Stanley Station
With many new pits opening in the 1830s, the area had grown in size so much by the 1860s that it needed a station to carry coal greater distances to meet the growing demand of the Victorian Age. The site was chosen on Aberford Road and the station was built in the 1860s. The design for the station was unusual, having a high pitched roof it must have been a grand site in its day. The area was chosen because of the 1805 railway lines that connected Lane Ends with Lee Moor and Bottomboat, these were improved in the 1840s connecting Outwood, Stanley and Methley collieries forming the areas main line.
Station Postcard 1906
At the Stations height in the 1920s no fewer that sixteen trains a day stopped at Stanley, carrying passengers, coal and rhubarb. Demand for rhubarb in the 1930s was at its peak and extra train’s services were put on to take the local produce as far as London. During this time village people took their summer holidays at Blackpool, travelling from Stanley Station, local collieries providing days out to their workers and families. There are many stories about these trips, for most it was the only time of year when the family got together to go away. Some younger villages even met their future husbands or wives on the trips, others catching up with friends they met on trips in previous years.
Signal box in the 1950s
The decline of the railway started in the 1950s as the expansion in road transport began to attract passengers and goods from the railways, losses which had started after the war continued to put pressure on governments of the day, who came up with the 1955 modernisation plan. All this came to a head in the 1960s when it was clear the plan was not working the government of the day hired Dr Beeching to compile a report on the countries rail network.
Train passing Newmarket towards Stanley Station 1950s
Beeching proposed that only drastic action would save the railways from increasing losses in the future. Forcing the government to announce it was closing a third of the countries rail network, Stanley unfortunately was in the closure program and in 1964 the station closed after serving the village for 100 years. To this day people in Stanley as with many villages still hold great hatred of Dr Beeching, blaming him for the closure of their station. Before the railway came through Stanley most people lived, worked and died here, having never gone much further than Wakefield or Leeds.
Station platform, Early 1960s
Aberford Road Chapel can be seen to the left
More Station Photos
Photo taken in 1954
Station on day of closure 1964
Station Postcard
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