Lancaster's Green Ayre rises raises thousands for hospice

More than 2,000 visitors came to the library for ‘Green Ayre Rises,’ a celebration of Lancaster’s lost railway station.

Lancaster’s Green Ayre station closed 50 years ago and today, very little of the station remains.

Train enthusiasts from as far as London, Devon and even Canada joined throngs of locals and helped raise more than £4000 for Lancaster St John’s Hospice in the process.

The Ashton Memorial, in Williamson Park, turned green to coincide with ‘Green Ayre Rises.’

There were also emotional reunions of railwaymen who worked on the line - some meeting for the first time in 50 years.

Centre-piece of the event was a mammoth 40’x20’ model of Green Ayre, which was transported from Wakefield to be shown in its home city for the first time.

Model maker Jamie Guest was delighted with the response from visitors, he said: “It was a real privilege to take the layout to the city where it is set. We gained a huge amount of new knowledge that will enable us to make the model better, we even got told that the windows in Derby Road should be sash ones. All in all it was a huge success.”

The event on Sunday and Monday (May 1-2) was organised by local historian David Chandler, on behalf of The Friends of Lancaster Library.

David said: “People are already asking whether the event will be repeated, but I think the fantastic team of volunteers need to recover from this weekend first!”