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Meanwhile in the early 19th century changes were being made to the poor law and Starbeck became host to the Harrogate workhouse. Opening in 1811 and still standing, the workhouse served the requirements of the Harrogate poor, and by keeping the paupers away from their precious visitors, the Harrogate rich until 1858 when it was superseded by the Knaresborough workhouse. The Starbeck building for a short while becoming a private boarding school known as the Beech Grove Academy.

With the forest enclosure, the workhouse and the spa, a settlement was beginning to appear, but it was when the Leeds and Thirsk railway company built a station and laid their track beside the Star Beck in 1848/49 that the place finally came of age. Growth was rapid, as people pored in to take advantage of all the new work created by the railways. Within the next couple of years an engine shed, goods and marshalling yards to rival any in the North of England, opened at Starbeck. Before long a steam powered corn mill, a malt house and a water bottling plant opened and Starbeck's population rose from 800 to 5000 in just five years. It was once noted that the railway in one way or another was responsible for the livelihoods of 75% of Starbeck residents.

It is true that the railway passenger service was hit hard by the opening of the Harrogate central station as early as 1862, but it was the 1950s when the decline really set in. In 1951 both the Pateley Bridge passenger line and the line over the Crimple Low viaduct (which had been found to be unsafe beyond financially viable repair) to Pannal closed. Then in September 1959 the engine shed and marshalling yard closed for good. In 1967 the passenger service to Ripon was withdrawn and the last good train travelled the old Leeds Thirsk railway line from Starbeck to Northallerton on October 9th 1969 and the good sheds closed. By mid 1969 the station was no longer manned and the station, goods shed and coal
depot were finally demolished in 1978. A newcomer today would not realise Starbeck's railway history.

Earlier a part of the township of Bilton with Harrogate, with the 1778 forest enclosure most of Starbeck became part of the township of Knaresborough. It was not until 1900 when the Harrogate borough boundaries were extended that Starbeck, with the exception of Forest Lane Head, became a part of Harrogate. Forest Lane Head, so called because it stood at the head of the lane into the forest from Knaresborough, and not the present Forest lane, became part of the Harrogate borough only as recently as 1938.

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