Stanhoe railway station

Infobox UK disused station
name = Stanhoe
gridref = TF798386


caption =
manager = West Norfolk Junction Railway
Lynn and Hunstanton Railway
Great Eastern Railway
owner = London and North Eastern Railway
Eastern Region of British Railways
locale = Stanhoe
borough = King's Lynn and West Norfolk, Norfolk
platforms = 1
years = 17 August 1866
events = Opened
years1 = 2 June 1952
events1 = Closed [Butt, R.V.J. (1995). "The Directory of Railway Stations", Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford, ISBN 1-85260-508-1, p. 218.]

Stanhoe was a railway station which served the village of Stanhoe in Norfolk, England. Opened by the West Norfolk Junction railway in 1866, it closed to passengers in 1952. [Cite book | author=Oppitz, Leslie | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=Lost Railways of East Anglia (Lost Railways) | date=1999 | publisher=Countryside Books | location=Newbury, Berkshire | isbn=1-85306-595-1 | pages=p. 16-17]

History

The construction of the West Norfolk Junction Railway was prompted by the success of the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway which had opened in 1862 to link King's Lynn with the seaside town of Hunstanton. The West Norfolk opened in 1866 at 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. [Cite book | author=Jenkins, S.C. | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=The Lynn & Hunstanton Railway and the West Norfolk Branch | date=1987 | publisher=Oakwood Press | location=Headington, Oxford | isbn=0-85361-330-3 | pages=p. 34-35] The West Norfolk was absorbed into the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway in 1872 which in turn was acquired by the Great Eastern Railway in 1890. The line eventually closed to passengers in 1952, a consequence of rising costs and falling passenger numbers, aggravated by the inconvenient siting of stations; its full closure the following year was brought on by the North Sea flood of 1953 which badly damaged the section between Holkham and Wells, damage which British Rail judged not worth repairing. [Jenkins, S.C., op. cit. p. 113.] Up to the end of its existence, the line was one of the last where one could travel in gas-lit cleristory coaches hauled by Victorian locomotives. [Cite book | author=Joby, R.S. | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=Forgotten Railways: Vol. 7 East Anglia | date=1985 | publisher=David & Charles | location=Newton Abbot, Devon | isbn=0-946537-25-9 | pages=p. 47]

Stanhoe station was actually 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 200ft 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. [Jenkins, S.C., op. cit. p. 101.]

Present day

The station now forms part of "Station Farm" which has been owned by the same person for the last 40 years; the buildings have been well-preserved and in particular has retained its station signs and lamps. [Joby, R.S., op. cit. p. 148.]

See also

* List of closed railway stations in Norfolk

References