West Norfolk Junction Railway
Overview | |
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Headquarters | Wells-next-the-Sea |
Locale | England |
Dates of operation | 1866–1952 (passengers), –1953 (goods) |
Successor | Great Eastern Railway |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
Length | 18+1⁄2 miles (29.8 km) |
The West Norfolk Junction Railway was a
History
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The West Norfolk Junction Railway was opened in August 1866. The line came from Heacham on an 18+1⁄2 miles (29.8 km) single track aimed at exploiting the great arc of coastline between Hunstanton and Yarmouth. 1866 saw the start of a major financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Overend Gurney Bank; the year also saw the outbreak of a "cattle plague" in North Norfolk which impacted on the cattle receipts on the line.[1] The West Norfolk was amalgamated with the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway in 1872, forming the Hunstanton and West Norfolk Railway, which in turn was acquired by the Great Eastern Railway in 1890.
During the
The post-war boom experienced by the King's Lynn to Hunstanton line was not felt on the West Norfolk Junction Railway whose inconveniently sited stations contributed to declining passenger traffic. Passenger services from Wells-next-the-Sea to Heacham were eventually withdrawn from 2 June 1952, but the line remained open to freight. However, following the North Sea flood of 1953, the track between Wells-next-the-Sea and Holkham was so severely damaged that British Railways considered it not worth repairing and the line was closed completely between these two places.[3]
Up to the end of its existence, the line was one of the last where one could travel in gas-lit clerestory coaches hauled by Victorian locomotives.[4]
Route
At
Sedgeford railway station was the first station after Heacham on the single-track West Norfolk Junction Railway. It was a small station located in a rural area, equipped with a single platform on the down side, built to smaller dimensions to other stations on the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway, and without a stationmaster's residence. Very basic goods facilities were provided in the shape of a single carriage siding on the down side. The station's staff amounted to two persons, reduced to one in the final years. Traffic on the line was largely agricultural, consisting of corn, sugar beet, cattle and agricultural machinery. A level crossing lay to the east of the platform.[7]
After passing through Docking, trains arrived at Stanhoe railway station, situated more than a mile from the village from which it took its name; its remote rural location was accentuated by the fact that it lay at a height of around 200 ft above sea level. With no goods facilities provided, the station had one of the simplest layouts on the line; a single platform on the up side on which was built a signal box and single storey station building out of Norfolk flint rather than the usual Great Eastern Carstone. A level crossing lay to the west while the line climbed to the west, running parallel with a minor road before crossing it on a level about a mile from Docking.[8]
The station was also the nearest to
At Holkham the railway line curved away from the main village centre dominated by Holkham Hall, and followed a path nearer the coast. The line had been opposed by the occupant of Holkham Hall, the Earl of Leicester, who feared that it would lead to large scale resort development and an influx of holiday visitors near his home.[9] A station was nevertheless opened opposite the main gates of Holkham Park which had been laid out by Thomas Coke who had reclaimed from the sea some of the land over which the railway now ran. The station's approach road, Lady Ann's Drive, continued for around half a mile to the beach at Holkham Gap. The station itself was very small, equipped with a single platform and no goods facilities. Architecturally, it was a miniature version of the Great Eastern's "Victorian House" design, incorporating a small platform canopy. There was a level crossing over Lady Ann's Road which was controlled by a wooden signal box.[9]
East of Holkham, the line curved southwards and rose on an embankment to cross the coast road on an overbridge, then turned eastwards to curve around the south of the town in a cutting which is now densely overgrown. The line entered
Post-closure
The majority of the route remains unobstructed although some of it now traverses open fields with no visible sign of the trackbed, and at Wells-next-the-Sea the line is densely overgrown where it runs through a cutting. The stations at Heacham, Sedgeford, Stanhoe, Burnham Market and Wells-next-the-Sea remain in good order, and large sections of the route remain in transport use as roadways and drives. For example, at Burnham Market, the former route passes east of the station across a field and is not visible, but the trackbed then survives as a concrete road leading from the south end of Joan Short's Lane to the sewage works, from where it continues as a public footpath through woodland.
Holkham station has been demolished, although the WW2 pill boxes remain. The site of Docking station has been redeveloped as a housing estate, although the station house survives as a private residence,[13] and the route into Wells-next-the-Sea has been partially redeveloped as housing, a school playing field and an industrial estate.
References
- ^ Jenkins (1987), pp. 34–35
- ^ Jenkins (1987), p. 85
- ^ Jenkins (1987), pp. 112–113
- ^ Joby (1985), p. 47
- ^ Jenkins (1987), p. 95
- ^ Jenkins (1987), p. 96
- ^ Jenkins (1987), p. 99
- ^ Jenkins (1987), p. 101
- ^ a b c Jenkins (1987), p. 36
- ^ Jenkins (1987), p. 76
- ^ JJenkins (1987), p. 102
- ^ Jenkins (1987), p. 103
- ^ Oppitz (1989), pp. 12–13
Bibliography
- Jenkins, Stanley C. (1987). The Lynn & Hunstanton Railway and the West Norfolk Branch. Headington, Oxford: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-330-3.
- Joby, R. S. (1985). East Anglia. Forgotten Railways. Vol. 7. Newton Abbott, Devon: David & Charles. ISBN 0-946537-25-9.
- Oppitz, L. (1989). East Anglian Railways Remembered. Newbury, Berkshire: Countryside Books. ISBN 1-85306-040-2.