Gilling Building
Many people will know the Gilling Building, by sight even if not by name: it sits on Platform 1 at Pickering Station and is used as station staff accommodation.
However, its present day location hides an interesting back story.
It was originally a Signal (or Crossing) Box at Gilling Station. When it was replaced by a standard NER series 4 brick signal box, it was then used as a base for porters at the station. The picture below shows Gilling Station with the porters' cabin set back on the right, next to the signal box.
Gilling Station served the village of Gilling East and was used by passengers wishing to go to Ampleforth College. It was located south east of Ampleforth, which is between York and Helmsley.
In 1971 the building became redundant and was transferred for other uses in a farmer's field at Gilling East.
As far as we can tell from the records, it stayed there until the late 1990s when it appears to have been moved over to Pickering Station, originally located where the Demonstration Signal Box is. However, as part of the redevelopments at Pickering Station in 1999, it was clear that a new building was required which station staff could use, the previous room having been converted for other uses. The Chairman of the Pickering Station Group at the time (Martin Lovell), put forward a proposal to relocate the Gilling Building to Platform 1 at Pickering Station and complete its restoration to address the need for a station staff building.
The building was renovated as near as possible to original, and given a new lease of life, for Station staff at Pickering since 2000. In common with many buildings on the NYMR which have found a new life here having moved from their original location/use, the name “Gilling Building” has been kept and used, as a reminder of and providing a connection to its past.
The building is believed to be haunted by a past Porter at Gilling who went to sleep on the benching and never awoke….. however, a member of the Archive, who volunteers as part of the station staff team in the running season tells me he is unaware of such a presence. Maybe you know differently…
We hope you found this of interest. If anyone has any further information, particularly about its timeline from field to Platform 1, photographs or stories about the Gilling Building, please let us know over in the Archive – we aim to build as much historical knowledge and stories about any buildings and artefacts at the NYMR. You can email Carole or David Hardwick at [email protected]