IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mill Lane, PONTEFRACT, WF7 7FJ

The level crossing on Mill Lane. The line was the Brackenhill Light Railway. It ran from Brackenhill Jn on the Sheffield to York line to Hemsworth Colliery (with a short spur to Ackworth Moor Top). It never carried a passenger service although it saw occasional holiday excursions. The NER worked the line but to avoid requiring the sanction of the Board of Trade this was never formalised. It was absorbed by the LNER at the grouping and survived into BR days, closing at the end of 1961.

A tiny Chinese takeaway, squeezed between houses at Ackworth Moor Top.

The line of the abandoned and dismantled Brackenhill Light Railway from Mill Lane Image past the back of houses on Hillside Avenue towards Barnsley Road Image The route later became a designated footpath, Jack Dando Way. See it in 2008 looking back from Barnsley Road. Image

This must be one of the largest Victorian stone built houses in the vicinity, and I am reliably informed that at one time it was the manse.

Hillside was one of three Methodist Chapels in the village of Ackworth, each representing one of the sections of Methodism that appeared in the nineteenth century. Hillside was the first to close and eventually Brackenhill (now closed) followed, to leave one Methodist Church located in square SE4417. Hillside Chapel was first re-used as a second-hand car show room, and is now a showroom for lawnmowers and other garden machinery.