Constable Burton railway station is a disused railway station on the

Wensleydale Railway The Wensleydale Railway is a heritage railway in Wensleydale and Lower Swaledale in North Yorkshire, England. It was built in stages by different railway companies and originally extended to Garsdale railway station on the Settle-Carlisle line ...

, in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was built to serve Constable Burton Hall, the village and the farms in this rural area.

History

It was opened by the Bedale and Leyburn Railway on 19 May 1856, and served the village of

Constable Burton Constable Burton is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is east of Leyburn. History The village takes its name from ‘Burton’, meaning a fortified settlement in Old English, and ‘Constable’ as in 1100 it was gr ...

. The station closed to passengers on 26 April 1954. The North Eastern Railway operated the Northallerton to Hawes and

Garsdale railway station Garsdale is a railway station in Cumbria, England (historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire), on the Settle–Carlisle line, Settle and Carlisle Line, which runs between and via . The station, situated south-east of Carlisle, serves the v ...

on the Settle & Carlisle line until the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 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 ...

operated it prior to grouping in 1923, subsequently it was part of the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

until nationalisation in 1948. The station was closed to freight on 14 October 1957 but stone traffic continued using the line until 1992. The line as far as Redmire was occasionally used for conveying Army tanks etc. for Catterick Garrison and is now operated as the

which is a heritage line.

Infrastructure

The OS map of 1856 shows only a short platform and a small building with a signal post on the opposite side of the lane to the later station. By 1893 the OS map shows a station on the same northern side of the line but approached by a lane running off the lane and going to the east. A weighing machine is shown near the junction with the lane, several buildings and two signals. On the southern side are two fairly lengthy sidings, a loading dock and a small building set at the back of a sizeable goods yard that is accessed of the lane at the present day entry point.

The site today

No signs of the passenger station survive however the loading dock survives and a railway access point leads to a yard with a small permanent way maintenance building and a passing loop is present, partly built on the site of the old goods sidings by the

in 2010 to allow two train operations on the line as required. The former

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

signal box at has been donated 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 railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

to the railway so that they can install it to control the signals and points in Constable Burton Loop. As the box has a

grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

status, Network Rail have applied for special licence to dismantle and remove the box. Network Rail will cover dismantling, transportation and rebuilding costs helped by a grant from the Railway Heritage Trust. The Wensleydale Railway aims to have the box operational by 2021.

References

External links

Video footage of Constable Burton railway station
{{DEFAULTSORT:Constable Burton Railway Station Disused railway stations in North Yorkshire Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1856 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1954 Former North Eastern Railway (United Kingdom) stations Wensleydale