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Contributors:
© Reproduction prohibited /
David Hey /
Nigel Callaghan / John Ferguson / Layla Smith
/ L.H.E.S / David Taylor / Lost
Railways |
The Route
From Leeds Central station to Harrogate via Leeds Wortley
junction,
Headingley, Horsforth, Arthington, Weeton & Pannal.
Opening 1848
Opened in 1848 originally by the Leeds Northern Railway & the East and
West Yorkshire Junction Railway. Both of which later became the North
Eastern Railway.
Leeds Central station was jointly owned by the NER and the Lancashire
and Yorkshire Railway. The line terminated in Harrogate at the Brunswick
Station opened in 1848.
Brunswick Station closed in 1862 when the new station was opened in
Harrogate.
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 Headingley station facing north (02-05-05)
: Lost Railways
Built around 1849 for the Leeds & Thirsk railway.
Don't know when it stopped being used as a station building.
Still intact & well kept in 2005. |
 Headingley
station facing south (02-05-05) : Lost Railways
Trackside showing original low level platform &
some serious fencing. |
Headingley station memories : Mike Scargill
We went to live in Headingley Mount in 1950. It
was a station then, because I can remember getting tickets at the ticket
office. It probably closed around 1955 or so. There was a working goods
yard & shed. Wagons to be unloaded were delivered & pushed up an
inclined siding, which backed onto the tunnel under Kirkstall Lane.
There was a stone goods shed & hand crane. The yard used the 3 wheel
mechanical horse for deliveries.
The station was sold & used as offices for a firm for many years & they
looked after it well, which will account for its condition now.
The goods yard was let out & a glass firm was in the shed for many
years. I used to buy glass there. They were one of the few places that
understood & sold flashed opal glass. The rest of the land was slowly
sold & built on, until it is as seen now. There was also the inevitable
coal merchant, in the days when you could leave coal out, & it would
still be there in the morning. (probably with an Alsatian dog as well)
You crossed under the line to get to the Leeds platform. There was an
unmanned level crossing towards the Harrogate side, now an underpass,
which was built because someone tried to cross in a car when a train was
coming & got hit.
There was still a club in the fields to cross the line for, Queenswood
club today. When DMUs were introduced, to replace steam services, the
drivers found they could play tunes with the horns. I know they were
told to stop doing so, after complaints. One used to play Come to the
cookhouse door.
We came from Cardigan road, where my grandfather ran the Hargreaves coal
yard there. (Its a builders yard now) He was Hargreaves first employee,
when the firm was started. Probably about 1900. He had worked at the
Midland goods yard, now crown point in Hunslet until then.
We used to check our mantel clock by the Harrogate Pullman 1545? It was
normally drawn by an A4, so the chime whistle was obvious.
I vividly remember at night, listening to overloaded goods, slipping all
the way up the banking, at the end of the war period, before they could
get a footing. Hope this hasn't rambled too much. |
 Bramhope
tunnel south portal (22-03-06) Nigel Callaghan
The south portal of Bramhope Tunnel. The one your
rarely see, and much harder to find and reach.
The tunnel, constructed between 1845-1849, two miles in
length.
The labour force consisted of 2300 men. |
 Bramhope
tunnel north portal (01-05-05) : Lost Railways
Piss poor photo of the north portal.
The railway ran through
the estates of some local gent called William Rhodes.
Apparently this
portal was made to look like a garden building to keep the old guy
quiet. See next bunch of loads better shots & captions from John & Layla. |
 Bramhope tunnel north portal 31-05-06 :
John Ferguson & Layla Smith
Website -
www.flickr.com/photos/32763322@N00
First glimpse! We took a treacherous route down
the short steep embankment
to the level of the top of the portal, and Layla slid down on her bum.
We later found a shallower and less muddy route five yards to the left. |
 Bramhope
tunnel north portal 31-05-06 : John Ferguson & Layla Smith
I arrived down the embankment behind this shed,
which seemed to contain some plastic bags and a few rolls of plastic
piping. There is a good wide and fairly stable area of ballast to the
side of the track, to keep a safe distance, but it's covered in nettles. |
 Bramhope
tunnel north portal 31-05-06 : John Ferguson & Layla Smith
The larger eastern tower from the top of the
portal. The inside of this tower has a number of stories of rooms which
once provided accomodation for some workers during the original
construction. We suspect this meant a handful of designers, foremen and
artisans, rather than the 2500 navvies on site. The interior of the
tower is accessible since vandals have broken down the breezeblocks that
previously blocked the entrance. We didn't dare go in as there were only
two of us and some of the stonework looked a little dilapidated, but a
week later a group of us went down and found that the inside seems
reasonably sound, although the steps are steep and dark and covered in
junk. |
 Bramhope
tunnel north portal 31-05-06 : John Ferguson & Layla Smith
Woo! waited about 15 minutes to get this shot of a
DMU leaving the tunnel for York. |
 Bramhope
tunnel north portal 31-05-06 : John Ferguson & Layla Smith
View of the top of the crenelations. A Leeds coat
of arms is situated above the tunnel, |
 Bramhope
tunnel north portal 31-05-06 : John Ferguson & Layla Smith
and a slightly weird head peers off the keystone. |
 Bramhope
tunnel north portal 31-05-06 : John Ferguson & Layla Smith
The northernmost ventilation shaft, in the grounds
of the scout hut just off the A660 in Bramhope,
and Layla, providing us with a sense of scale. |
 Otley
church yard Bramhope tunnel monument (01-05-05) : Lost Railways
Monument to the 23 people killed during the
construction of the nearby Bramhope tunnel.
