Gallows Close goods yard was a freight transfer yard on the Scarborough and Whitby Railway in the town of

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

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. The yard was opened in 1899 to relieve pressure on the main station in Scarborough and to release space for passenger use. After the Scarborough and Whitby Railway closed down, Gallows Close remained in use as a goods yard until final closure came in 1985.

History

Gallows Close is located on the north western edge of Scarborough town centre and is so named as it was the site of a gallows through the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and

Early modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

. The site was originally intended to be the terminus of the Scarborough and Whitby Railway in the town, but eventually the Falsgrave TunnelAlso known as Gallows Close Tunnel. was dug to connect to railway station, albeit via a reversal. The site was purchased by the North Eastern Railway (NER) in the late 1890s from the Scarborough and Whitby Railway Company against the wishes of the line's contractor (John (Paddy) Waddell) who wished to build his own goods depot there. Waddell later took the NER to an arbitration court in London over the matter seeking financial recompense. In order to provide more space for passengers at

Scarborough railway station Scarborough, formerly Scarborough Central, is a Grade II listed railway station serving the seaside town of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. It lies east of York railway station, York and is one of the eastern termini on the North TransPennine ro ...

, the NER built a new goods yard at Gallows Close between 1899 and 1902. In the early part of the 20th century the main commodities handled at Gallows Close were ale, bricks, fish, coal and manure. The busiest year was 1926 when of goods were handled; forwarded and received. The fan of general sidings were on the west side of the line to , and required the use of a headshunt if freight was forwarded from the York line through Falsgrave Tunnel. The North Eastern Railway goods shed (built in 1902) and the coal depot, were located on the eastern side of the running line towards Whitby. The coal depot at Gallows Close was furnished with an electric conveyor in November 1946, the first instance of this happening on the London and North Eastern Railways' area of operation. Other traffic used the goods yard too; a regular annual traffic was a travelling circus which unloaded at Gallows Close before touring the area. Another commodity handled was something that was euphemistically listed as ''

night soil Night soil is a historical euphemism for Human waste, human excreta collected from cesspit, cesspools, privies, pail closets, pit latrines, privy middens, septic tanks, etc. This material was removed from the immediate area, usually at night, by ...

''; human waste that was collected from doorsteps in the town and later used as a fertiliser. Coal and oil remained the final commodities handled at Gallows Close, and was withdrawn in 1985Bairstow states in "''The Railways of Whitby volume 1''" that it closed in 1981. allowing the removal of Gallows Close from the

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

system, though sporadic freight handling continued at Scarborough until 1991, when the

Speedlink Speedlink was a wagonload freight service that used air-braked wagons and was operated by British Rail from 1977 to 1991. History Background, 1970s In the late 1960s British Rail (BR) was loss making and government supported; government and Br ...

network was closed. Oil traffic was converted into a block train that ran on an ad hoc basis to a terminal on the main line. This working ceased in the early 1990s. The lines were removed from the yard in 1986, whereas Falsgrave Tunnel was filled in when the site of Gallows Close goods yard became a supermarket in the 1990s. The site is now the southern end of the Scarborough to Whitby Rail Trail.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

Map of the yard from 1912
{{Railways in Scarborough 1898 establishments in England Disused railway goods stations in Great Britain Disused railway stations in the Borough of Scarborough Former North Eastern Railway (United Kingdom) stations Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1985