Akeld railway station
Akeld was a stone-built railway station that served the hamlet of Akeld, in Northumberland, England. It was a stop on the Cornhill Branch, which ran from to Cornhill Junction on the Kelso line near.
History
Authorised in 1882, the Cornhill Branch was built to link the farming communities of north Northumberland with the market town of Alnwick and link the North Eastern Railway's Kelso line to its Alnwick branch. Construction started by the North Eastern Railway in 1884 and the line opened to freight between Cornhill and on 2 May 1887; the whole line for both freight and passengers opened on 5 September of the same year.The line had difficulty attracting passengers, as many of the stations were some distance from the communities they served. Increased bus competition in the 1920s led to passenger trains being withdrawn on 22 September 1930 although the service resumed briefly during the Second World War to serve RAF Milfield near Akeld.
After a severe storm in August 1948 washed away a bridge north of Ilderton station, British Railways, which had recently taken over the line, decided that the volume of traffic along the line did not warrant replacing it. The line was thus split into two: Alnwick to and to, which included Akeld. This, coupled with an infrequent service, caused the line to go further into decline and the section from Alnwick to Ilderton closed on 2 March 1953; the other section and Akeld station followed suit on 29 March 1965.