Calling at all stations . . .

Today fast trains take us from Norwich to Ely, Peterborough and beyond. The village stations with their gated crossings and Victorian signal boxes provide plenty of clues that this is a route with a history. The pine and bracken of Thetford forest and the rich fenland soil have witnessed many changes since 1845.

This is a brief guide to the stations past and present along the route – a mixture of history and the obscure.

If you have any stories about your station that you would like added to this guide please e-mail us using the address on the home page.

NORWICH THORPE

The present station is not the original terminus. The first station was opened by the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway on 30^th April 1844 and enlarged when trains from the Ely direction began on 15^th December 1845.

Formerly called Norwich Thorpe, the current station was opened in 1886. Built by John Youngs & Son at a cost of £60,000 it was constructed with red brick and Bath stone facings with a zinc dome. It has six platforms including a bay added in the 1950s.

The station is the last survivor of the city’s three terminus stations. Victoria Station, the original departure point of trains to London closed to passengers in 1916 and to freight in 1966 although the coal depot was still served for another 20 years. Many years ago passengers bound for Peterborough and the Midlands would have used City station which closed to passengers in 1959 with most of the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway. Freight traffic was to linger for another 10 years.

Electrification of the Norwich-London Liverpool Street service saw a simplification of the track layout and all signalling at the station is now controlled from Colchester.

In 1987 a revamp included resurfacing the concourse with Italian terrazzo tiles. Since the 1990s this impressive station has had its roof and canopies repaired and shop units installed. A 1945 City of Norwich Plan was not impressed describing the station as ‘a rather pompous over decorated building reminiscent of mediocre French railway stations of the period’.

Just outside the station area is the National Express Crown Point maintenance depot opened by BR in 1982 at a cost of £10m and occupying a 12 acre site.

TROWSE

The present swingbridge over the River Wensum dates from 1986. Trowse station south of the swingbridge was noted for its cattle traffic and the extensive private sidings of Coleman’s mustard.

The 89 foot station building at Trowse was of white bricks and flints worked by men from Brandon. A Mr Farrow of Diss took charge of the stonework.

In 1892 the Great Eastern Railway reported that in a recent year 95,000 beasts, 137,000 sheep and 14,000 pigs were received at the station.

The station closed in 1939 but came back to life in 1986 as a temporary terminus during major engineering work at Norwich Thorpe. Most of the platforms were later demolished.

HETHERSETT

The former Hethersett station was 6¼ miles from Norwich. Remote from the village it served and the wrong side of the A11, Hethersett was still served by 10 to 12 trains each way in the early 1960s, mostly Norwich-King’s Lynn/Wells-next-the-Sea services.

Closure came in 1966 and although the platforms were removed the derelict 1845 single storey station building and awning survive. Private sidings to a Ministry of defence oil depot were opened during the Second World War but had fallen into disuse by 1980 and are now disconnected.

WYMONDHAM

Just over 10 miles from Norwich, Wymondham is now first station on our route with its original Norfolk Railway now lovingly restored by a local businessman and formally reopened after years of dereliction by Dad’s Army actor Bill Pertwee in 1989.

The Brief Encounter restaurant and a piano showroom operate from the award winning station. A ticket office has been reintroduced for the morning peak period. For more information about the station and the businesses based there visit www.wymondham-station.com

When the railway opened in 1845 Wymondham had a second station, at Spinks Lane but this lasted only a few months.

The town became a junction in 1847 with the opening of a branch to Dereham, later extended to King’s Lynn and Wells-next-the-Sea. These services were the first in the region to benefit from the first generation of diesel units in 1955 but passenger trains were withdrawn by 1969 with freight continuing until 1989. Since then the Mid-Norfolk Railway has restored and reopened the line to Dereham, and there is a second station in the town once more with the opening of a halt at Wymondham Abbey. For more information visit www.mnr.org.uk.

From our line it is possible to make out the course of the branch to Forncett on the Norwich-London line, opened in 1881 and closed upon the outbreak of war in 1939. The Wymondham end was used for breaking up condemned rolling stock until the 1970s and the mail van at the centre of the Great Train Robbery of 1963 was reported to have been discreetly destroyed at this site.

SPOONER ROW

Two and a half miles from Wymondham, Spooner Row is the smallest remaining station on our line, the village deriving its name from the manufacture of wooden spoons. The station was closed twice in the 19^th century but reopened on each occasion.

The station building was damaged by fire in the 1970s and demolished. Today a signal box, gated crossing and three former railway cottages remain. There are two commuter trains into Norwich and one late afternoon return journey.