Made to look like the north portal, the monument was rebuilt using local stone back in 1913. |
Arthington
 Arthington
sign (23-07-08) : Paul Holroyd
website - www.vintagecarriagestrust.org
Until Arthington closed on
20th March 1965, it was the junction for Pool in Wharfedale and Otley,
as well as the surviving line to Harrogate, Knaresborough and York. This
running in board from Arthington is displayed in the cafeteria of Bolton
Abbey station, on the preserved Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway. |
Harrogate
Brunswick Tunnel & Air Raid Shelter Exploration by the Leeds Historical
Expedition Society 26-01-08
See more at -
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=265602590&blogID=351327703
This is the L.H.E.S pictorial record of our January the 26th 2008
trip to Harrogate to document Brunswick tunnel abandoned since 1862.
This little known about tunnel has also been rumoured to have been
utilized as an air raid shelter during WWII. There is very little
documentation or records of this tunnel to be found anywhere. The
intrepid investigators of the Leeds Historical Expedition Society are
about to put the record straight and document one of Harrogates lost
pieces of railway heritage for future generations. We hope you enjoy
reading about our story.
A great scoop for the L.H.E.S indeed. |
 The
2008 layout.
The abandoned Brunswick tunnel and station line in red. The
present day 1862 N.E.R route in blue. |
 South
portal
The last trains to negotiate this stretch of line was an incredible 126
years ago. After negotiating some treacherous terrain we catch a glimpse
of the South portal. Mother nature is hard at work keeping this tunnel a
hidden.
Due to the deep swamp conditions in the cutting this is as far back as
you can get to photograph the portal. |
 Brunswick
Tunnel
Brunswick tunnel is 400yds long with stone built
walls and brick lined roof arch, There are no refuges or air shafts
within the tunnel but it is in remarkably good condition. You can see
the indents in the tunnel floor were the sleepers used to be and there
is very little debris or vandalism once inside. |
Air Raid Shelter
 Once
through the door at the end of the tunnel we could survey the air raid
shelter. A concrete floor had been laid with a 6' high brick lined wall
lining the tunnel. Brick piers had been built to support a long wooden
bench both sides of the tunnel. You can see the remains of 'cubicles in
all four corners of the shelter, These appeared to have been make shift
toilets. We had heard the walls had been white washed during the war
years but we could see no evidence of this. This is the view looking
back towards the tunnel entrance. |
 Air
Raid Shelter
Close up detail of the brick bench piers and the
corner W.C closets.
Beyond the door way you can just make out the stairs that lead up to
street level on Leeds road. |
 Air
Raid Shelter
Looking up the air raid shelter stairs,
A narrow passage is at the top of the stairs on the right leading to the
final flight of stairs to street level. |
 Air
Raid Shelter
There is some magnificent stalagmites hanging from
the roof 4-5' long in places.
The blue 'glare' is daylight at the tunnel entrance 400yds away. |
 Air
Raid Shelter
Here we can see the 1848 stonework of the tunnel
portal next to the WWII concrete and brick modifications. It's amazing
to thing were stood looking at a railway tunnel abandoned for 126yrs and
at the same time an air raid shelter abandoned for 68 years. There was
evidence of electric cabling suggesting there had been a light and power
supply down here during the war years. |
 Langwith
Avenue
The tunnel runs directly under the whole length of Langwith Avenue. |
 Brunswick
Tunnel, Yorkshire Evening Post article (31-01-08) |
Brunswick Station plaque stone
  Apart
from the plaque stone there is very little to suggest this was the site
of Harrogate's first railway station. Due to it closing so long ago
there are no photographs of the station, but it is thought to have been
built of a wooden construction as opposed to the later day stone and
brick method.
The Brunswick hotel can be seen in the distance.
See more at -
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=265602590&blogID=351327703 |
Leeds - Harrogate - Northallerton
 Crimple
Lower Viaduct (17-10-09) : David Taylor
When opened in 1849 by the Leeds & Thirsk Railway (later the Leeds
Northern) the line by-passed Harrogate whose nearest station on that
line was at Starbeck. The line crossed under the Y&NMR's Church Fenton -
Harrogate line and over Crimple Beck on the 10 arch Crimple Lower
Viaduct.
In 1859 a spur was built from the L&TR at Pannal Junction up to the Y&NMR
at Crimple Junction, between Prospect Tunnel and Crimple Viaduct, giving
Leeds trains a direct line in to Harrogate centre. A spur was built
northwards from Harrogate Station to re-join the L&TR at Bilton
Junction. The original L&TR line from Pannal Junction to Starbeck was
closed in 1951. (As kids in the days before Health & Safety madness we
used to play on the viaduct, although it was surrounded by farmland not
then a golf course.) |
Nidd Gorge viaduct (17-10-09) :
David Taylor
 North
of Harrogate the line crossed the Nidd Gorge on a 7 arch stone viaduct.
The line north of Harrogate closed to passenger in 1967 and to goods in
1969. It was a very busy line carrying Liverpool - Newcastle expresses
as well as other traffic to many North East towns. A1, A2, A3 and A4s
were all a familiar sights with of course the D49 Hunt Class on local
trains. Much of the track between Starbeck and the Nidd Viaduct is a
public footpath. |
 Arthington
Viaduct (17-10-09) : David Taylor
Not lost or closed but can't have a piece on this line without a photo
of the 21 arch Arthington Viaduct over the Wharfe. |
 Kirkstall
Viaduct (17-10-09) : David Taylor
And if Arthington then how about the 23 arch Kirkstall Viaduct,
then that's all the viaducts on this line bar a metal trough one at
Ripon which was demolished some years ago to make way for the City
centre by-pass thus dashing hopes of re-connecting the line from
Harrogate to Northallerton but - - - -
http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/2004/5/14/52376.html |
