Penistone Woodhead Line: Developer buys listed coal drops and signal house near Yorkshire 'ghost' railway station

The Grade II-listed coal drops, signal house and sidings were once part of Penistone Station and served the Woodhead Line between Sheffield and Manchester.

When the Woodhead Line was gradually mothballed in the Beeching cuts period of the 1960s, its platforms at Penistone were closed and left to decay, despite the adjacent modern station still serving the Sheffield to Barnsley route.

Much of the infrastructure remains, with the old platforms, trackbed and station buildings still visible as well as those acquired by Fairbank Investments Ltd.

The coal drops, which are next to the old Woodhead bridge, were listed in 1988 and date back to the line’s construction in 1845.

The site purchased by Fairbank amounts to one acre off St Mary’s Street and the developers have planned a mixed use regeneration scheme.

They have promised to restore the old railway structures and preserve them, and are seeking planning consent for residential development on the goods yard section of the site.

The company’s past projects include the redevelopment of the old David Brown factory in Penistone, which is now an office and logistics park.

The Woodhead Line was axed because it was a duplicate route, and campaigners successfully fought to save the Hope Valley Line between Sheffield and Manchester instead, as it served more remote rural communities. Although it continued to operate as a freight line, the track was lifted completely in 1981 and much of the route became a cycle trail.