Lost Railways of Yorkshire: The Hudson Way (York - Hull via Beverley)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2021
- Welcome to my new railway series on the Lost Railways of Yorkshire! This episode, we look at the history of the railway line that connected York and Hull via Beverley, Market Weighton, Pocklington and Stamford Bridge, and the downfall of its creator, The Railway King, George Hudson.
If you're anything like me, viewing historical Ordnance Survey maps side by side with modern satellite views will certainly eat up far too much of your time!
maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/index...
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He's gone and done it again hasn't he folks! Yet another brilliant & interesting history lesson for his subscribers....Top stuff.
My dad travelled to school in York on this line. I live not far from a part of the Beverley track, but to this day have never walked along it. Must make it a priorty now!!
I remember travelling from Hull to York on the last train on this line. The train was hauled by LNER Class B1 61306
I thought I'd seen some B1s on some of the photos in my research on this episode!
Why, oh, why, oh, why does the council, having repaired the bridge at Stamford Bridge, then allow trees to sprout out of the masonry?! You see it on all railway property and it drives me mad. Any householder knows that allowing anything to grow out of drains, gutters and brickwork turns out very expensive before too long.
Just about the best I’ve found on You Tube. Cracking delivery to camera and very informative history!
I love it, well done!
Thankyou, though I'm sure there are plenty of better channels out there! If you really like the old railways, you should check out the Whitewicks channel, they do loads of abandoned railways and tramways down south!
Brilliant,Yet again. My Great Grandparents Grandparents and Mother took this line many many times from York to Weighton.They alighted at Weighton then walked,Yes walked to their Family Home in North Newbald.Mother last took the Train round about 1960.Regards.
Absolutely brilliant and certainly broadcast standard. I’ve watch most if not all all of your videos, great work.
What a wonderful film. Thank you.
Brilliant! Thank you for all your endeavour. I firmly believe in the rebuilding of this line, there are many reasons for its reinstatement, in particular the volumes of road traffic in the Stamford Bridge - Pocklington - Market Weighton which will, Im afraid become more and more congested. Well done and a great insite into this wonderful piece of history.
It would be awesome to see, should the money ever come forward. It's a terrible road and the more commuters they can move onto trains the better in my opinion. Not only is it safer for the roads, but it's better for the environment too.
@@hullhistorynerd It could always be rebuilt as a tramway: I'm sure Nottingham or Sheffield could show anybody how to do it!
@@petermolloy6142 I once had a thought of powering the railcars on this line by gyroscopic energy, rechargeable at various suitable points along the line.
I thought that would be quite environmentally friendly.
Fascinating insight... as a child I can (only just) remember the silhouette of a steam train and glowing firebox as it travelled over the Stamford Bridge Road bridge towards the viaduct crossing... I am 61 so it must have been just before the Dr B's axe came down... oh, and about politics... much the same as what is happening in 2021... conflict of interest, but carry on, nothing to see here!
Thank you!
The wife and I really look forward to your videos, they make for the best Sunday evening viewing, thank you 👍
Glad you enjoy them!
An interesting fact about Hudson - after losing his seat, he escaped to France and abandoned his London home... Which is now the French Embassy
Ha, didn't know that about his old home! Very interesting!
@@hullhistorynerd Yep... One could almost say that the UK and France were connected in regards to railways before the Chunnel was built
That was an excellent video, well worth waiting for. The closure of this line was strongly contested at the time, and there have been allegations that the figures for passenger use and profitability were manipulated in order to make it appear that the line was unprofitable and so could be closed. Many people since have pointed out that travelling by road from Hull to York now often takes longer than it did by rail.
There are two videos on TH-cam showing Market Weighton Station - one, of the station's last days and the demolition of bridges (done, from the look of it, with unseemly haste) and the other showing a reconstruction of Market Weighton Station and its surroundings in a model railway layout (inside Beverley Minster!). Someone obviously spent a long time re-creating all the buildings and finding engines, rolling stock, and vehicles to make it realistic. There's even a steam traction engine, if you look closely. A labour of love. This takes up only the first 4 minutes of the video; it should have had longer.
The last days of Market Weighton (one of a series of old films, from East Riding of Yorkshire Council) -
th-cam.com/video/IKFfDVsN0_U/w-d-xo.html
- or (much better picture quality, and no music)
www.yfanefa.com/record/2018
Market Weighton Station, model railway layout -
th-cam.com/video/ZG7sWYJ1vMA/w-d-xo.html
Great links, thankyou! Nice to see what it would have looked like before demolition! I was purposefully light on Market Weighton in this video as I do plan to go back again to discuss the other lines that came to the town and how it ended up becoming a nexus for railways in the Wolds!
