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Dr Beeching, the long goodbye
and the return?
Around sixty years ago Blyth was served by three railway stations. Blyth town centre, Bebside and Newsham.
In 1963 the Conservative government acted on a report by Dr Robert Beeching and wielded the axe on over 3000 miles of the UK's rail network. At the time passenger numbers were falling and the network was loosing 100 million pounds a year, a huge amount at the time.
The Ashington Blyth and Tyne line was closed to passenger traffic as a result.
Blyth town centre station was closed in November 1964 and stood derelict until demolition in 1972.
This station was the second to be located in the town centre was located on Bridge Street. Morrisons car park today.
The first was located along Kings street.
Blyth's first station in Kings Street, then named Croft Street opened n 1847 and closed 1867.
The second station opened in 1867 and closed in 1964. It was demolished in 1972.
Although the Blyth and Tyne line remained open to freight traffic, the goods yards in the town centre were no longer needed.
as a result, the tracks were removed and the station and other infrastructure were demolished. No trace of it remains today.
After demolition a Presto supermarket was built on the site. Blyth community hospital was added later to the area behind the station which had been uses as goods yards and locomotive sheds.
Children playing amongst the demolition rubble or scrap men on the lookout for anything of value?
Either way, the health and safety regulations seemed a little different in 1972.
Work is underway to reopen the Blyth and Tyne to passengers but the removal of the main Blyth station means the town centre will need to be served by two new park and ride stations, agian in Bebside and Newsham.
Bebside Station closed at the same time as Blyth.
Like it's larger neighbour it stood empty for a few years for being demolished. The line still carries freight today.
The last train left Blyth bound for Newbiggin at 11:59pm on Saturday the 30th October 1964.
The station officially closed two day later.
Like it's two sister stations, Newsham was closed to passengers in 1964 and completely a year later.
This station was situated at the end of Seaton and Carlton avenues. The Newcastle platform was reached by an underpass which was built from white marble bricks.
Little remains of the station today and the site can not be accessed.
George Powell of Sandford Terrace Cheltenham and William John Atkinson of Blackett Street Newcastle are fined forty Shillings or fourteen days imprisonment.
Their crime? They travelled in a class which their tickets hadn't been purchased for! Their heinous crime was detected between Morpeth and Newsham stations.
They were further charged with being drunk and disorderly, which interfered with the comfort of the other passengers. They were fined a further twenty Shillings, or a further seven days in prison.
June 1868.
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