Garsdale to Hawes

Starting Point - Garsdale Station. Finishing Point - Former Hawes Station. Distance 7 Miles.

Google Map

Garsdale station is one of the more remote stops on the Settle & Carlisle Railway, prior to the building of the line there were just a few houses and farms in the area with a small settlement known as Clough nearby. Garsdale gained a station as it was the junction with a 6 mile branch to Hawes, in fact the station began life with the name Hawes Junction. At Hawes the Midland Railway's branch from Garsdale met the North Eastern Railway's Wensleydale branch. Through passenger trains were generally operated by the NER with the exception of a daily train between Hawes and Hellifield further south on the Midland route. The closure of the route pre-dates the infamous Beeching cuts with the former North Eastern passenger services discontinued in 1954 and the token former Midland service ending in 1959. The line closed to goods as far as Redmire on the former NER route in 1964, between Redmire and Northallerton it remained in use for stone traffic and military traffic in to recent years resulting in that part of the route being preserved as the Wensleydale Railway.

The Wensleydale Railway aim to eventually extend westwards towards Garsdale, there have also been recent proposals to reopen Garsdale to Hawes to make a useful railway connection to the popular tourist destination. Details of this, together with a lot more information on the route can be found on the Upper Wensleydale Railway website.

Rail Map Online view

The old maps covering Garsdale to Hawes are a smaller scale than the ones I usually use due to what maps are available online. The route is split across two pages. On map 1 Garsdale, or rather Hawes Junction is at the top left of the page and Hawes is at the middle right, a little bit of the route goes off the top of map 1 and on to the bottom of map 2.

1896 Map (1) 1895 Map (2)

Opened in 1876 Hawes Junction station greatly increased the population of the area as 16 railway cottages were provided for railway workers, these survive as the private houses seen alongside the Carlisle bound platform. Like other railway housing built along the route the buildings used local stone but their design was more like that of the railway cottages built in Derby than the existing housing of the Yorkshire Dales. A small Methodist chapel was also built close to the Dandry Mire Viaduct just north of the station, this also still survives. A turntable was provided for turning locomotives arriving from the Wensleydale line, this survives but at Keighley on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. The turntable pit can be seen on the Google map satellite images (or by switching Rail Map Online to show Satellite images), in winter when the vegetation is thin it can be seen from passing trains but the site is not accessible. Also still to be seen north of the station before crossing the viaduct are the sidings on the east side of the Carlisle line which still survive and the embankment of the former Wensleydale line curving off towards Hawes.

On the southbound platform a statue of the dog Ruswarp remembers the dog who waited by the body of his master (Graham Nuttall; one of the campaigners who fought for the line to stay open) for 11 weeks until he was found. The platform was once an island platform with lines either side. At the back of the building on the platform was once the platform for trains to Hawes and beyond.

Below - The building on the platform at Garsdale showing where the platform for Wensleydale line trains once stood. Note the blocked up doorways.

Below - A Northern service crossing Dandry Mire Viaduct. Looking throuch the arches the embankment of the Wensleydale branch can be seen.

This is sadly not an old railway walk, it would make a great one if it was. The trackbed to Hawes is not accessible, though there have also been schemes to make it so lately. Instead my route to Hawes had to follow the A684 which roughly parallels the former railway route on the north side most of the way. I also travelled by bicycle as a practical way of getting around other sights in the area on a two day break. On the way I stopped off at some of the sights along the route. 

Passing the chapel on the right and passing under the railway another group of railway cottages can be seen, these were built a short time after those next to the station. The Moorcock Inn also survives, I called there on my way back to Garsdale.

With the railway on the right hand side it goes from cutting to embankment as the road follows the contours of the land. Two bridges survive, one for Moorland Cottage and one for a stream, the former railway then curves south and in to Mossdale Tunnel. the tunnel and subsequent Mossdale Viaduct survive. Mossdale Viaduct can be seen from public bridalways that cross under it. I didn't check out Mossdale Viaduct, with the railway running further south from the road I picked up the trackbed again at Appersett. Leaving the A684 on Lanacar Lane, this road passes under Appersett Viaduct.

Below - A short detour off the road was the water fall Cotter Force.

Below - An old lime kiln seen on the right hand side of the road approaching Appersett.

Below - Appersett Viaduct.

Approaching Hawes the railway crossed over the road on a bridge which has now been removed, a caravan park occupies the trackbed on the left hand (east) side of the road at this point. The line ran to the north of Hawes on an embankment which survives.

Below - The embankment taking the railway past Hawes to the north on the approach to the former station, this view was from the car park next to the Post Office.

The station site also survives and is now occupied by the Dales Countryside Museum. Displays are in the former goods shed and an adjoining modern building as well as in a few railway carriages in the former westbound platform. The loco is painted to represent a British Railways engine but is in fact a former industrial loco.

Below - The former Hawes station. Note that although the buildings are of Midland Railway design similar to those on the Settle & Carlisle Line they are painted in the blue colour of BR's Eastern Region rather than the maroon of the Midland region.

