Wissington, Norfolk

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Coordinates: 52°33′01″N 0°26′58″E / 52.550251°N 0.449442°E / 52.550251; 0.449442
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Wissington in

bioethanol plant here.[2]

History

When the factory was built in 1925, there was no road access to it. It was located on the south bank of the

Light Railway Order. The owners of the factory leased the line, and built another 8 miles (13 km) of track, which ensured that sugar beet could reach the plant in sufficient volume to make it efficient.[3]

In addition to the railway transport, three tugs, named Hilgay, Littleport and Wissington, were used to transport goods from the factory to King's Lynn and coal from King's Lynn to the factory in a fleet of 24 steel barges. The Ministry of Agriculture deemed that the factory was of strategic importance during World War II, and took responsibility for it from March 1941. They drafted in Italian prisoners of war to refurbish the railway, and to construct the first roads to the factory. River traffic ceased in 1943. After the war, the Ministry bought the railway in 1947, and ran it themselves. In 1957 they closed the lines to the south of the factory, as most sugar beet was by then delivered to the factory by road. Final closure came in 1982 when improvements to the line (by this point operation was between Denver near Downham Market and Wissington) were required.[4]

Some of the steam engines used on the line have been preserved. These being Hudswell Clarke No. 1700 'Wissington' at the North Norfolk Railway, No. 1539 'Derek Crouch' (also by Hudswell Clarke) at the Nene Valley Railway and Manning Wardle No. 1532 'Newcastle' at the Beamish Museum.

Today

The plant is now supplied by lorry, collecting product from 50 miles (80 km) radius. In 2007, Wissington was the site of the UK's first

power plant, the excess heat from which was used to heat on-site greenhouses that produced 70 million tomatoes each year; in 2017, the greenhouses switched to producing cannabis plants for medicine production.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Get in touch with British Sugar | Contact us". Britishsugar.co.uk.
  2. ^ "Baroness Shephard breaks ground for UK's first bioethanol factory" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2006. Retrieved 14 November 2007.
  3. ISBN 978-0-85288-943-5
  4. ISBN 0-86093-141-2
    .
  5. ^ "British Sugar cannabis farm 'weed' smell investigated". BBC News. BBC. 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2019.

External links

52°33′01″N 0°26′58″E / 52.550251°N 0.449442°E / 52.550251; 0.449442

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