New lease of life for station once reflecting town’s decline

Like many former mining communities, the wounds left by the pit closures ran deep in South Kirkby and Moorthorpe.

It was November, 1993 when the last pit, Frickley, closed and from then on the future for the West Yorkshire town looked bleak. Unemployment was high, entire families lost hope and for many of the young, drugs became an escape.

The station was symbolic of the community’s decline. Decades earlier it had won prizes for “best station gardens”, but by the mid 1990s, after a brief spell as a pub, the buildings had fallen into disrepair.

A regular haunt for drug users, some said they were so ashamed of it, they used to get off the train with their back to the station, to avoid the view. Others believed the best that could be done was to knock it down.

It was thanks to one man that didn’t happen. Coun Laurie Harrison is one of local government’s elder statesmen. He joined what was then Hemsworth Rural District Council in 1964 to represent his South Kirkby ward and it has been his mission to do his best for the place ever since.

“During the 1980s and 1990s the stuffing was knocked out of this community,” he says. “The station was the first thing that greeted people when they came here and it was an utter disgrace. But behind the dereliction and squalor it was basically a good building that needed to be restored to its former glory, not demolished.”

While the station building, owned first by Railtrack and then Network Rail, received various stays of execution, demolition continued to loom on the horizon until the community decided to take a stand.

“We were not willing to accept that,” says Coun Harrison. “More and more local people were saying that it should be saved and we looked at plenty of examples where old station buildings had been rescued and transformed into community use. We wanted a building which could play a role in the life of South Kirkby.”

The turning point came last year. After countless disappointments and rejected grant applications, the town council decided it would go ahead on its own. The aim was to take out a loan to fund the restoration work, but initially it looked as though plans for office space and a café as well as a booking office would have to be scaled back. “We budgeted for just under £130,000, which is a lot of money for a small town council,” says town clerk and railwayman’s son Chris Geeson. “But the estimates came in at nearly double that and it looked like we were back to square one.”

Countless applications for outside funding were turned down, but thanks to a £195,000 grant from the Green Corridor Programme, a regeneration project formed in 2003 by a partnership of Wakefield, Barnsley and Doncaster councils and a little help from the Railway Heritage Trust, the building, which dates back to 1879, has now been saved.

“The heritage trust have been really supportive and have given the council nearly £70,000 to ensure features such as windows and chimneys are properly restored and that a sustainable use for the building is found,” says Coun Harrison.

Builders moved in six months ago and the once derelict shell has been transformed. The project should be finished on time and within budget by November.

While it might not make the same grand architectural statement of the new Hepworth gallery just a few miles down at Wakefield, its completion will be no less symbolic and the town council is already planning a grand celebration.

“We’re going to make it a day to remember,” said Coun Harrison. “This community is starting to get back on its feet and the station will be the jewel in our crown.”

For those who have worked behind the scenes on transforming the derelict station, its reopening will be a day to remember, but it seems it means just as much to the rest of the town.

“I can remember as a young girl getting the train to Cleethorpes for our summer holidays,” says Rachel Snowden.

Her family have lived and worked in the Moorthorpe area for generations.

She recalled: “The station had lovely gardens and a friendly station-master.

“It was such a shame it became so run-down but I’m delighted at what’s happened with it.”

Adds another passenger on the 10.52 train to Leeds: “It’s been a breeding ground for vandals and drug-addicts, a disgusting mess.

“It’s great to see us getting back a good facility. South Kirkby deserves it.”