Riding round the East Riding

A mixture today, with vehicular assistance from JP. First stop was Carnaby - on the Yorkshire Coast Line, just south of Brid. Although the line is still there, the station itself closed in 1970 and is now a house.

Carnaby

Next stop south by train was Burton Agnes, but we decided to save that for later in the day, and drove onward to Lowthorpe - apologies for once again travelling by car, but that's just the way it goes. It's my blog - my rules. If someone offers me a lift, I'll accept it!

Lowthorpe

Lowthorpe also closed in 1970 - although JP informed me that when he was still a guard, working for Northern Spirit at Scarborough, he once stopped a train at the still extant platforms, to let some policemen disembark so they could hunt for an escaped lunatic! No such excitement today - the closest we got was a road-rail vehicle parked up by the level crossing, next to a pile of sleepers. I think it had been there a while...

Continuing in a vaguely southwesterly direction, we arrived at Nafferton - a station actually still in use! There was nobody waiting on the platforms, and no sign of any imminent arrivals, so I had a fag and a nosey around, without feeling like a total div.It's quite  a nice little station - I've been through it tons of times on the way to Hull, and beyond, but never got off the train there. I was pleased to see the coal yard is still occupied by a coal merchant, despite the fact all the deliveries must now be made by other forms of transport...

Naff hair more like...

Driffield was our next port of call, and felt positively urban in comparison with the ones seen so far today. It has quite an array of buildings, converted to other uses - the only one open was a launderette. The stationmaster's house is empty, having just been sold. It used to be an antique china business, run by a man with a son called Tarquin, but he must have moved on. The ticket office was closed, and the other part of the building, which for a long time has been a bar, has been closed down by the authorities. Not sure why.

Driffield

We got to Hutton Cranswick just before 3pm - the electronic Northern Rail voice was just announcing the arrival of the 15:01 to Hull, but I couldn't see it - maybe it was late? Like Nafferton, Hutton Cranswick is another of those places I've passed through a lot, but never had a reason to visit. It's quite a big village, with a duckpond, and an utterly gigantic village green!

I'll have to visit Hutton Cranswick again in the future, as the next stop south (Lockington - site of a fatal crash in the 80s) is no longer served by trains, so unless JP offers me another lift, I'll have to walk it...

Hutton Cranswick

At this point, I thought JP (and Mum - she was with us but stayed in the car the whole time so far) would be bored, or at least need the loo - so I suggested heading back to north, but no! Apparently they were both enjoying the driving about, so, with my trusty 1930s road map in hand, we went hunting...

Southburn

Southburn was very difficult to locate, as it was totally demolished after closure under the Beeching Axe. The picture above was taken roughly at the site of the level crossing, with the railway cottages behind. My loitering caused consternation to one of the current residents - he kept his beady eye on me the whole time, but stopped short of releasing the dogs, or getting his shotgun out...

Garton on the Wolds

The lady who came out of the station house at Garton seemed a bit friendlier - she said "Hello" to me at least! Garton is now home to a scrap merchant, and was formerly on the Malton & Driffield line, but closed to all trains in 1958.

And so, back to (almost the beginning), we retraced our journey back to Burton Agnes - another victim of the cull of 1970. Like its neighbours at Lowthorpe and Carnaby, it's also a private house these days, but unlike the others it still has its signalbox (albeit unused).

Burton Agnes

On the side of the signalbox wall there's a plaque, commemorating an accident in 1947 which resulted in the deaths of several German prisoners-of-war - I'd never heard of this before. You learn summat new every day!