Stay in this luxury converted station house on the historic Wensleydale railway
Originally a stationmaster’s house, this three-bedroom property on the Wensleydale railway, is now an opulent holiday home. Sleeping six with a beautiful garden with a hot tub, it is the perfect place to unwind together after your days out in beautiful Wensleydale.
And if you fancy something a bit smaller with all the romance of being close to the railway line you can also stay in the adjacent converted Waiting Room – which still has the embossed glass window panes one even
Owner and interior designer Terri Crosby fell in love with Station House while walking in the area and decided to buy it and turn it into ultimate countryside rental. When not running her business – G Luxe Interiors – Terri can be found aboard superyachts ensuring everything is perfect for the billionaire clients and she’s taken as her starting point the world of superyachts to achieve the luxurious finish in her two holiday rentals.
It means there’s some serious wow-factor says Terri: “I saw this amazing house about ten years ago on a walk one day in Dales and thought ‘wow’ but it wasn’t for sale then. A couple of years later I saw it was for sale – it is the station house on the restored Leeming Bar to Redmire line of the Wensleydale railway – so there were trains running at weekends and they are supposed to be starting up again soon – hopefully within the next few months. It will be lovely to have trains running past the properties again.”
She decided to do a big ten month refurbishment of the property and add an extension to give a double height kitchen dining living area with bifold doors out on to the patio and garden beyond. The builders Staley and Sons received a National Heritage Award for their significant work at Station House.
“At the heart of the house is the dramatic double-height open-plan kitchen, dining and living area. Sparkling silestone worktops are complemented perfectly with cashmere grey units, with a striking kitchen island and breakfast bar,” says Terri. The dining area is tucked away at the rear of the room, an intimate space with more on-trend grey furniture.
“I used a lot of the suppliers who I go to for the yacht furnishings so it really is wonderful. Unlike a lot of the holiday houses you don’t have to race for the best bedroom. I decided to lose one of the bedrooms but make the remaining three all the same size, add a lovely landing where there are chairs for people to sit and create an accessibly bedroom downstairs. They could all be the main bedroom,” says Terri. “I wanted to create a home from home but better.”
And she has really achieved that. With eye-catching use of wallpaper throughout, especially in the kitchen diner and the bedroom.
“The style is relaxed, gentle and welcoming. Lots of texture and nice accessories to touch – cashmere, mother-of-pearl, the ultimate in pillows and towels, Yves Delorme robes and gorgeous Baobab candles. I like to have warmth on a house and bare painted walls just aren’t really me. In the snug we have silk wallpaper. We have a mural in one of the main bedrooms on a silk wall covering. Things to make it a bit quirky and to put some character back into the house. I wanted it to be modern but with a nod to the old railway and so we put quite and industrial wall paper in the downstairs cloak rooms.”
Station House sleeps six and has a large enclosed garden complete with a hot tub and summerhouse.
Terri has incorporated the outdoor and indoor at Station House with state-of-the-art technology via a Geneva surround sound music system in the kitchen, as well as an outdoor Bluetooth speaker system in the patio and hot tub area. Other impressive features include wireless mobile phone chargers plus Bluetooth speakers in all the bedrooms.
The en-suite bedrooms are super luxurious with their own take on super-yacht style. Little extras such as quality bed linen, plush fabrics and furnishings, sumptuous bath robes and slippers, those silver and leather water trays, lavender-filled mini-cushions and Elixir bedtime pillow spray. All of the en-suites include Elemis toiletries and travel beauty packages.
There is much to adore outside of the property with its large and fully enclosed private garden complete with a picturesque white picket fence. There are several informal seating areas with views of the quaint railway line. The summerhouse stores all the outdoor crockery and glassware and has a water cooler and ice-maker to keep guests hydrated as well as several garden games to enjoy.
At night the garden takes on a magical quality with fairy lights around the hot tub, automatic dawn-to-dusk mood lighting and a fabulous outdoor lamp allowing you to dine even when it gets dark.
Then around Covid time the house next doo , which had been the station’s waiting rooms came up for sake. "I thought I’ve got to have it. It was Lord Bolton’s original waiting room and his name can still be seen in the glass on the door. It’s really quite quirky.”
Sleeping four people across two bedrooms, it’s the ideal retreat for families and groups of friends searching for a truly unique place to call home while they’re discovering the idyllic beauty of the Yorkshire Dales together.
"It had already been converted into a dwelling and was okay but needed updating, We put new windows in the complement the ones next door put a new kitchen area and put in a real ‘wow’ ensuite bathroom in the main bedroom after I came across some amazing tiles.”
The decor features earthy colours highlighted by tranquil blues.
No stranger to luxury properties Newcastle-based Terri wants to bring some of that luxury to her properties in the Dales.
"The best of what I’d choose for the superyachts I have brought to Yorkshire.”