HEXHAM Railway Station has been listed as one of Britain’s best 100 railway stations in a new book.

Written by best-selling historian Simon Jenkins, Britain’s 100 Best Railway Stations pays tribute to the limestone buildings and smart blue and white North Eastern Railways paint which makes Hexham stand out to passengers on the Tyne Valley line.

The former editor of the Evening Standard and The Times, and a columnist for the Guardian and Evening Standard, has travelled the length and breadth of the country to research his compilation, which celebrates the social history of the railway.

He chose Hexham because it has “the sunny appearance of a greenhouse”.

But as the first line to cross the Pennines, while straddling a full 50 miles, he acknowledged that singling out just one station on the original Newcastle to Carlisle Railway, completed in 1838, was no easy task.

“The line from Newcastle clatters along the bank of the River Tyne amid rolling hills and gentle meadows,” the book reads.

“It is a delight. Choosing between its stations is not easy, since the early railway’s cottage orné is everywhere in evidence, with gabled roofs and Tudor windows and chimneys.”