A GENEROUS bequest of family photographs has inspired a remarkable research journey at the Wensleydale Railway.

The photographs, which date from the late 1880s through to the 1930s, depict the Finghall Lane station near Bedale station in its heyday.

They feature five staff members including Station Master, George Metcalfe, who ran it from the mid 1890s until just after the First World War.

The photographs were donated by Jane Stringer, who, having inherited them from a family friend, got in touch with the railway group.

They have since enabled staff and volunteers at the railway to piece together the story of one of its stations.

Virginia Arrowsmith, Heritage Education Officer, said: ‘This is a real glimpse into the past for us, given that few people had access to cameras until well into the twentieth century.”

An on-going research programme into the history of the Wensleydale Railway welcomes information from anyone who has a family connection with the railway.