Disused Stations: Fordham Station

Fordham Station Gallery 4: June 1973 - May 2015

Fordham up platform from a passing train on 4 June 1973. The canopy is not as close to the train as it appears, the illusion being due to curvature of track and platform. Close examination of a blown-up version of this image shows that the gas lamp beneath the canopy is still present. This view is useful for showing why the mirror on the signal box was necessary and may ask why, with sighting a problem, the signal box was built where it was in the first place. The answer is simple: when the station was built the up platform canopy in the form seen above did not exist. There was originally either no canopy at all or just a small porch over the entrance to the platform. The canopy seen above was provided sometime after the Mildenhall branch had opened throughout and it is thought that the down waiting room was rebuilt at the same time. No doubt a surge of business was anticipated with the coming of the branch but - as history reveals - it was not to be.
Photo by Alan Young

Fordham signal box had been abolished in October 1973 and by 14 May 1977, when this photograph was taken, much of the station had been demolished. The small building on the right, added subsequent to the station opening, was originally separate but was later joined to the house by a small extension to the latter's rear. Both platforms are extant at this time but are difficult to discern because of the encroaching grass and weeds.
Photo by Alan Young

The remains of Fordham station from the level crossing on 14 May 1977. Some railway fencing and running-in board supports remain, as does the short ground-level extension to the down platform (right foreground). In the distance, a modern building stands approximately where the goods shed once stood and close to the site of Fordham South Junction.
Photo by Alan Young

In this 1977 view the station building, or what is left of it, looks rather less dilapidated than it does in other images from the same year. The television aerial has vanished by this time, perhaps suggesting the house is unoccupied. On the left the second pair of staff cottages can be seen. The rather oddly positioned window in the house, which is probably on a landing, appears in numerous images going back decades. It does not match the style of other windows in the house, all of which had the pronounced arch, so was possibly a later addition. GER records mention a number of alterations to the house at various times but without going into detail.

Photo by Ian Dinmore

This is an opportune moment to catch one of the infrequent trains to the other Ely - Newmarket line station, Soham, to compare its station building with that at Fordham. The above view is from a postcard which had been posted on 9 August 1912. Although Soham was built and opened at the same time as Fordham, the entirely different layout is obvious. The station house bears some similarities to Fordham but also some major differences. One obvious difference is the windows overlooking the platform and the lack of a doorway. The chimney arrangement also differs and the general 'T' shape of the building is of different proportions to that at Fordham. Although both stations are known to have received alterations over the years, the essential differences between the two are thought to have been present from the outset.

Fordham station remains in 2009 viewed from what would have been approximately the end of the 'back road' siding. At this time there was an unsuccessful proposal to demolish the building and build a recycling centre on the site.
Photo by Tony Lewis, reproduced from Geograph under creative commons licence

The site of Fordham station seen from the Station Road level crossing - where automatic half barriers have been in place since 1973 –and looking towards Newmarket in January 2009. What remains of the station building can be seen in the centre distance. Compare this view to the 1958 photograph taken from the same spot. To the right of the track, what appears to be a platform edge is in fact cable conduit. The former staff cottages can be seen left and right.
Photo by Peter Heath, reproduced from Geograph under creative commons licence

The remains of Fordham station c2009. This view is looking towards Ely and the railway runs on the far left, behind the trees. Directly ahead of the camera is the former station approach road, now largely overgrown. The entrance to the goods yard was on the right and directly opposite the house - a farmhouse which was nothing to do with the railway. When the goods yard was operational, sidings lay to the left and right of the point where the photographer is standing.

The increasingly dilapidated Fordham station house is seen from the forecourt in June 2013. Is that Giant Hogweed on the left? This derelict land is just the sort of environment that this unfriendly plant enjoys. The building has been entered by explorers unknown and photographic evidence tells us that the upstairs window had remained in the open position for several years.

Looking south-east from the level crossing at the site of Fordham station in May 2015. The station building is still there and the roof line can just be made out in the trees in the middle distance. To anyone passing by, however, there is no visible evidence that a station ever existed here.
Photo by Nick Catford

Click on thumbnail to enlarge

[Source: Darren Kitson]

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