ATTLEBOROUGH

Attleborough is five and a half miles from Wymondham with platforms either side of a level crossing, a signal box on the Norwich-bound platform and restored gardens.

The ivy clad brick goods shed is a clue to the once extensive freight traffic handled here including Gaymer’s cider which was served in the refreshment rooms of the Great Eastern Railway. The cider works moved alongside the railway in 1896 had extensive sidings and stood on the site of the present Banham poultry plant.

Part of the former good yard became a bowling green in the 1980s. At Ranelagh Gardens in Norwich 140 years earlier the reverse happened: a bowling green became a goods yard for the new Norwich Victoria station.

Early in 2008 a ticket office was opened, staffed in the mornings and on Saturdays when there is a football match at Norwich. The station had been unstaffed since 1967.

Look out for the local resident’s garden which has extended down the railway embankment under the notice ‘Attleborough North Request Stop’.

ECCLES ROAD

Nearly four miles on is Eccles Road which was advertised in timetables as the station for Kenninghall, three miles away. Modern housing has developed near to the station in since the 1970s.

In 1985 a long siding was laid to a grain store at Snetterton supported by a government grant of £348,000 but by the early 1990s grain had disappeared from the rail network and the facility fell into disuse. In more recent times there has been occasional aggregates traffic to Snetterton and the exchange sidings were extended in 2007.

HARLING ROAD

Eight miles east of Thetford and a mile and a half from East Harling, the station still has its 1845 building (minus platform) on the east side of the crossing while its successor is located on the Ely bound platform.

In the 1940s the War Department constructed a long siding south of the station to a military stores depot. It remained in use for more than 20 years and its course is still evident. Freight here ceased in 1964 but some sidings were retained until 1983.

The Norwich to London mail train called at Harling Road on Saturday nights until 1981. Cuts in weekday stops were greeted with fury in 1994 and now there are two trains each way for Norwich commuters. A gated crossing and signal box survive but the Railway pub has pulled its last pint.

ROUDHAM JUNCTION

The station here opened in 1869 at the same time as the branch to Watton, later extended to Swaffham. Remote and with no road access, it became an exchange point only in 1902 and after that there were 60 years of gradual decline.

The post of station master had been downgraded to porter in charge by 1916, main line trains ceased to call in 1920 and official closure came in 1932. Thetford-Swaffham trains continued to call unadvertised until 1964, the Beeching Report making special mention of the loss making route with an average of nine passengers a train. Today the railway cottages and a few platform railings can be glimpsed from the passing train.

On the south side of the line are the ruins of Roudham church. Disaster struck in the 18^th century when ash from a workman’s pipe set fire to the thatched roof.

THETFORD

An 1847 guide described Thetford station as ‘a handsome building of flints edged with grey stone and bricks’ similar in design to Trowse. It was extended in 1889, the year shown in the stone work above the entrance.

Having a station at Thetford on the Norwich-Ely line was an afterthought, the original intention being for the line to pass to the north with the town served by a short branch. An Act of Parliament dated 31^st July 1845 authorised a deviation southwards causing some abandonment of construction work.

Mundford Road obliterates all trace of the branch to Bury St Edmunds, the first stop being Thetford Bridge. Passenger trains ceased in 1953 with freight ending seven years later.

The goods yard was cleared of sidings in 1983 and the site is now occupied by housing although there was some MOD traffic on the one remaining engineer’s siding into the 1980s.

West of Thetford there were sidings to Fison’s manure works at Two Mile Bottom.

BRANDON

Grime’s Graves (3½ miles from Brandon station) is a Neolithic flint mine underneath the grassy Breckland landscape and the only one open to the public. Flints from Brandon were used in the construction of all stations on the Norwich and Brandon Railway right through to Trowse.

There were still wagons in the sidings when Dad’s Army filmed in the station yard in 1970 but after a long period of disuse the yard came back to life in the mid-1980s with short term flows of timber and roof tiles with bricks and also limestone for the Wissington sugar beet factory being handled in the late 1990s/early 2000s.

LAKENHEATH

Lakenheath station originally appeared in timetables as The Hiss, after the name of a nearby farm.

Unstaffed since 1967, the station house is in private occupation and the Norwich bound platform still has a postbox.

In 1917-19 the Ministry of War used a 2ft gauge line alongside the road to deliver construction materials to Feltwell Aerodrome.

A chicory factory was based at the station but freight traffic ceased to be handled here in 1966.

