Take a look inside the historic former village railway station near York that is now an amazing family home

Now named Ryedale Lodge, it is owned by Dr Tom Milligan, 44, a GP who works across the East Riding, and his wife Karina, 42, a former primary school teacher working on a PhD at the University of York, tackling how bullying can be addressed in schools.

Out for a meal at The Star Inn at Harome to celebrate Tom’s 40th birthday in early 2020, they had a drive around looking at houses for sale, and then it was full speed ahead to purchase the place.

“We fell in love with it,” says Karina. “It was like nothing we had ever seen before.”

Ryedale Lodge was built in 1871 to serve as the station master’s house, ticket office, waiting room and weigh station on the rural Thirsk to Malton railway line.

The line finally halted in 1964 as part of Dr Beeching’s reform of the railways, with stations along the route being decommissioned before that.

Ryedale station closed in 1954 and a Mr Harold Dawkins and his wife Helen bought the building to turn into a home when they retired.

According to a Pathe news report on YouTube, the couple at looked at 250 properties all over England before finding their ideal project.

It later became a tea room and then a restaurant/hotel praised in the Which? Hotel Guide 2002 for its “romantic escapism”.

Karina says many people in the village have fond memories of celebrating special occasions here, so the building has a really special place in the community.

When Tom and Karina found the house, it had been lived in by an elderly couple for about 17 or 18 years.

Although it was structurally sound, it needed a major refresh. Selling their “suburban” house in Dunnington, near York, they decamped to the countryside with their two daughters, now aged 11 and 14.

After a four-year renovation and redecoration programme, they are moving back closer to York, for access to the university and the children’s schools and after-school activities.

The family have four dogs too, and Karina says it’s a challenge driving back and forth from York (22 miles away) several times a day to attend to everyone’s needs.

Ryedale Lodge is on the market for a guide price of £1,650,000 with Blenkin & Co.

“Our team at Blenkin & Co relishes getting involved in the sale of properties that stand out from the crowd,” says estate agent Hilary Pegrum. “Ryedale Lodge has a rich back story with a railway heritage that takes us back to the halcyon days of steam locomotion. It's been attracting enquiries from country house buyers, a number of whom are planning a move north and are keeping an eye out for something special, the polar opposite of a run-of-the-mill Home Counties house.”

Karina’s mother’s family were all farmers, and she always had a yearning to live in the countryside: “But family members said to us, ‘are you actually mad?’ We knew we were taking a lot on, but we just loved the place so much.”

The house stands in four acres of gardens and grounds. When they first came to look, Tom and Karina didn’t even notice the Victorian railway bridge still in situ. Beneath the bridge, the old railway cutting has evolved into a geodiverse wildlife tunnel that’s the perfect children’s playground. There is also a paddock enclosed by fencing with a timber field shelter.

With six bedrooms and six bathrooms – decorated with tiles from York-based Bert & May - including a main suite, plus a self-contained one-bedroom annex, there was no need for the family to extend the existing 511 sqm (5,500 sq ft) building for further space.

However, Karina took charge of the renovation. Her academic mind turned immediately to researching the fascinating history of her new home. She discovered that the key livery colour of the Thirsk to Malton line was orange, so picked Brubeck wallpaper from Black Pop for the walls of the drawing room, which also echoes the vintage British Rail Locomotive Green shade used for all rolling stock until the 1950s.

This is Karina’s favourite room; she loves the idea that it holds so many memories within its walls, stories of people who once waited here to begin their train journeys to exciting and unknown places.

The kitchen/breakfast room is also a key space, with cabinets painted in that familiar green; it opens directly onto the sunny garden terrace and has three large west facing sash windows. All the windows in the house have been restored and repainted a soft sage green, in keeping with the traditional country house feel.

“The first thing we found when digging in the garden, was a beer bottle, Malton brewery, from about 1890 to 1910,” she says. “It made us smile. It showed people were drinking on the trains from the get-go.”

And now the Milligans are off, to their next stop along the line, but not without regrets. “It’s been so special to live here,” Karina says. “Everything we’ve done, it’s been just what I wanted our tenure to be.”