Another interesting point is that this was one of the three lines specially selected as in-depth case studies in the Beeching Report. It's a good read if you want to understand the mental gymnastics they were using to justify the closure on financial grounds. Aside from the aforementioned "It's an unnecessary duplicate route" argument the basic conclusion was "Yes the line makes money but we'd make even more money through savings if it didn't exist!" 🧐
Yes, had I known that earlier I would have popped it into the Hudson Way video, which really focuses more on the Beeching closures. Would have then given a nice link to this video!
My understanding is the line was profitable in that it covered day to day costs such as wages, fuel for the locos etc, but once maintenance was factored in it was losing money.
Nice video. I lived in Beverley & can vaguely remember going to York on this railway line. Later İ lived right next to the old line, & it was my usual morning & evening dog walk. I also walked & cycled on the Hudson Way quite often.
As with many old railways, it does make for a lovely walk.
Very interesting facts brought up in this video about the sacrifice of a picturesque line for self interests.good reporting thank you.
a line that should off never been closed hoply it will reopen one day
Glad you managed to get your drone. I used to live in Market Weighton, although it would be nice to see the line reinstated I have my doubts it will happen.
Yes, I agree, it would be great but very unlikely; railways are very expensive to build and I don't think there's the stomach for it in government, despite what they say. The drone is going to get a much more lengthy workout in the next episode, looking at the Spurn Military Railway!
Again such an informative video its not just about showing us these lines but all the history and the characters behind them.
I think that's the important thing; to understand the personalities and stories behind these endeavours is fascinating and makes sense of a lot of things. Ultimately, I think history is made up of human beings doing human things, and whilst showing the remnants of the line is important, it's the story behind those artefacts that really is the interesting bit!
Another cracking video. I’ve taken my mountain bike over the Hudson trail many times, nice to know the history.
I heard recently... They looked into reinstating the Beverley to York line, but since parts of the original line has been destroyed/developed and buildings had been otherwise had a change of use/become houses etc it would need new routing and new buildings or compulsory purchasing so potentially be eye wateringly expensive. NIMBYism at its finest.
What a strange closure. Surely, one of the least easy to defend? I suppose it ran through safe Tory constituencies so Harold Wilson didn't feel under any pressure to keep it open. But all the same... Another excellent video. Thanks!
Love these videos, they’re so informative and professional, outstanding work! Living in Beverley, I would love to see the line reopened before I shuffle of this mortal coil, it’s ridiculous that it takes so long to get to York or we can’t just hop on a train to Pocklington or Market Weighton, the bus is so slow! Even the last train back to Bev from Hull is way too early for a proper night out in Hull and no point in a night out in York unless you overnight there, such a shame! How can we quantify the loss since they ripped out the line?!
Brilliant video and so well researched. I knew a little about the line, but didn't know that it was busy and profitable. Beeching and Marples, the gruesome twosome, Tory puppets!
Well worth the wait, its takes as long as it takes. Lots of lost railways in East Yorkshire to explore alone before considering the rest of Yorkshire.
Absolutely, and that's where I'll be starting!
Another very interesting and informative video. I hope you keep making them. Your videos are far more interesting than any large budget TV production. I always look forward to your new videos.
Thankyou for the kind words, and I certainly have no plans to stop making videos! Next one is tomorrow evening on something a little different - the history of the Class 37 diesel locomotive!
Really enjoy these videos...more,more,more.
You'll be happy to know that I've got another two Lost Railways episodes coming over summer; one on the Scarborough-Whitby line, and another on the Whitby & Pickering Railway - better known today as the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It may not quite have been lost, but it has a fascinating history nonetheless!
Brilliant series!!👍
Yes I remember this line in the 1960s when as an 8 year old I was packed off to Woodleigh School from Hull alighting at Pocklington station. Then the line closed and we had to go by coach.
Yes, all the accounts I've seen suggest that the coaches were far from regular enough to replace the loss of the railway, and would remain inadequate for many years.
Very interesting documentary and well presented.
Thankyou👍
Brilliant video again mate, fascinating stuff as always. Had a walk on it from Kiplingcoates a few weeks back. What a mess they made of our infrastructure and architecture in the 50s and 60s.
Always a good read 😄
This was a real treat. We say down as a family and really enjoyed it. Well done my friend, great series.
We are really looking forward to the next episode.
That's awesome to hear, really glad you enjoyed it!
