Ebberston station: Couple spend 30 years restoring Yorkshire railway station to former glory
You would have to be in your 80s to have any recollection of steam trains thundering past Ebberston station on the Forge Valley line between Pickering and Scarborough.
The line closed in 1950 and the station became a private home for 40 years or more.
But now Mark and Carol Benson have spent 30 years restoring to it how it looked in the 1940s, down to the specially made lanterns and the authentic chocolate and cream colour scheme.
No wonder it attracts railway enthusiasts who want to stay in a station which has been brought back to life. They can even stay in three railway carriages which are now accommodation, or in the converted ticket office, now a cottage.
Now the Bensons are celebrating after winning an honour, a blue plaque presented by Peter, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, the Minister of State for Rail at the National Railway Heritage Awards at The Merchant Taylors Hall in London.
Mrs Benson said The Old Station is actually in Allerston which neighbours Ebberston. She said that although it was lived in for 40 years, they have had to spend 30 years restoring it in a labour of love.
Her husband worked in the railway industry in an architecht's department and they both have a fascination with how the station should look and feel.
"It has been a lot of hard work,” she said. “There has always been something to do and even though we think we have finished we probably haven’t.
"The lanterns had to be specially made but most of the items we have used were bought over the years from sales and auctions. The attention to detail is what won the award for us.”
The 16-and-a-quarter mile Forge Valley Line was opened by the North Eastern Railway Company on the May 1 1882.
Wilton Station, actually in the nearby village of Allerston, was renamed Ebberston in 1903. The village of Ebberston is located one mile to the east of Allerston and the last passenger train on the line ran on June 3 1950.
The blue plaque is for the platform canopy and waiting area restoration.
The three carriages, all former British Rail Mark 2 First Class Corridor stock and were built in Derby during 1968-69. They are now well equipped for self catering.
Although the station is said to be a very good example of the work of the architect William Bell’s mature wayside station design of that period, it is neither listed nor in a conservation area.
Since the current owners bought the station in 1996 they have developed the site, carefully restoring the building and the adjacent yard.
The Ticket Office project received a Highly Commended certificate at the National Railway Heritage Awards in 2022. The latest piece of work, and the subject of this year’s entry, the restoration of the platform canopy.
The judges said the work has been carried out to a high standard.
The judges said: “The entrants should be commended for carrying out this work, and presumably the previous works at the station, to a high standard, at their own expense and without the benefit of any grants.”