Dovecliffe railway station

Dovecliffe
Poking through the undergrowth on the right are the remnants of Dovecliffe Station platform.
General information
Location	Worsborough, Barnsley England
Coordinates	53.52482°N 1.44409°W / 53.52482; -1.44409
Grid reference	SE369032
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	South Yorkshire Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
4 September 1854	opened
7 December 1953	closed

Dovecliffe railway station was situated on the South Yorkshire Railway's Blackburn Valley line between High Royds and Wombwell Main Junction.

History

The station opened with the line on 4 September 1854 and closed on 7 December 1953. The line through the station remained open until the 1986 to allow freight access to Barrow Colliery, although the through line to Sheffield was severed between Birdwell and Westwood in the late 1960s with the construction of the M1 motorway.

The station was originally named Smithley for Darley Main & Worsborough but its name was changed by the end of 1855 to Darkcliffe and again in early 1860 to Dovecliffe. It was controlled by a signal box which sat on the station roof. When the line opened, as a single line, there was no block working and when a box was needed it was required to be placed on the outer side of a bend to give better visibility. With the station buildings being very close to the level crossing the only place where the box could be erected was on the station roof.

Route

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Wombwell Central		London and North Eastern Railway South Yorkshire Railway		High Royds

References

• "The South Yorkshire Railway", D. L. Franks. Turntable Enterprises, 1971. ISBN 0-902844-04-0
• Various articles by D. L. Franks which appeared in "Forward", the journal of the Great Central Railway Society, ISSN 0141-4488