time2

Yes – it was once a railway station! This photograph was taken about 100 years ago.

Notes

The 13½ mile Hexham & Allendale Railway was built in the 1860s. Its purpose was to collect lead ore from the mines at the head of the valley. The ore was taken to Langley to be smelted and, once the lead had been extracted, it could be shipped on to be sold. Langley station opened in 1867. Unfortunately, by the 1890s Britain’s lead mining industry was in terminal decline, out-competed by cheaper imports from America and Spain. Passenger trains stopped in 1930. Goods trains stopped in 1950.

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