Cotehill railway station

Cotehill railway station was a railway station on the Settle-Carlisle Railway in England between Armathwaite and Cumwhinton. The line opened for passengers in 1876. The station was designed by the Midland Railway company architect John Holloway Sanders. The Ordnance Survey map published in the year 1900 shows the station serving the point at which a tramway from Knothill Plaster and Cement Works meets the Settle-Carlisle. The tramway continued from Knothill to Boaterby Quarry. According to Tyler, Knothill was one of the first Gypsum sites in Cumbria. The station is named after the nearest village, Cotehill, but this is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away and extremely small. It is closer to the site of Englethwaite Hall which was built by John Thomlinson in 1879 but demolished by 1969, the site now being the location of a Caravan Club campsite. It is clear from the map that the sparse local population could not have sustained a railway station. In addition, the station is only 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Armathwaite and very close to Cumwhinton, both of which had stations of their own. The tramway is absent from later maps, though its route is clearly visible as a track on the 1951 map. The station closed in 1952. Unusually for this line, the passenger buildings were demolished. The site remains clear so could in principle be re-used. One end of it is occupied by a communication mast. The stationmaster's house and railway workers' cottages are immediately adjacent to the Cotehill Viaduct, where the railway crosses High Stand Gill near where it flows into the Eden. The houses are privately occupied.