Station Name: WILLERBY & KIRK ELLA

 

[Source: Mark Dyson]


Date opened: 22.7.1885
Location: On the south side of Beverley Road
Company on opening: Hull Barnsley and West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company
Date closed to passengers: 1.8.1955
Date closed completely: 6.7.1964
Company on closing: British Railways (North Eastern Region)
Present state: Demolished - the site was cleared in 1968 and a development of heltered accommodation flats ('Kingston Rise') has been built on the site. The Willerby by-pass was constructed on part of the station yard.
County: Yorkshire
OS Grid Ref: TA024301
Date of visit: 15.5.2005

The railway crossed Beverley Road on a girder bridge, the station platforms being on an embankment with the station buildings at ground level (similar design to North Cave), though the western end was at ground level due to the rising ground.

The alignment west of the station is now occupied by the B1232 road and the embankment on the east side of Beverley Road has been cut back by approximately 100 yards and the area used as a car park. At the eastern end of the car park steps lead up to the embankment which continues as a footpath for approx ¾ mile.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HULL & BARNSLEY RAILWAY
The Hull Barnsley and West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company was formed with the backing of Hull Corporation to break the monopoly on dock and rail traffic from Hull; it included a deep water dock (Alexandra Dock) to the east of Hull. The railway never reached Barnsley itself, terminating at Cudworth (junction with the Midland Railway) some four miles short having been vigorously opposed by the NER.

It was one of the last new main lines to be built, construction cost double the estimates, due in part to difficulties in cutting and tunneling through unexpectedly hard chalk in the Yorkshire Wolds near Little Weighton.

Although it was constructed primarily for goods traffic to and from the new dock and the South Yorkshire coalfields, fine villa-style passenger stations were provided but though passenger traffic was sparse.

In 1905 the company name was shortened to the Hull and Barnsley Railway which was absorbed into the NER on 1.1.1923

The line was gradually run down from the early 1930's with all passenger services ceasing in 1955.
Today only the high level goods line around Hull and a short sections serving Drax power station remain in use.

Other web sites: For a more detailed history and maps see Hull & Barnsley Railway Stock Fund web site

To see the other stations on the Hull Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway click on the station name: Hull Cannon Street, Beverley Road, Springhead Halt,
Little Weighton, South Cave, North Cave,Wallingfen,
Sandholme, South Howden &
Kirk Smeaton

The following stations on this line are not featured, if you have information on the present state of these stations and photographs we would like to hear from you. North Eastrington and all stations west to Cudworth

 

Willerby & Kirk Ella Station in the late 1950s, looking east towards Hull with a locomotive preparing to leave the Goods yard. The row of shops visible behind the loco still exisit, practically everything else in the photograph has now gone.
Photo by Neville Stead

  
  

The site of Willerby & Kirk Ella Station in March 2006 seen from the same viewpoint as the picture above. The fence on the extreme right is approximately on the railway boundary. The same row of shops is visible in both photographs; the roof of the building immediately left of the locomotive is also just visible in the trees on the left.
P
hoto by Mark Dyson

Willerby & Kirk Ella Station
Photo received from Nicholas Cox

Click on thumbnail to enlarge


 

 

 

[Source: Mark Dyson]


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