Shoulders (H&S) is an American brand of anti-dandruff and non-dandruff shampoo produced by parent company Procter & Gamble. It was introduced in the United States on 1 January 1961 based in Manhattan and used the slogan THE AMERICA AND WORL ...

advert "Don't break up with your hair" in early 2009. The advert uses the platform that serves the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, notable for the period features that it has retained over the years. The station was used in the filming of the film ''Yanks'' (1979) and in the Pink Floyd film, ''The Wall'' (1982). It was used in the filming of ''

Peaky Blinders The Peaky Blinders were a street gang based in Birmingham, England, which operated from the 1880s until the 1910s. The group consisted largely of young criminals from lower- to middle-class backgrounds. They engaged in robbery, violence, rack ...

'', a BBC television drama about criminals in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

just after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In the first episode of

All Creatures Great and Small (2020 TV series) ''All Creatures Great and Small'' is a television series, set in 1937, based upon a series of books about a Yorkshire veterinarian written by Alf Wight under the pen name of James Herriot. The series was produced by Playground Entertainment f ...

, the main character,

James Herriot James Alfred Wight (3 October 1916 – 23 February 1995), better known by his pen name James Herriot, was a British veterinary surgeon and author. Born in Sunderland, Wight graduated from Glasgow Veterinary College in 1939, returning to Eng ...

, says goodbye to his parents and boards a train in Glasgow; these scenes were actually filmed at Keighley station. A KWVR train also appears in that episode.Keighley & Worth Valley Railway
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References

*PSL Field Guides - ''Railways of the Eastern Region'' Volume 2, Geoffrey Body (1988) Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, *''Railways Through Airedale & Wharfedale'' Martin Bairstow (2004)

External links

{{Railway stations served by Northern Trains Buildings and structures in Keighley DfT Category C2 stations Grade II listed buildings in West Yorkshire Charles Trubshaw railway stations Former Midland Railway stations Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Northern franchise railway stations Railway stations in Bradford Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1847 Railway stations served by London North Eastern Railway