Schoolchildren's specials to sing for the late queen - were these the last trains to stop at Horton Park?

[Old Yard Dog]

Horton Park was a small station on the former Great Northern Bradford Exchange to Halifax and Keighley (via Queensbury) lines which opened on November 1st 1880. One of its main functions was to serve the adjacent Park Avenue football and cricket grounds, the former homes of Bradford (Park Avenue) FC and Yorkshire CCC, which opened in the same year. Horton Park station closed to passengers on September 15th 1952. However passenger trains continued to run through non-stop until May 23rd 1955, apart apparently from the odd football special.

This begs the question as to when the last train actually stopped at Horton Park. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited Park Avenue cricket ground on October 28th 1954 where she was greeted by a huge crowd of 30,000 schoolchildren who sang the Yorkshire national anthem "On Ilkla' Moor baht 'at" for her. A colleague recalls boarding a special train at Thornton as a six-year-old and being impressed by how big and noisy the steam engine was. But he dreaded the thought of crossing Thornton viaduct. There were masses of other children when he alighted at Horton Park, so he assumes the train must have come from Keighley.

Bradford was a struggling Division Three (North) side at the time, so might not have attracted many football specials after that date. Did trains make additional stops for home fans, I wonder, like they still do at Bordesley for Birmingham City supporters today? Games likely to have attracted significant numbers of away supporters included the local derby with Halifax Town (4th Dec 1954), Halifax being on the same line - and maybe even the FA Cup tie against Southend United a week later. The last home game before closure was against Oldham Athletic on 30th April 1955, again not too far away for visiting fans. Yorkshire hosted Northamptonshire 7, 8 and 9th May 1955.

An enthusiasts' special on Sunday 6th September 1964, organized by the RCTS, covered the line as far as Thornton. Did participants alight at Horton Park to take pictures, I wonder? This was the only passenger train ever to traverse the City Road goods branch which diverged to the right just before Horton Park.

The line remained open to goods until Aug 28th 1972, at least as far as Great Horton. A mosque has now been built on the site of Horton Park station and Bradford (PA) and Yorkshire CCC now play their homes games elsewhere. Does anybody know for certain when the last passenger train stopped at this long forgotten halt?

 

[Harvester]

An enthusiasts' special on Sunday 6th September 1964, organized by the RCTS, covered the line as far as Thornton. Did participants alight at Horton Park to take pictures, I wonder? This was the only passenger train ever to traverse the City Road goods branch which diverged to the right just before Horton Park.

The line remained open to goods until Aug 28th 1972, at least as far as Great Horton. A mosque has now been built on the site of Horton Park station and Bradford (PA) and Yorkshire CCC now play their homes games elsewhere. Does anybody know for certain when the last passenger train stopped at this long forgotten halt?

There is a report in the November 1964 issue of the Railway Observer on this RCTS railtour, which used a five car DMU. The only stop outward between St Dunstan‘s junctions and Queensbury was at Great Horton to pick up a pilotman. On the return run from Thornton, it ran to Bradford City goods station with no booked stops for passengers to alight.