Nunburnholme Station (1848-1951)
- Harriet Dorman
- Feb 6, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 20, 2025
Nunburnholme Station is first document in 1848. Originally called Burnby Station, but was renamed Nunburnholme in 1873 after confusion with Burnley Station of Lancashire.
The station building included the stationmaster's house and a booking office.
The building was designed by George Townsend Andrews, who worked closely with the 'Railway King' George Hudson, designing all the buildings erected by his company from the York & North Midland Railway (YNM), between 1813-1849. He designed York Station, and all the stations between York and Northallerton. He also helped design churches, two banks, parts of York St John University and private buildings.
George Townsend Andrews was from a controversial family, his mother's family being from a large slave-owning family that owned a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Although born in Exeter, and educated in London, Andrews connections with such a powerful family
In 1848, Hudson and Andrews had a big fall out. By the time Andrews designed Nunburnholme Station, Hudson had likely begun to cut his spending and demanding he work for less. After Hudson's humiliating ruin after extensive fraud, Andrew's dependable income that came from his work on Hudson's station dried up.
Anderson relied on designing other buildings, however he was hit with another blow after investing in bad shares and had to liquidate his assets to creditors in 1852, including auctioning off his extensive collection of art by local artist, William Etty.
He died in 1855.
Interestingly, Nunburnholme Station wasn't typical of Andrew's usual designs and was considered unique.
Initially there was no shelter on the upper platform, which caused quite the controversy locally. It wasn't until 1850 that a Shipton's waiting room shed was dismantled, and re-erected at Burnby.
In 1911, 5,338 tickets were sold. Livestock and barley were much more popular passengers than people, and in 1951 the passenger and goods carriages were withdrawn.
During the Second World War, in 1946, a bomb dropped on the railway causing "ominous cracks" in the churches west wall according to St. Giles Church's vestry book.
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