Station Name: HOLME HALE

[Source: Glen Kilday]


Date opened: 15.11.1865
Location: At the junction of Station Road and Brown’s Lane
Company on opening: Thetford & Watton Railway
Date closed to passengers: 15.6.1964
Date closed completely: 19.4.1965
Company on closing: Passengers: British Railways (Eastern Region)
Goods: British Rail (Eastern Region)
Present state: The station building survives as a large private house.  The nearby former goods shed is a separate dwelling marked by a board stating THE GOODS SHED with a footnote about its history describing it as Holme Hale Depot.  The signal box remains, complete with its nameboard.  When photographs were taken in 1976 and 1987 some changes to the building were evident on the platform side.  Now, in 2017, an extra floor has been erected above the one-time shed beside the signal box and the house enlarged.  The trackbed through the platform is blocked by a single-storey garage.  A white-painted bar gate resembling a level crossing gate closes off the trackbed at the road but it is not in the original position of the crossing.  On the platform there is a signal post now carrying a ‘distant’ signal where the Thetford direction starter signal was located.  Modern farm buildings cover the line and siding areas to the east of the station. Looking west from the former crossing there is no evidence of the railway where its route crosses an arable field.  The one-time public house on the nearby crossroads is a private house.
County: Norfolk
OS Grid Ref: TF877070
Date of visit: 28.7.2017

Notes:  Holme Hale station had a single platform on the north side of the running line.  The platform lay on a roughly east-west axis, the line from Thetford having taken a long curved route to the west from its north-south path at Watton.  There was a level crossing, probably operated manually rather than from the signal box, over Brown’s Lane at the western (Swaffham) end of the platform.  A single-line goods shed was opposite the platform with its entrance facing east. 

The station buildings comprised four sections.  Most westerly was a single-storey annexe to the main two-storey building.  Both had their roof-line at 90deg to the running line with their gable ends onto the platform.  The annexe boasted a large two-flue chimney directly behind the station nameboard on the platform.  A basic shelter was formed under the overall roof of the next part of the structure, this with its roof-line parallel with the platform edge.  The roof over the shelter was supported by a cast or carved column. A gents' toilet occupied the east end of the building.   Finally, a single-storey shed opened onto the platform.  The main building was constructed of local Norfolk flint whilst the annexe and shed were of brick.  All had slate roofs. 

The signal box was on the platform to the east of the buildings and some way from the level crossing.  There were no points north of the signal box but rods led from the signal box towards the crossing gates suggesting that they interlocked the gates and signals preventing the gates from being opened manually without appropriate signalling. The starter signal for trains towards Watton was on the platform end.  There were sidings on both north and south sides of the running line.  Access to the goods shed was by use of the siding as a head-shunt.  On the 1883 25in OS Map the northerly siding was shown reached from the running line a few hundred yards from the station by way of an east-facing point and trap. By 1905 the layout had been changed and the way into the siding was from the west close to the signal box.  There was no facility available for passenger trains to cross one another at Holme Hale.  In 1922 the Great Eastern Railway ceased issuing tickets at the station.  Passengers obtained their tickets from the guard on the train and this practice continued until closure. 

Holme Hale village lies a little under a mile from the station site to the east but there were some dwellings and a tavern by the railway.  Kelly’s Directory for 1883 records that George William Smith was stationmaster.  In 1896 Frederick James Borrett was in that role but by 1900 Arthur Aldis was in charge of the station.  George Jones ran the nearby Railway Tavern and Thos Register was the local coal merchant.  The last passenger trains to call at the station ran on 12 June 1964 at 7.23 pm towards Thetford and 9.54 pm for Swaffham and official closure took place two days later. The station continued to handle goods traffic until 19 April 1965.

A Brief History of the Watton and Swaffham Railway - also known as the Bury and Thetford (Swaffham Branch) Railway
On 16 July 1866 the Thetford and Watton Railway was incorporated to construct a new railway that would leave the Norwich & Brandon Railway line at Roudham Junction, four and a half miles east of Thetford.  It had an authorised capital outlay of £80,000.  On 7 July 1869, the company had obtained an additional Act that allowed its trains running powers on Great Eastern tracks from Roudham Junction to Thetford and to form a junction with the Bury St. Edmunds and Thetford Railway at Thetford.  That came to fruition on 15 November 1876. 

