Station Name: WINESTEAD

[Source: Mark Dyson]

Date opened: 27.6.1854
Location:

On the west side of Winestead Lane (A1033)

Company on opening: Hull and Holderness Railway
Date closed to passengers: 1.7.1904
Date closed completely: 1.5.1956
Company on closing: North Eastern Railway
Present state: The station building/stationmaster's house survives as a private residence but the platforms have been demolished.
County: Yorkshire
OS Grid Ref: TA300233
Date of visit: 25.5.1975, August 1992 & 14.9.2005

Notes: Winestead Station was an early closure to passengers being only half a mile from Patrington. It retained its goods service until 1956 however.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HULL & HOLDERNESS RAILWAY
The Hull and Holderness Railway was promoted by Hull merchant Anthony Bannister with the objective of linking the industrial port of Hull with the rich agricultural land of South Holderness; parts of the South Holderness area had previously been accessible via the river Humber at Hedon and Patrington Havens, but these had begun to silt up. A secondary objective was to develop a seaside resort on the coast in much the same way as the York and North Midland Railway had begun to develop Scarborough and Whitby. The coast between Tunstall and Easington was surveyed and Withernsea chosen to be the terminus of the line and hence the new resort.

Receiving Royal assent on 8.7.1853 the line was extremely easy to construct as the South Holderness area is very flat and ballast could be extracted close to the line at Kelsey Hill near Burstwick; the line opened on 30.6.1854 with a Hull terminus at Victoria Dock station. The railway was initially completely independent and operated its own rolling stock, however it was too small to survive independently and on 1.1.1860 the line was leased to the NER which then bought the line outright on 7.7.1862. Trains began running into Hull's Paragon station via the Victoria Dock branch on 1.6.1864.

The line was constructed as a single track, but was doubled in the early 20th Century. Single line sections remained between Hedon and Ryehill and Burstwick stations and further east between Ottringham and Winestead until closure. Diesel railcars were introduced on 7.1.1957 and further cost cutting in the form of Centralised Traffic Control (automated signaling and level crossings) were proposed in the early 1960's only to be overtaken by the 'Beeching Report' of 1962 which proposed closure of the line.

The Hull-Withernsea line closed to passengers on 19.10.1964 (the same day as the neighbouring Hull-Hornsea branch) with goods services lasting until 30.4.1965. Goods services to Hedon continued until 1968.

Today several sections of trackbed are in use as a footpath/cycleway with much of the formation intact. With the exception of the Withernsea terminus, all the station buildings remain, mainly in residential use.

Click here to see a film of a journey along the branch from Hull to Withernsea in 1957.
Route map drawn by Alan Young. Ticket from Michael Stewart.

Further reading 'The Lost Railways of Holderness' by Peter Price (Hutton Press)
ISBN 0 0907033 86 5

To see the other stations on the Hull - Withernsea line click on the station name: Marfleet, Hedon Racecourse, Hedon, Ryehill & Burstwick, Keyingham, Ottringham, Patrington, Hollym Gate & Withernsea


Looking west at Winestead Station building/stationmaster's house in August 1992
With Withernsea showing on its destination blind, a 6-car DMU formed of 3 x 2-car Cravens units slowly passes the disused station at Winestead as its driver prepares to surrender the token for the single track section from Ottringham. The level crossing gates were operated by a wheel within the signal box. Winestead station was located about ¾mile south of the tiny village it served and within one minute of passing the DMU would be arriving a Patrington; the latter station actually being closer to Winestead (station) than to the centre of Patrington and therewith lay the reason for the early closure of Winestead to passengers in 1904 although goods traffic managed to cling on until May 1956. The Cravens DMUs were initially and temporarily allocated to Springhead depot and the first unit, car nos.50359/56114, arrived for crew training on 9 August 1956. The second unit did not arrive until the end of October 1956 and the third of what was to be a total of 31 units in mid November 1956. Public services using the new DMUs commenced on 7 January 1957 and on the Withernsea branch took over certain weekday services, albeit running to steam timings, until full dieselisation could be introduced. During March 1957 the Withernsea branch became, with one exception, fully dieselised and at weekends during summer six or eight car DMUs were necessary to cope with the volume of passengers. The date of this photograph is unknown but given the aforementioned information it was probably taken during the summer of 1957. The watching children, no doubt fascinated by the still new diesel trains, probably lived in either or both of the houses visible; the nearest being the former stationmaster's house and the furthest being, originally at least, a pair of cottages. The churn-like object sitting on the ballast is a water carrier, used to deliver drinking water to stations and other railway buildings, such as crossing keeper's cottages, with no mains water supply - a situation which persisted on rural railways well into the twentieth century and in many cases until lines and stations closed. With the possible exception of the Blue Square coupling codes, seen here one above each buffer, the Cravens units are wearing their original lined green livery. This was a rather dull and uninspiring livery, soon relieved somewhat by the application of so-called 'speed whiskers' and then the advent of yellow warning panels. Today just three of BR's Cravens DMU cars survive in preservation, the class as a whole having given some thirty years rattling, rasping but otherwise fairly trouble-free service. As of 2019, with the exception of the signal box all buildings visible survive but being now partly walled-in are not immediately recognisable as a former railway station. One tell-tale is the rotting remains of a level crossing gate, that seen here nearest the signal box, while west of the station on Ings Lane a set of rails remain visible in the road surface
at the site of the former level crossing.
Photo from Alan Cawkill collection



1891 1:2,500 OS map. A single goods siding is shown opposite the passenger station. The signal box is not shown on the opposite side of the crossing so it assumed to have been a later adition. A second siding runs into the goods yard on the east side of Winestead Lane. WM indicates a weighbridge.

1910 1:2,500 OS map. The station is now closed to passengbers and is shown as Winestead Siding. A signal box is now shown on tghe west side of the crossing. A private siding serving Enholmes Brick & Tile Works has now been provided.

Winestead station in May 1975
Copyright photo from Nigel Mundy collection

Looking west at Winestead station building/stationmaster's house in August 1992
P
hoto by Mark Dyson

Looking west at Winestead station building/stationmaster's house in September 2005
P
hoto by Dr. James Fox

The remains of one level crossing gate on the opposite side of Winestead Lane in September 2005
P
hoto by Dr. James Fox

Patrington Road level crossing in September 2005
P
hoto by Dr. James Fox

 

 

 

:[Source: Mark Dyson]


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