Yeadon Branch

Yeadon Branch (Guiseley to Yeadon)
1894 - 1964
Midland Railway

Contributors: © Reproduction prohibited / Gary Jones / D Downs, M Neale collection / Malcolm Mallison / Richard Carter / David Webdale

The Route
From Rawdon junction, south of Guiseley to Yeadon (terminated).

Length
?

Original Companies
The original company was the Guiseley Yeadon & Rawdon railway.
The act for the new railway was passed on16th July 1885.
The required capital could not be raised so a loan was obtained from the Midland Railway.
In 1893 the partially completed line was bought out by the Midland.

Opening
26th February 1894.

Closures
Passengers & freight - 1964.

Yeadon Branch map (1909) : Malcolm Mallison
From 1909 6 inch survey- Yeadon.

Railway Ramblers gazetteer
See also the Railway Ramblers gazetteer - Leeds : Yeadon branch

Yeadon Branch opening : D Downs, M Neale collection.
Yeadon never saw a timetabled train, but did see some excursions.

Ilkley line junction : Malcolm Mallison
Picture shows embankment and culvert near site of junction with Ilkley line.
I thought the current OS map showed a bridge taking the road over the railway, but closer inspection reveals that I may be mistaken.
The Series 1 25000 map (link on lost railways) shows the railway line as continuous, with no break as if passing under bridge.

Ghyll Royd (Junction with Ilkley line) : Richard Carter
I grew up on Ghyll Royd in the late 60s 70s and spent a lot of time playing around that area.
The culvert in the picture didn’t have grid over it in those days and I think the drain flowing out from the right on the picture comes from a diversion on a siphon that goes under the railway from where Silverdale housing estate is built now, it used to emerge at the bottom of what is now Ghyll Royd nursing home.
When I was a boy it was a large house owned by Mrs Peat.
you can still make out the old stream bed where it used to flow. I remember being pretty fed up when our beloved stream disappeared.
Took me a while to work out where it had gone and I don’t know reasons why it was altered.
Would love to see the plans and drawings for the engineering such as this along that railway and have begun to try to find if any still exist but my search skills are poor I must admit.
One thing Mrs Peat did once tell me was at one time there was just one passenger train a year from the branch line and every one new it as the ghost train,
I wish I had quizzed her a lot more.
I used to help her clear up leaves in autumn when I was about 14, magical times we always had a fire going in the wooded garden in the dark .

Bridge A65 : Malcolm Mallison
Bridge at A65 New Rd.

Whack House Lane bridge : Malcolm Mallison
Bridge at Whack House Lane

St. John’s Rd bridge : Malcolm Mallison
Bridge at St. John’s Rd.

Henshaw Lane (15-07-06) : Gary Jones
Bridge remains over Henshaw Lane Yeadon, at the entrance to Yeadon station, the white building is the Station pub.
This branch line between Guiseley & Yeadon opened 26th Feb 1894. The line was only ever used for goods traffic & was closed in 1964.

Yeadon Branch glass plate : D Downs, M Neale collection.
Old photo from a cracked and scratched glass plate is very rare. It shows a MR Excursion from Yeadon to Heysham leaving Yeadon in 1924.

Yeadon station
Opened 26-02-1894. Closed 22-03-1964.

Yeadon Branch : D Downs, M Neale collection.
Very rare view of Yeadon.

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