Harry Potter

Goathland has been used as a setting in many TV programmes and films, including Victoria Woods "Great Train Journeys", The Noel Edmonds show, Sky TV's "The Wanderer" , Gwyneth Paltrow's "Possession", and of course, the YTV series: Heartbeat, in which the village is known as Aidensfield. But in 2001 the Warner Bros film crews arrived in the village to start filming what was then a little known title "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". In the space of a couple of days, they built a whole office block in one of the fields, complete with potted trees and named director's carparking spaces. Goathland station was transformed into "Hogsmeade" station, simply by making the wall a couple of feet higher, and altering the names on the sation, and the benches. The village became inundated with trucks, trailers, cameras, and reporters for about a week. The Warner Bros helicopter spent a couple of days doing aerial shots, and at playtimes, used to fly low over the school and wave at the kids. Several of the village children were used as extras, and my wife and two of her friends, were roped into becoming the wardrobe department, sewing "Hogwarts" badges on all the uniforms, and altering costumes, including Robbie Coltrane's trousers.

In the film, Harry Potter and the rest of the students arrive at Kings Cross Station in London, to board the train to take them to "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry". They run through the wall to Platform 9¾ which takes them onto an old steam train, which eventually arrives at "Hogsmeade" station (which is actually Goathland station). The final scene in the film (and the last photo in this sequence) shows the train leaving Hogsmeade station, and thanks to special effects, has Hogwarts castle in the background.