The inaugural run of the Stockton to Darlington Railway took place on 27th September 1825 so this year, as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the steam train, we also remember some of the little trains that once clattered along a network of narrow-gauge railways that served remote places high up in the Yorkshire Dales.
These railways were narrow-gauge both to save money and to allow them to cross bridges and negotiate inclines and bends that standard gauge trains would be too cumbersome to tackle. They were built to move building materials (rock, cement, timber etc.) up into the high-rainfall catchment areas of the dales so that fast-growing cities like Bradford and Leeds could build reservoirs to provide clean water in vast quantities to serve both industry and their populations. This followed on from the York’s Dr John Snow in 1854 proving that Cholera and Typhoid were water-borne diseases and consequently the importance of clean drinking water to public health was accepted and money provided to build the reservoirs to supply it.
The highest of these reservoirs are Angram and Scar House at the head of Nidderdale. They are some 15 miles above Pateley Bridge and would have been inaccessible without a rail link – the alternative steam-powered traction engines were too heavy for the roads and bridges of the time. Pateley Bridge was located at the end of a branch line which followed the River Nidd from Killinghall near Harrogate. A second station was built to serve a new 3ft gauge track that continued along the river all the way through Wath to Lofthouse and onwards to the construction site for the new reservoirs built by Bradford Corporation at Angram and Scar House as well as the ‘compensation reservoir’ at Gouthwaite which was built to maintain a constant flow of water during times of low rainfall to some 40 water-powered mills downstream on the River Nidd. Excursions were run from Pateley to the ravine at How Steen Gorge, then known as ‘Little Switzerland’ and a popular day out from Leeds and Bradford. The track of this railway can now be easily identified as the route of the Nidderdale Way Footpath above Pateley.
Leeds Corporation were given land up in Colsterdale by Lord Masham of Swinton Castle to construct the reservoirs at Roundhill and Leighton, supplied by a 2ft gauge railway from Masham, which was itself connected to Ripon and Northallerton by a standard gauge branch line. A third reservoir was planned further up Colsterdale but the geology for this proved unviable. Like at Scar House, a village was built for the ‘navvies’ and their families at Breary Banks, and this village was subsequently used during the winter of 1914-1915 as a training camp for the Leeds Pals who later suffered huge casualties at the battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916. It then became a Prisoner of War Camp for German Officers. Some sections of the route are now part of the Ripon Rowel Footpath, and the Leeds Pals Memorial at Breary Banks can be accessed by road just beyond the village of Healey.
These two, along with other narrow-gauge railways in the dales, followed incredibly scenic routes and would surely be major tourist attractions to this day if only they had survived like those in Wales and other parts of the UK.
Article contributed by John Darby, Yorkshire Blue Badge Tourist Guide: https://yorkshiresbestguides.co.uk/project/john-darby/
