NO.6 RAILWAY - MARKET WEIGHTON RAILWAY STATION CLOSURE & DEMOLITION (1965) film no: 983
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This is a film taken by H. W. Lyon of Market Weighton Railway Station and sidings just before they closed. The second half is filmed by Tom Greenwood as they were being demolished.
The film begins at a level crossing where several cars wait for a steam engine, (43133) pulling a small train of coal wagons, to pass. Then a British Rail advertisement is shown for weekend tickets. Two young girls walk towards Market Weighton Railway Station, and Market Weighton West level crossing is shown. Here the signalman closes the crossing and pulls a signal off. A diesel passenger train passes by, and the film shows the lines and sidings nearby. An empty Market Weighton Station is shown with the adverts on the platform, including one titled, ‘Explore the Yorkshire Coast by Train’. Another passenger train passes through and one person is shown waiting on the platform. The film scans the ticket booth with two workers posing for the camera. Another train arrives, and the two children leave accompanied by a woman. Outside a railway worker loads boxes onto a truck. At 1.18 pm the signalman pulls off a signal (semaphore) and another train arrives.
A British Rail Notice is shown announcing the closing of freight depots on 1st November 1965, including Market Weighton. The steam engine (43133) is again shown shunting empty wagons. A shunter jumps on to the side of the engine with his shunting pole, followed by some fly shunting and the shunter waiving to the driver whilst walking along some sleepers (without any vest). More fly shunting with the shunter walking besides the wagons carrying a break stick, and he then rides on the steps of the engine. By the side of the railway where the coal is stored, a man, possibly the engine driver, is shown leaning on a fence.
The Station Master comes out of his office and a diesel (D234) hauled mixed passenger and freight train pulls in with passengers waiting on the platform. The train moves off past the signal box. Then the film switches back to more shunting with locomotive 62005. Sacks of vegetables are being loaded into a goods wagon. Finally the goods train departs with the guard in the Guards van at the back.
At a snow-covered station, a train pulls in with passengers getting on and off. A British Rail notice is shown announcing the withdrawal of passenger services between Hull, Beverley and York on 29th November, 1965. The notice detailing which stations will be affected is shown in close-up.
A girl is playing on a rocking horse outside in the snow and is joined by her mother. A guard, carrying a couple of paraffin lamps, walks along the side of the track and a sign showing York 23. A train passes by under a tunnel. Back at the station a porter pulls a trolley loaded with mail and poses by the Market Weighton sign. A train passes through. Then, on another day with the snow cleared, a packed station watches as a steam engine arrives pulling a passenger train. Lots of people crowd around the LNER engine ‘Great Marquess’ (3442), whilst it fills up with water. A diesel train passes before the ‘Great Marquess’ and is shown attached to another steam engine. The two engines are then shown pulling a long passenger train filled with people, as it moves off into the distance.
A wreath is pinned up underneath the sign for Market Weighton Station. This scene is followed by the demolition of the footbridge over the Station, the Station, and the dismantling of a railway bridge. The film ends showing a section of track with just the sleepers and base plates, minus the rails.
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This film was made by Harold William Lyon and his son-in-law Tom Greenwood. Harold Lyon had taken over the family shop in Market Weighton in 1909 and run it right up until he retired in 1959, when it was sold. His son-in-law had been his partner since 1953. For more on the family and the shop see the Context for, No.9 Shop: Lyon's Grocers Shop, Market Weighton (1957). Harold Lyon would have been somewhere in the region of 71 years old by the time this film was made. Tom Greenwood was living near Market Weighton Station at The Hollies, and he would dash out to film the demolition. The following year they also filmed the Market Weighton Carnival in May.
Perhaps with an eye to the future, the pair have carefully filmed much of the station and its features; such as the posters advertising weekend and holiday roundabout tickets, and the colourful poster enjoining all to explore the coast of Yorkshire. The film shows a bygone age of the railways with semaphore signals and fly shunting. Notice that this is being done by a guard – probably the guard for the train being marshalled – without any high visibility vest (presumably there wasn’t sufficient traffic to warrant a permanent shunter). Note also that he is carrying a shunting pole, and hangs on to the side of the loco – later diesel shunters provided a platform especially for the shunter to ride on. Swapping his shunting pole for a brake stick, he takes a wooden chock from under the wheel of a wagon (a precaution for if the hand brake fails); practices still in use today.
The wheel the signalman is stood next to is for operating the level crossing gates for the road; not uncommon, although the exact mechanism could differ significantly between different railways and regions. Noticeable also is the well signed toilets and waiting room, something that over the years couldn’t always be guaranteed to be found on a station, or at least not in serviceable condition.
Also of interest, especially for rail enthusiasts, is the loco that looks like a Class 40 (D234) pulling a couple of postal carriages and some freight wagons. Built by English Electric between 1958 and 1962, and eventually numbering 200, they were for a time the pride of the British Rail early diesel fleet. The class K1 (62005), built in 1949, run from York between 1959 and 1965. The K1s were originally designed by Nigel Gresley, but later modified by Edward Thompson and then by Arthur Peppercorn. 62005 was condemned on 30thDecember 1967. However, the loco was overhauled at Thornaby Depot by NELPG volunteers and in accordance with the wishes of the donating group, was painted in a fully lined out LNER green livery. The restored loco was moved to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on 28th May 1974 and went into traffic on 8th June. Apparently The Grand Marquess (LNER No. 3442, BR No. 61994), the last K4, was withdrawn in December 1961 and sold to Viscount Garnock – note that this is also known as ‘The Great Marquess’. At this time it was based at Leeds before the ban on steam by BR in 1968 forced it into retirement. However, it has survived into preservation and recently ran in Scotland on 19th April 2011. The other steam locomotive seen (43133) was an Ivatt class which survived another year, to the last day of 1966.