Nicely done and presented ...I live in Florida and have never been to England, but enjoy English history especially the Industrial Revolution era .
This is amazing, and well worth the wait HHN!
Another interesting and well presented video. Thankyou.
It was worth waiting for this video. Wonderful series! Thank you.
Well done - again Ned. I'm old enough to remember Willerby station and the track being ripped up by a tank engine (not this line). After completing EY railways maybe you would look at EY villages or groups of villages? There's loads of photos, postcards and other material out there, and a keen audience.
I have an episode on that very line, the Hull and Barnsley! Over time I'm sure I'll end up covering all sorts of locations across the Riding!
As always with your presentations, excellent!
Thankyou, glad you enjoyed it! It won't be as long until the next one!
Beeching Marples and Harold Wilson (a Yorkshire Man,with a statue outside Huddersfield Station) had a lot to answer for,His Government also closed the "Pirate " radio station on the Yorkshire Coast Radio 270 🤔
A very welcome return to TH-cam. Fascinating story, well researched, and enjoyably scripted/presented. What more could you ask? I hope you'll consider the Pateley Bridge branch, the Leeds & Thirsk, and the lines which used to serve Wetherby as potential candidates. Carry on HHN!
Good tips for future research! Thanks! I'm starting local in the East Riding, but my plan is to start visiting lines further afield in North, West and South Yorkshire soon. I've already got episodes planned for the Scarborough-Whitby line and the Hull and Barnsley, so I'm always looking for other lines to investigate!
I criss cross those old lines, too, on my numerous cycle rides. Or cycle along the sections suitable for cycling. Such a shame Ripon station closed & the line with it. I cycled up to the old station the other week, now converted into housing but still a majestic building. Also investigated the old Masham railway station and the branch from Melmerby (if you haven't gathered, I love to find remnants of former railway lines on my cycle rides!)
Sad: someone needs too take some dam weedkiller up on that bridge at the opening and spray those bushes growing out of the brick work before the roots rip it apart. Can't believe things aren't done more often.
Thanks for this. My cycle rides criss cross this old line, so this video is really interesting. Ah, the dreaded Dr Beeching (a tool 😂😂😂)... Destroyed so many beautiful and popular routes. I cycle along many that are now cycle paths, although I prefer the lane running alongside the "Hudson Way" from Market Weighton, imagining trains running parallel on the railway before crossing the lane on that beautiful bridge.
Nice one HN. Always puzzled me about the closure of this section. Now I know more. Good one...
Absolutely Brilliant Sir. I hoping you find the time and resources to do some line history from my part of Yorkshire. The Scarborough & Whitby Railway & The Driffield to Malton Railway. Whatever you do, I shall be watching and enjoying.
The very next video on railways will be the Malton and Driffield! Might be a few weeks away though, as I've a lot of locations to visit, but watch this space! Scarborough to Whitby and the Whitby and Pickering lines are also in my sights over summer!
@@hullhistorynerd Thank You. Looking forward to that.
Superb as usual , i firmly believe this line will re-open and as a foot note there is about to be a statement made about costings, feasability etc' done very shortly , will look forward to more of these amazing uploads .
I'm a little more pessimistic; that kind of money is significant even on a government level, so I doubt we'll ever see it happen. I'd love it to be reopened, don't get me wrong; the idea of being able to hop on a train from Cottingham to York without having to go the long way round very much appeals to me!
Trouble now it’s One and half hours bus ride from Beverley to
York and exactly same on the Train now that the railway journey goes via Howden and Selby - how I wish it was still open now!
Excellent. Thank youi.
Cracking video thanks, really enjoyed it and the historic background of all your videos, please keep them coming just subscribed to your channel can't wait to see the next instalment
Glad you're enjoying them! Next video will be a return to the history of Hull's docks, possibly uploading either this weekend (if I'm lucky) or next.
I didnt even notice hair continuity , going to watch again now 🤣🤣
It was really obvious as I was editing it!
@@hullhistorynerd oh yeah 🤣🤣🤣
Great video. Good to see the drone in action. And every day’s a school day - I didn’t know it was Market “Weeton” not “Wayton”.
It depends where you live, I suspect both pronunciations are equally valid!
This is such an interesting video full of facts, I know this this area so well and many years ago bought a 'Railway Walks' book by Jeff Vinter, some of these lines are featured in the book and some of the stories related to as well. I always promised myself I would walk these lines myself but never got round to it, it's still on my bucket list but in the meantime please keep these coming, wonderful !
fantastic
Great stuff as always.
Another great local video. Well done.