Since June 2007 the basic train service has focused on weekend stops for those visiting the RSPB reserve at Lakenheath which is adjacent to the railway. For more information see http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/l/lakenheathfen/directions.asp

SHIPPEA HILL

The station was called Burnt Fen until 1885 and then Mildenhall Road until 1905.

A network of horse drawn tramways ran across farmland to the south of the station serving in particular the Frederick Hiam estate. Another long siding served Chivers factory, a mile east of the station. To the north there was a branch to Shrubhill Farm from the 1860s to 1880s.

Following the closure of the Mildenhall branch in 1962 Shippea Hill became the railhead for servicemen at the airbase there. Up to the 1980s around 11 trains a day called in each direction with taxis often waiting in the yard. Extra trains and connecting buses were laid on for the Mildenhall air fete well into the 1980s but usage later declined and the station now clings to the timetable with one train each way on a Saturday. The isolated Railway Tavern has closed but the renovated and enlarged signal box is a stubborn survivor.

ELY

Ely is a significant interchange station served by Norwich-Liverpool, Norwich-Cambridge, Stansted Airport-Birmingham, King’s Cross-King’s Lynn and Peterborough-Ipswich services, all combining to provide nine departures an hour.

The only route not to survive was the branch to St Ives which lost its passenger services as long ago as 1931 although two trains a week to a coal depot at the village of Sutton continued until 1964.

The 1845 building, extended in 1898 connects to the island platform by way of a subway although a footbridge once existed here. As part of the £12m electrification scheme in the early 1990s Platform 1 was widened and increased in height and all three platforms were lengthened to accommodate 12 coach trains.

The sidings to the goods depot to the west of the station were lifted in 1990 and the site is now occupied by a Tesco store. Today’s freight traffic is focused on a railfreight terminal north of the station which occupies the site of the sugar beet factory which closed in 1981.

CHETTISHAM

Formerly the first stop west of Ely, this village station closed to passengers in 1960 although a nearby grain terminal, visible for miles around, remained rail served until the 1980s.

Remarkably Chettisham sprang back into life again in 1991/92 when Ely station was closed due to engineering work connected with the electrification of the Cambridge-King’s Lynn line. Thousands of passengers were ferried by bus to and from temporary platforms at Chettisham although it appeared in timetables as ‘Ely Temporary Station’. For many the name on the signal box was the only clue where they were!

The station house is a private home but everything else has now disappeared.

BLACKBANK

This was the second station on the section from Ely to Peterborough.

Subsidence and only five regular passengers sealed the station’s fate with closure in 1963.

The signal box has gone but the name board can be seen on a modern house facing the railway.

STONEA

Situated 11¾ miles west of Ely Stonea was another fenland village station noted for its agricultural produce. By 1961 three daily trains for Ely called and four for Peterborough but closure came on bonfire night in 1966.

MANEA

Manea is 9¾ miles west of Ely and the only survivor of the four stations that once served fenland communities between Ely and March, is served by two Cross Country Stansted to Birmingham trains in each direction. Historically the main significance of the station was its agricultural traffic.

MARCH

These days the name might be associated with a prison but Whitemoor, to the north of March station, was the location of the largest marshalling yards in the country and the second largest in Europe. They were constructed in the late 1920s/early 1930s but after years of gradual decline only a wasteland remained by the start of the 21^st century.

In 2004 Network Rail reinstated part of the site to railway use with the opening of a new depot and at the end of 2007 GB Rail Freight opened a diesel depot to the east of the station.

March station shows every sign of a more illustrious past. Only two platforms are in use but three abandoned bay platforms and two trackless through platforms remain. The latter formed the start of the line to Spalding which closed in 1982. BR hoped to save £4m over the next 10 years. The line’s significance was as a diversionary route, village stations with distinctive names such as Guyhirne, French Drove & Gedney Hill and Cowbit having long since been abandoned.

March was served by second branch from Cambridge via St Ives and Chatteris which succumbed in 1967.

WHITTLESEA

It may be spelt Whittlesey on maps but to the railway it has always been Whittlesea! Two hourly Peterborough-Ely-Ipswich trains call, operated by National Express. Cross Country Stansted-Birmingham trains provide additional stops at peak times.

The station building – on the Ely bound platform has long gone leaving bare platforms. The extensive sidings once served a brick works but only two remain and they have been disused since the early 1990s.

Three and a half miles east of Whittlesea is a signal box and disused goods shed at Three Horse Shoes, the only clue to the existence of a freight only branch from here to the village of Benwick which carried agricultural produce until 1964.

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