Local History

Along the route of the Leeds New Line...

Drive through Heckmondwike today and the chances are you will find yourself queuing through the town centre. If you find yourself thinking you might prefer to "let the train take the strain" it has to be said it's been quite some time since trains ran through the town, yet a glance at some of the street names - Station Road, Station Lane, Railway Street - suggests this wasn't always the case.

Traffic queuing in the centre of Heckmondwike

We are walking along part of the Spen Valley Greenway with Huddersfield-based railway historian David Webdale. Today this is a place where people come to ride their bikes or walk their dogs but just a few yards  long the path David tells us we are standing on the platform of what was Heckmondwike Central Station. He points to an old photo: "That's about where we are stood. That little metal bridge, it's sort of there. You can imagine we are stood on a platform or a bit of track. Unless you know, you wouldn't have any idea."

The former railway line is now a traffic-free way

Now converted into a cycleway, we are actually following the Cleckheaton branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Opened in 1847 it went from Mirfield to Low Moor in Bradford. Heckmondwike Central, Cleckheaton Central and Liversedge Central stations all closed on June 14th, 1965. These were just a few of the closures proposed in The Reshaping of British Railways, published by the British Railways Board in 1963, and now almost universally referred to as the Beeching Report. The list of proposed "passenger service, line and station closures" attached to the report still contains a few surprises. If all Dr Beeching's suggestions had been carried out then it's likely that today Ilkley would be without a railway station. But it's not all been bad news for West Yorkshire's rail travellers - some stations like Slaithwaite have reopened while West Yorkshire Metro have plans to reopen a station at Low Moor in the near future. This time, though, the station will only be used by passengers between Halifax and Bradford Interchange, and beyond.

Railway historian David Webdale

This competition between rival companies and railway lines can still be seen right here in the centre of Heckmondwike. We make our way back across Heckmondwike's High Street and past some new houses in Old Station Court. Turning the corner we are more than a little bit surprised to see not one, but several, railway bridges. David says: "What we are looking at now is the Leeds New Line." It was curiosity about a different section of this very same line that first sparked off David's interest in old railway lines: "I used to pass it on the way through Mirfield because there's a bit of a viaduct there. I just wondered what it was for and the deeper you delve, the more you find."

The death knell for some West Yorkshire stations?

Looking back at the Beeching report today, we tend to think about the closed stations and the effects this had on towns and villages. The bulk of the report, though, is given over to an analysis of the network of railway lines and to freight traffic. David wonders if that might have always been the case: "I think carrying passengers was an afterthought for most railway companies, especially around here because of the mills. When you start losing your mills you start losing the need for the railway to supply them."

A sign there was once a busy station on this spot

Because this line was relatively late in arriving, the stations on this route had the word 'Spen' tacked on to them while those on the earlier route became 'central' stations. Back where Old Station Close joins the road you can still make out marks in the stone work. Together with the old gateway next to the bridge this is all that remains of Heckmondwike Spen railway station. David says: "The best thing about railways is that they wanted to bring them in to the middle of towns whereas, with motorways, they try and steer them around the edges. With a railway like this, it comes right through the middle of town and you wouldn't even notice."

This Cleckheaton Central sign has found a new home

Despite David's lack of confidence in the nation's commitment to its rail network, David is optimistic about its future: "I think trains will be pretty much the same because nothing really changes that much. It's still two lines with metal wheels on it. Whether you drag it with a horse or with electricity, it's pretty much the same idea." And he's got his own recommendations for making the trains run on time: "Personally I'd like to see it nationalised. Get a plan together, get it nationalised. I mean, they've done that with the banks so I'm sure they can do it with something useful."

Heckmondwike Central [(c) Mark Anthony Astley]

[The Spen Valley Greenway is part of the National Cycle Network's Route 66 and stretches for 10km from Oakenshaw to Thornhill near Dewsbury. Signs, a signalling instrument and other objects from the two former Spen Valley railway lines can be seen at the Ingrow Railway Centre near Keighley.]