Great video indeed 👍 ALWAYS worth the wait 😊
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
So excited for this series!
Me too! Next up is the very obscure yet wonderfully quirky Spurn Military Railway!
Apart from your excellent and soul-searching extensive historical narrative and visuals, H H N, I am entranced by the bird song (timestamp 14' 00", for example). Their wee, but related and mentally aware ancestors, have experienced all this 'stuff' before, long and weary.
Long may you run. Stay free. R 🍻😎 PS. Thank you for (at this moment) your just-received appreciation to my earlier 'input'. 💚
Sounded like a wren, a small bird with a remarkably loud 'voice'.
@@stevebrissle66 Sorry this is late, Steve: Thank you.
Rab 💚
Excellent video. I was going to do one on the same line, but it looks like you have it covered.
Go ahead, there's loads of stuff I trimmed to keep the story focussed on Hudson and the Beeching closure; I had originally scripted a big bit about Market Weighton losing almost all of its railway buildings, for example, and I didn't say anything at all about most of the other stations on the line! There's more than enough history to go around, and a different editorial slant can tell a very different story!
Mr. Nerd, greetings from Leipzig and thank you. I grew up in Beverley and frequently had to wait at the gates on my way to and from school.
I grew up in Cottingham and also remember having to wait at the crossing for passing trains many times!
Superb, as usual.
Thanks!
If folks would like the line to be rebuilt, like I do, you can 'like' our facebook page here facebook.com/minstersrailcampaign and website www.minstersrail.com/
Another fascinating film. Many thanks again for all your hard work creating it. Did I see drone footage?
Thankyou, and yes, you most certainly did! Bob has been rising to the occasion a couple of times during filming for this video. It was tough going though, as most of the line lies under no fly zones because of all the small local airfields, hence why I've not got much. The next video on the Spurn Military Railway, however, will only be limited by my drone's battery packs...
New stuff...Great!
Excellent as always, it would be nice to see it open again if the pot of money becomes available 👍
It really would!
This particular rail line & its sister line ( york to selby) were the biggest rail disasters in this area of Yorkshire. When Beeching shut these lines it became the biggest hypocritical covk up EVER. The roads in this area of Yorkshire have become utterly swamped with cars & trucks. The a66, a1079, a63 & a19 are all totally overcrowded.
These 2 rail lines if they had been kept open would have most definitely alleviated the present situation on the roads.
I have to agree, my partner sometimes works in York and it's still easier for her to drive than it is to get a train because of so many of the trains taking so long. The average time for a direct train is an hour and a half, and many of them require changes which makes the journey even longer. Seems mad that we had a perfectly profitable intercity line and it was closed in favour of making people travel further and at greater inconvenience!
"What would you find at Hull?" I seriously want to know the answer to this question; it's been bothering me for over thirty years. The quote is from the Williams & Searle book Down With Skool, and forms part of a parody geography examination. I live about as far from Hull as one can (Australia) and I have never found anybody who knows the answer, or should I say, anybody who could explain the joke to me. From the name of your channel, I believe that if anybody can help me, you can. (Unless perhaps you can direct me to Hull Geography Nerd?)
I'm afraid I've never heard of the question, so I'm not sure what the answer would be! It might be just the phrasing of it that's meant to be the funny bit rather than the place - "at Hull" instead of "in Hull".
@@hullhistorynerd Thank you for the reply. I get most of the humour in the book, despite it being set in the 1950s public school era, but that one has always puzzled me. Not to worry, I also like watching videos about old railways.
@@hullhistorynerd Agree, H H N. 'Perplexing' is only scratching the surface of this 'question'.
Here's to Pearson Park, Autumn 1971. My Darling Mary. 💖
Stay free. Rab 🍻😎
My favourite bridge
It is a beauty, isn't it?
If hull can pay for a obnoxious art piece in queens gardens for 1 million and spend 250 k on gates for guild hall then they can afford to put money to the project
Whilst I appreciate the sentiment, Hull city council has nothing to do with this line, it's entirely within the East Riding county council's region!
I cannot help feeling that removing the line adversely affected the economy of Hull - there are other towns in Britain where line closure commenced the process of decline. Rebuilding would doubtless benefit both Hull and York - and the costs you mention are, frankly, almost loose change - just lets not use the joke term 'levelling up'!
Sadly there were other, deeper problems that really hit Hull; the decline of the fishing industry being one, and the increasing use of giant container ships that could not reach Hull due to the deep water channel not being big enough. Immingham started to get all of the dock business that couldn't make it to Hull. It certainly didn't help, but Hull had far bigger problems in the 60s and 70s than losing a faster route to York!
