All aboard a heritage home made for two!
One incredible British couple has spent a staggering 30 years on a DIY odyssey to rescue a crumbling North Yorkshire railway station from the brink of ruin.
Mark and Carol Benson have poured three decades of ‘elbow grease’ and tens of thousands of pounds into Ebberston Station, a Victorian gem that had been left to rot since the last passenger train puffed away in 1950.
While most would have seen a derelict eyesore, the Bensons saw a dream. Mark, a quantity surveyor, and Carol, a nursery nurse, snapped up the site in 1996 and began the gargantuan task of turning the 1882 station back into a masterpiece.
“We always had the idea of running a business that would enable me to continue working full time as a quantity surveyor until I could retire,” Mr Benson explained. “Carol also didn’t want to return to working at a school as a nurse, so it worked out well.”
The transformation is nothing short of miraculous. The couple didn’t just renovate; they recycled, even salvaging bricks from the demolished porter’s room and the old men’s toilets in 2021 to finish two luxury en-suite bedrooms. Today, the former ticket office is a stunning holiday cottage, while the real stars of the show sit right at the platform: three British Rail Mark 2 First Class carriages that have been reimagined as high-end suites.
Guests can now experience the ‘First Class’ life in these steel behemoths without ever leaving the station!
The project was so impressive it even caught the eye of the government, with Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy, recently awarding the couple a prestigious blue plaque for their restoration of the platform canopy. It is a triumphant victory for British heritage, though the couple admits the challenge is never-ending. “It has been a lot of hard work,” Ms Benson admitted.
“There has always been something to do and, even though we think we have finished, we probably haven’t. We’re very proud of what we have achieved.”
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