Lost Railway lines – By Rail to Otley – A talk by Professor Mike Dixon

THIS was a trip down memory lane for many of the capacity audience at Otley Courthouse last Friday and particularly for me. Back in the early 60s as a schoolboy at Prince Henry’s I would usually travel from my home in Horsforth on the “school special” bus. However, if this failed to turn up, which was quite a regular occurrence during the harsh winter of 1963, those of us catching the bus outside the Old Ball Public House would dash down to Horsforth Station. From here we would catch the 0827 train travelling through Bramhope Tunnel, Arthington and Pool to arrive in Otley at 0843. It was then a run or quick walk down Station Road, through the town centre, over the bridge and through the park to get to school in time for registration at 9 o’clock.

Mike Dixon’s talk was split into three parts. Firstly, the arrival of the railway between Arthington and Burley in the 1860s, how this came about and the problems encountered on some sections of the line; secondly the demise and closure of this line in the mid-1960s and finally his tracing of the line on the ground today.

In the first part, Mike talked about how the Lancashire & Yorkshire North Eastern Railway and the Leeds & Thirsk Railway joined forces to bring lines from Leeds and Bradford into Wharfedale by two differing routes, one going from Leeds to Apperley Bridge and then up to Guiseley, Menston, Burley, Ben Rhydding and Ilkley with also the spur coming in at Guiseley from Bradford and Shipley whilst the second route came from Leeds via Horsforth and then Arthington, Pool and into Otley from where it headed west up to Burley and up to Ilkley on the aforementioned line. Junctions were built at Menston, Burley, Milnerwood, and Arthington to integrate and join these new lines.

He also talked about onward routes from this area during the early part of the twentieth century with weekend and holiday excursions from Otley going westwards to Ilkley and then on the line to Addingham, Bolton Abbey, Embsay, Skipton and out to Blackpool and eastwards down to Pool and Arthington and then north-eastern out via Harrogate to York and on to the east coast resorts of Saltburn, Whitby or Scarborough.

As well as these holiday excursions there were also regular freight trains running between the two coasts with ammonia being taken in rail tankers from the industrial plants at Saltburn over to Heysham to be converted into fertiliser.

The second part of the talk, up to the interval, concentrated on the demise of the railway and the closure of the Arthington to Burley section and the Ilkley to Skipton route. This was as a result of the Beeching report and the name of the infamous Dr Beeching brought a series of boos from the audience. We saw photographs of the lines and bridges being dismantled in a time before Health & Safety regulations were fully in force with rails being cut with oxy-acetylene torches by operatives wearing no hand or eye protection. Otley’s station closed on Saturday March 20 1965.

After the interval, Mike talked about his recent tracing of the former Arthington to Burley line and showed the audience where it is still possible to see (and walk on) sections of the line, the support uprights of former bridges and foundations of old stations, signal boxes and engine sheds. Some of the pictures he taken of these had included seeing owners of properties down in Pool and Arthington to obtain permission to go to the end of their properties to find items at the bottom of gardens and in copses.

Throughout the evening the talk was punctuated with much humour as well as many interesting facts by a speaker who has an intimate knowledge of his subject. A well deserved long round of applause ended a most interesting evening.

by John Burland