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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Saltaire railway station

railway station in West Yorkshire, England, UK

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ3117450 ↗
Source-derived summary

Saltaire railway station serves the Victorian model village of Saltaire near Shipley in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated 3+1⁄2 miles (6 km) north of Bradford Forster Square.

History

The original station was opened in May 1856 by the Midland Railway, which had absorbed the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway between Shipley and Colne in 1851. It closed on 20 March 1965 following the Beeching cuts, but West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive and British Rail reopened it on 9 April 1984, at a cost of £139,000 (equivalent to £452,700 in 2025). The current station has wooden platforms and waiting shelters (though these are stone-built rather than the metal and plexiglass designs used elsewhere). Its predecessor was of more substantial stone construction, with buildings on each platform; these were demolished in 1970, five years after the station closed.

The station is on the Airedale line, between Bradford and Leeds, and Skipton. It is a busy commuter station both for passengers travelling to Leeds and Bradford and for staff in companies based in Salt's Mill, as well as serving tourists visiting the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Saltaire.

The lower station of the Shipley Glen Tramway is about half a mile from Saltaire Station. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal, River Aire and Roberts Park, Saltaire are also close by.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Saltaire railway station” as railway station in West Yorkshire, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Saltaire, railway and station.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1856, 1851, 1965, 1984—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1984. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Saltaire, railway and station providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Saltaire railway station”, the useful work is to connect “railway station in West Yorkshire, England, UK” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3117450. Authority coordinates are 53.839, -1.790. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1856, 1851, 1965 and 1984.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Saltaire railway station”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Saltaire railway station primary sources, Saltaire railway station archive and Saltaire research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Saltaire railway station”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Saltaire railway station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.