Below - The entrance to the station, now a bike shop and cafe. The museum entrance is on the right.

Below - The former goods shed.

Also at the station site the former station master's house survives, now a private residence.

After a visit to the museum my first day at Hawes included a visit to one of the other top tourist attractions, the Wensleydale Creamery where Wensleydale cheese is made.

Day Two included a walk up Great Shunner Fell, the third highest peak in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. I cycled to Hardraw where I locked up my bike and continued on foot on the Pennine Way. The footpath largely follows what the old maps (map 2) show as the Hearne Coal Road. Evidence can be seen of the bell pits once used to extract coal that would have been used by several other local industries.

Further details of the 10 Mile walk can be found on the All Trails website.

Below - Former pit shafts on the way up Great Shunner Fell.

Below - View of Ingleborough and Whernside from the top of Great Shunner Fell, the three highest peaks of the Yorkshire Dales National Park in one shot.

After walking back to Hardraw and retrieving my bike I picked up the A684 north of Appersett via the road named Below Hill and returned to Garsdale station. With a bit of time to wait for a train and a bit of a thirst from the walking I called in at the Moorcock Inn for a Wensleydale Brewery beer.

Pudsey Loop

Starting Point - Pudsey Lowtown station site. Finishing Point - Tyersall Lane. Distance 1.7 Miles

I cycled from home and locked my bike up close to the site of Pudsey Lowtown station to explore part of the Pudsey Loop on foot.  

Rail Map Online view

The main line from Bradford Interchange to Leeds was and still is the route through Stanningley. Stanningley station closed in 1968 having been replaced by New Pudsey about a mile to the west which was designed as a park and ride facilities for the communities that lost their railway when the Pudsey Loop closed in 1964. The Pudsey Loop was begun as a dead end branch from Stanningley to Pudsey Greenside in 1878. The line was later extended to meet other lines in and around Bradford to the west and an east facing chord was added at the eastern end of the line to meet the main line in the Leeds direction at Bramley making the line in to a loop that provided an alternative route between Bradford and Leeds.

More information about the Pudsey Loop line can be found on the Wikipedia article.

Pudsey Lowtown

1935 Map

Below - The road named Lowtown crossed the former railway on a bridge. The bridge has been filled but the bridge girders are still in situ. Pudsey Lowtown station was on the right hand side. The houses of Crimbles Place have been built on the former station site. To the left a footpath follows the course of the railway north to Mount Pleasant. The cutting has been filled in but the reservoir and footbridge shown in the old map survive, the bridge is filled to the bottom of its stone arches but the site was quite overgrown at the time of my visit so I didn't get photos.

1935 Map

South of Crimbles Place, Longfield Court has been built on the former railway, though south of this a stretch of trackbed is now a footpath to New Street Grove.

Below - Looking along the former railway from Longfield Court. The wall that separated the road from the Ravens Mount road can be seen on the left.

Robin Lane crossed the railway on a bridge, again the bridge has been filled up to deck height but the bridge girders are still in situ, the footpath slopes up to the filled in bridge to cross the road at road level.

1921 Map

It's a similar story at Ratcliffe Lane and South Parade and New Street where the footpath climbs to road height to cross at road level, the bridge girders of all three are still in situ. West of New Street the houses of New Street Grove have been built on the former railway land, this was once the extensive goods yard of Pudsey Greenside station.

Pudsey Greenside

From New Street Grove a path connects to Carlisle Drive which follows the former roadway in to the goods yard and emerges on Carlisle Road. The former station site itself is now occupied by industrial units. The Carlisle Road bridge has not been filled in, however the trackbed beneath it is inaccessible behind the industrial units.

Below - Looking west from Carlisle Road bridge the entrance to Greenside tunnel can be seen. A start was made on filling the steep cutting on the approach to the tunnel but this work was stopped and a campaign is ongoing to reopen the tunnel as a foot and cycle path.

The tunnel currently being inaccessible means a detour along the streets. The track from Smalewell Road that accessed the quarry is still in existence, including the bridge that crossed the railway just west of the tunnel.

Below - View of the west portal of Greenside Tunnel

Below - The bridge that took the track across the railway to the quarry.

A path also follows the course of a short branch that served a local quarry. At the site of the junction rubble of some of the buildings and some large stone blocks can be seen.

The path continues on a high embankment until it reaches Tyersall Lane, the bridge here has been removed and the path descends the embankment to Tyersall Lane. 

Below - The removed bridge over Tyersall Lane.

 West of here the trackbed is on private land. The embankment continues to the point shown on the old map where the line went from embankment to cutting, the cutting has been filled in though. Searching on the satellite map and streetview (accessible from Rail Map Online in the options on the right of the page) reveals that the rest of the route up to the double triangle junction is now filled in cuttings, though bridge girders are still in situ at the site of the filled in bridges. I however returned to Lowtown. I have previously mentioned Laisterdyke where the loop was accessed from the Bradford direction in my Rails Around Bradford walk.