Yorkshire sausage brand Heck reinstates lost section of Leeds to Northallerton railway line that closed in 1969

Sausage brand Heck's headquarters near Bedale are located beside what was once the Leeds to Northallerton line, which ran via Harrogate and Ripon but closed north of Harrogate in 1969.

Sinderby Station was one of several village halts on the stretch from Ripon to Northallerton, but it never attracted large numbers of passengers and had just one stopping train per day in the 1950s. It shut in 1963, several years before the line was axed in the Beeching Report and the track lifted in 1970. Its main freight traffic had been barley and livestock as it served an agricultural community.

The building survived until 2009, when it was demolished to make way for the widening of the nearby A1(M) and the site is now occupied by Heck's offices.

During lockdown, Heck staff cleared a two-mile section of the former trackbed of vegetation and the footpath, which includes one of the original Leeds Northern Railway Company's bridges, will open to the public at the company's family fun day on Saturday August 27.

The Railway Walk, as the path has been named, has even been visited by Countryfile presenter Julia Bradbury, and there will be a 1.5k family fun run and obstacle course along the old route.

The lost railway that left Ripon without trains

Ripon is one of the only British cities without a railway station due to the closure of the Leeds to Northallerton line's northern section - trains still run between Leeds and Harrogate. The station buildings are now housing.

The other stations on the section were Nidd Bridge, now a building firm's offices; Wormald Green, now a private house and cattery; Melmerby, now a private house; Pickhill, now a private house; and Newby Wiske, also a private house with preserved platforms.