Note the vegetables being transported by rail (what looks like carrots and potatoes). Rail freight had been in decline for a long time, and the road lobby was a very powerful influence on the government policy of switching freight to road – not helped by the odd decision after the winter of 1947 to transfer freight in winter time to road. Even though national rail strikes in 1919, 1924 and 1926 led many farmers to look to road, still much agricultural produce remained on the rail – see Paul Atterbury, and the account given in the memoirs of Yorkshire Station Master Len Bedale, References. Although the flexibility of road over rail was a major factor for the decline in freight traffic on the railway, David Henshaw argues that it was also largely due to government policy.
Market Weighton station opened as long ago as 1847, with a line to York and on to Scarborough. The Hull to York line which passed through Market Weighton was a victim of the Beeching Report of 1963. The line had undergone some modernisation, and at a public meeting in Pocklington on July 7th, strong opposition was voiced against the closure (see Michael Thompson, References). Yet despite this a decision to close the line went ahead. The other line that passed through Market Weighton was from Selby to Driffield, and this too closed in 1965. The Labour administration that was elected in the following year continued the transport policies of Ernest Marples, the Tory Minister of Transport, who commissioned the Report. Martin Bairstow, in his analysis of the line closure, concludes that the reasons were more political than economic, and that the line had a future as a commuter service. For more on Beeching see the Context for 8'O'Clock Special (1962), and also A Sentimental Journey for another Yorkshire line falling victim to the Beeching axe. As well as carrying lots of agricultural produce, the line also carried steel between Teeside and Hull, large amounts of timber and cocoa, and there was an evening fish train from Hull. Most of the line has been returned to farmland, although a ten mile stretch from Market Weighton to Beverley is open as a walk way, the Hudson Way. There has been a campaign to re-open the line since 2001 – see The Minsters' Rail Campaign website. Apparently, only 2 houses would need to be demolished - both in Market Weighton.
The last train to run on the line was on 29th November 1965, though many stations on the line had closed before this. The Market Weighton website reproduces a newspaper report of the event. A 15 year old student at Hymers College in Hull, Philip Dixon, made a cine film of the journey (albeit somewhat spoilt by bad light). BBC Humber has online audio files of Enid Greenwood and Philip Dixon giving their recollections (References). Perhaps if Philip Dixon is reading this he’ll get in touch and let us know what happened to his film!
References
Paul Atterbury, Along lost lines: discovering the glorious heritage of yesterday's railways, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 2009.
Martin Bairstow, Railways in East Yorkshire, Vol. Two, published by Martin Bairstow, 2005.
Len Bedale, as told by C T Goode, Station Master: My Lifetime’s Railway Service in Yorkshire, Turntable Publications, Sheffield, 1976.
Stephen Chapman, Hudson's Way: The Story of the York-Beverley Railway, York Railpress, 1986.
C. Tony Goode, The York, Beverley and Market Weighton Railway, published by Goode, C. T., 2003.
David Henshaw, The Great Railway Conspiracy, 2nd edition, Leading Edge, 1994.
Peter Gerald Mason, Lost railways of East Yorkshire, Mason Publications, Driffield, 1990
Gordon Suggitt, The Lost railways of North and East Yorkshire, Countryside Books, 2005.
Michael Thompson, The Railways of Hull and East Yorkshire, Hutton Press, 1992.
Duration:
24 mins |
 Silent |
 Standard 8 |
 Colour |
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6 Comments
I think that the bridge that is shown being demolished at the end of the film is the one that used to carry the line over York Road towards Selby.
Hi. I live in HW Lyons old house up Londesborough Road and have been looking with interest at local history. Have you looked at the pics on Flickr of MW station? http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/3032062178/in/set-72157616098629069/ I have only lived in MW for just over a year so still patching the history together. Was the crossing on Londesbrough Road itself? Thanks, Lou
Hello Lou,
I was a pupil at the secondary school in the early 60s and travelled the short journey from Market Weighton to the Londesborough station (Shiptonthorpe) almost daily. I left the area shortly before the station closed.
The crossing from estimation looking at Google Maps would have been about 30 yards or so north of the Londesborough Road and Hall Road intersection. Probably around the left turn drive of the factory turning. There is little evidence of it.
Interesting also to note in the film showing the platform, there is a small section at the end of main building which was the station cafe. It's on the York bound side at the end (towards the crossing).
The manager's son (I believe it was his son) went to the same school (Peter Utley). I wonder what happened to them when the station closed?
At 18.52 you see a house and the footbridge over the line. Just found it on streetview. The house you see is right opposite the entrance to Healan foods, so locates the exact point of the crossing :)
Actually, ever so slightly, there are a couple of thin delves that run across the Londesborough Road there, you can feel them when you drive over them. I'm guessing this is from where the line used to lay.
Just shows why now the roads are congested with traffic - BUT have you noticed how this is the only piece of line to be built on (this is done so they cannot re-open the line) plus they take one or two bridges out....
I remember as a child playing on the old Station and stood watching the demolition of the Railway Station.
Now I live in a House that's built literally where the Platform was,more towards the old Station Masters House.
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