Ardsley railway station

The station was opened by the Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds Railway on 5 October 1857[1] as part of their Wakefield to Leeds main line. Five days later, it became a junction with the completion of a branch line to Bradford via Morley by the Leeds, Bradford and Halifax Junction Railway.[2] Both lines soon became part of the rapidly expanding Great Northern Railway network in the area and by 1866 the opening of the jointly-owned West Riding and Grimsby Railway from Wakefield to Doncaster put the station on the main line between Leeds and London King's Cross. The GNR subsequently became part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The line then passed on to the Eastern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The station was eventually closed by the British Railways Board on 2 November 1964 as part of the Beeching cutbacks, with the line to Bradford following suit on 4 July 1966.[3]

To the south of the station, to the east of the main line was situated the engine shed which provided the passenger locomotives for the Wakefield services and freight locomotives for the colliery traffic generated in the area.

Trains still pass the site between Outwood and Wakefield Westgate stations on the Wakefield Line, although little remains of the actual station.

The Site is now being developed for 88 residential houses and apartments by Miller Homes.

• Body, G. (1988), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, ISBN 1-85260-072-1
• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
• Haigh, A. (1978 reprint) The Railways of Yorkshire - A New Edition Dalesman Publishing, Clapham, North Yorkshire. ISBN 0-85206-459-4
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.

• Stations on navigable 1947 O.S. map.