A by-election in Doctor Who's home ward

The polls have closed in today's local by-elections, so while we wait for the results there is time to read Andrew Teale's previews.

One of the three contests is in a Conservative-Labour marginal ward on Kirklees: Denby Dale.

When I first heard of it, my ears pricked up. Because Denby Dale was where the branch to Skelmanthorpe and Clayton West diverged from the line from Huddersfield to Penistone and Sheffield.

Sure enough, both those stations would have been in Denby Dale ward if the Clayton West branch had not closed in 1983.

These days Skelmanthorpe is a place of pilgrimage as the birthplace of Jodie Whittaker, the new Doctor Who.

I do not have a picture of the Tardis, but I do have a picture of Clayton West signal box on its last day of operation.