It did however hugely impact Pocklington, Stamford Bridge and Market Weighton. Before the axe fell, Market Weighton was a railway hub, with a line to Selby, one to Driffield, and the Beverley to York line detailed here all passing through. Removing all of that must have been a tremendous blow to the mobility of the people of the town, especially those who relied on the train for commuting.
@@hullhistorynerd I didn't mean to imply that the loss of railway was the sole cause (I worked in Grimsby for a while after all) but that it's part of a mix of changes - all the more reason perhaps to reopen. I live in a railway desert (over 50 miles from nearest mainline station) and its very clear that the closure of so many lines here in the 60s had, and still does have, a very negative impact on the local economy. A great video, btw - fascinating and informative on a part of Yorkshire I know little about.
This sounds - admittedly with no knowledge of the finances at work at the time - like one of those lines that should have rationalised (single line, worked by DMUs) rather than closed altogether by the anti-rail sentiment of the government that commissioned Beeching. If only BR had got the modern station plan right and foreseen the rapidly changing market it needed to transform itself to serve properly, then that might have happened.
Fraud and Foresight odd mixture but Hudson had visionary vigour as did Jerky in London Electric Railway both clever fraudster but also set the standard and demanded intraoperabity between lines Jerky did the same London .
PPS. Ahh ... Marples and his tight affiliation with road building. Say no more necessary much. Some things never change, apparently. Apart from in-your-face corruption (just my take). R 🤔
Hudson was Mr Railway and Mr Jerkey was the same position in London Electric Railways and again too big to fail.....
See Jago Hazard on TH-cam for London Electric Railways..
I've been a big fan of Jago Hazzard for a while now, great and interesting videos about London's history.
Beeching was a traitor to the UK as on many closed & raised lines would have MADE money in modern times (& could still, if reopened - without rebuild costs and diversions)
If only they'd had a crystal ball to see what would happen to commuter numbers over the next 60 years. I guess he was a) working with the trends of the day (freight disappearing from the railways, passenger numbers dropping) and b) lovely lovely cash from the road building lobby to kill the railways. I think killing all of those lines was premature, even then. The railways had, by then, become a public service rather than a business, and in something like that the more profitable lines subsidise the less profitable ones. This notion that everything has to show profit is very short sighted when running a public service. It would be like shutting down a gas main to a small village because they don't make much money from it but need to keep spending money maintaining it.
Beeching closed nothing he just reported and some of his efforts were correct and have yet to be fully fulfilled for example
Intercity Main Routes
High Speed High capacity Heavy Long Distance Freight only now being invested In to make use of Channel Tunnel Freight Links.
Sadly he was really just a pawn used by Marples to justify closures in order to drive freight and passengers onto the roads. They will always be called Beeching Closures because Marples ensured that his name was on the report, thus avoiding any public fallout himself. Not every recommendation that Beeching made was right, and many of them may have been right at the time, but failed to take into account the ever rising commuter travel that we've experienced over the last few decades. More passengers use the trains (pre covid, anyway) than ever before, and those rural lines that were closed may well have had a resurgence had they remained open. Not enough of a resurgence to justify hundreds of millions to reopen, but certainly enough to justify keeping an already intact line running.
@@hullhistorynerd agreed some areas lost commuter routes to be as for example east and north of London where commuting now from Suffolk and Norfolk is popular and places like Dunmow Long Melford on the lines that crossed east west outside the M25 where they have to say Didcot parkway these outer could have made many of these lines feasible and house building has carried on relying on the car for commuting which is non starter long term to glaring examples I know of
Maldon Essex did have 2,station on differing routes 6000 Population
Now 18000 population and loads more houses being built and No station at all or any nearby….
North Weald and Ongar
10 Thousand new homes but Central line closed many years ago and no main line either so they all pile into car and drive to Epping to get on central line thus ruining a lovely little Essex town with gridlock so they drive in further to park and get tube like Loughton Woodford causing even more traffic problems and there are already too many’s commuting and school run..
Marple Cuts (Nee Beeching)
Also some of his suggestions were implemented by half heartedly like High Speed Freight lines and have yet to be fully implemented
I suspect the reason we didn't see those high speed freight services was the same reason Marples focussed on closing railways. It wasn't in his interests to keep freight on the railways.
@@hullhistorynerd agreed he analysed but Mr Marple could have said no also like Hudson Mr Marples made fortune's from his Road Building Empire, Marple had to legit abroad due to coverage of his corruption....