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Turn of the century view of Northorpe Station with the Plough Hotel in the background.
The London & North Western Railway built
the Leeds New Line or to give it its true name "The Heaton Lodge & Wortley Railway", to provide a direct link from their Huddersfield line at Heaton Lodge near Battyeford through to Leeds without
passing through Mirfield. Those tracks were owned by their competitor the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway to whom they had to pay a fee for the use of..
The line provided stations for
Battyeford, Northorpe, Heckmondwike, Liversedge, Cleckheaton, Gomersal, Birstall and Gildersome before rejoining the company's Leeds to Huddersfield line at Farnley, which meant the competitors
tracks were not needed. The Line was opened on the 1st October 1900.
On the evening of the 11th July 1921, after a truly scorching summer, a passing goods train started a grass fire a short
distance up the line side embankment from Northorpe Station. Fanned by a slight breeze the fire rapidly spread consuming the mainly wooden buildings and platform. Despite the efforts of fire crews
from a local mill and Mirfield Urban District Fire Brigade by the following morning the Station was near to being totally destroyed. It had to be rebuilt at an estimated cost of £15,000.
The
station's last passenger service was on the 2nd October 1953. All passenger services on the Leeds New Line were withdrawn the following day. There had been a great deal of public pressure to keep the
line open but all to no avail.
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