W.H. Smith operated a bookstall & newspaper kiosk at Hellifield Station for more than seven decades. It was located on the 'Up' platform, beside the entrance to the Ladies Waiting Room.
It is likely that the kiosk first opened for business at the same time as the station (1st June 1880). Photo A of the default image was taken shortly after that date and the kiosk is clearly visible.
Books, newspapers, magazines and postcards were sold to customers via the counter, and many W.H. Smith outlets also operated a lending library service. For at least half a century, boys were employed to walk up & down the station platforms carrying trays of merchandise and selling direct to passengers on the trains. One of these boys can be seen in photo B of the default image.
The kiosk was also used to fulfil bulk orders for despatch via passing trains. In an article entitled 'Dent in the 1950s' (serialised in the FoSCL Journal during 2010-2011), Rodney Hampson (the Station Master at Dent between March 1952 and September 1955) recalls that:
There were some practical local arrangements, not found in any printed instructions. Newspaper parcels from W.H. Smith's platform bookstall at Hellifield came out on the 0810 train. Freddy Spratt, efficient manager (and sole member of staff), sent out daily bundles, some to locations like Helwith Bridge, Selside and Blea Moor, hurled from the train by the guard. ... Dent's share of the newspaper delivery was the daily parcel for Cowgill Institute. This contained papers and magazines for many of the Cowgill residents. The regular drill was for the 'Institute papers' to be taken down the hill by whoever was going, usually the coal merchant, sometimes a taxi driver. The package was put in the spacious window sill, inside the Institute, opened up by the first caller, and the individually addressed papers finally delivered by whoever was passing the address - it all worked.
Photo C of the default image shows this later kiosk (which was located on the same site as the original). The photo was taken in March 1948 and a note on the reverse of the original print states "removed & scrapped 5/1/56". This event almost certainly marks the end of W.H. Smith's bookstall & newspaper business at Hellifield.
