THE Station in Richmond celebrates its tenth anniversary today with a free event that will transport visitors back to the Victorian era.

It runs from 10am to 4pm and it will feature a storyteller, an illusionist, a puppeteer, a chance to see the film Brief Encounter for free, Victorian arts and crafts, hot chestnuts and soup, plus excerpts sung by Richmond Operatic Society.

The Station is a marvellous, atmospheric venue for good food, artisan shops and excellent local art (former Echo cartoonist Cluff is among eight artists exhibiting on the mezzanine level from November 25). There’s a fine walk along the old trackbed to Easby Abbey over the old river bridge.

It is also a wonderful building. Although it has been open in its current guise for ten years, it dates back to 1846 when the Richmond branchline opened off the East Coast Mainline. It is regarded as one of the finest stations of the early railway age, and it was designed by George Townsend Andrews, who was the prince to George Hudson, the controversial Railway King.

Andrews designed the station to fit in with the medieval and Georgian grandeur of the town, and then he had to connect it to the town by the elegant Mercury Bridge over the Swale, which was engineered by Robert Stephenson.

The passenger service into Richmond lasted until March 3, 1969, and the goods service closed the following year. For a while it was a garden centre, and it flirted with decay, but the current chapter opens in 2007 with the creation of the Richmondshire Building Preservation Trust.

To commemorate the anniversary, here is a selection of photos from the Station archive.