North of Watton a nominally independent company, the Watton and Swaffham Railway was incorporated on 12 July 1869.  It would construct a line to reach a west-facing junction with the former Lynn & Dereham Railway, now part of the Great Eastern, close to Swaffham.  The line would be worked by the Thetford and Watton company.

At Roudham the junction faced west towards Thetford. The railway’s nine-mile route from the main line at Roudham Junction across an agricultural and partly wooded landscape was easy terrain,  required no significant earthworks or gradients and the railway was opened through to Watton on 18 October 1869.  It was a further six years before completion of the nine and a half-mile extension northwards to Swaffham: it is said that the extension cost £72,000 to build.  Its construction was delayed and complicated due to difficult land at Neaton, just north of Watton.  Here a deep depression had to be filled and compacted and an embankment formed to carry the railway.  Earth was extracted from a pit beside the route.  Part of the extraction site was flooded and became known locally as Loch Neaton, allegedly after the Scots navvies who built the railway.  The name is still used today. 

Goods services to Swaffham began on 20 September 1875 but it was not until nearly two months later that the supervising authorities were satisfied that the new embankments at Neaton were safe for passenger traffic to commence: it did so on 15 November.

Manning Wardle of Leeds supplied the company’s first locomotives after an offer from Robert Fairlie to test his ‘Fairlie Steam Carriage’ was rejected.  The Leeds engines were 0-6-0 tanks with three-foot driving wheels.  They were joined by a second-hand rebuilt 3ft 6in gauge locomotive whose. The engines were housed in a shed at Watton.  In 1876 two larger Sharpe, Stewart & Co 0-4-2 tender engines joined the fleet, presumably because of the motive power needs of the new Swaffham extension.

Travelling south from Swaffham there were stations at Holme Hale, Watton, Stow Bedon, Wretham& Hockham and Roudham Junction.  Although well provided with sidings for goods traffic the junction had no road access being simply a transfer platform for branch passengers using the Norwich & Brandon Railway’s trains to complete their journey.

On 21 July 1879 agreement was reached to lease the line to the Great Eastern Railway for 999 years, commencing on 1st March 1880. In 1897 it was fully absorbed into the Great Eastern Railway and became part of the London & North Eastern Railway at grouping of the nation’s railways on 1 January 1923.

Although not a large town, Watton has a long-established market having received its Charter in 1204 allowing a market to be held on Wednesdays.  The coming of the railway invigorated business in the town and two large monthly cattle markets brought livestock traffic to the railway.  Like many of East Anglia’s railways it was agriculture that generated much of the goods traffic. From Watton went poultry, butter, milk and eggs, principally to Cambridge and London markets.  Coal and other produce not locally available arrived by train.

As regards tickets issued for travel, Mr T C F Vollacott wrote a short history of the two railways.  He asserted that he did not know whether the Watton and Swaffham company had ever issued its own style of ticket: all that he found bear the name of the working company.  Several distinct ticket types were issued: all were standard ‘Edmondson’ size.  1st Class singles were white, 2nd rose, 3rd green and ‘parliamentary’ buff coloured.  3rd class returns were green and buff.  Early tickets had serial number and date on the face, right and left sides respectively: later ones had the serial number twice on the face and the date on the back. 

Today, typically of many agricultural areas crossed by closed railways, some of the former trackbed has been ploughed and is indistinguishable from surrounding fields.  However, for some distance north of Watton, the line can be seen as a wooded interruption to extensive fields of arable crops.  In the parish of Saham Toney some length of embankment remains in view and, close by, substantial brick-built abutments of an overbridge survive on Long Road at Woodbottom Farm.  A little further north a brick overbridge is intact crossing Hale Road.  Immediately south of Watton little remains of the line in Thompson Parish except at Griston where the railway crossed a minor road.  Here can still be seen the crossing-keeper’s hut and, beside it, a gatepost and the remnants of the personnel gate that was part of the level crossing.  ‘The Gate House’, much rebuilt and modernised, still stands beside the crossing.  Passing through Thetford Forest between Stow Bedon and Hockham Heath the trackbed is a Permitted Public Path before once more being obliterated by agricultural activity towards the site of Roudham Junction.

Throughout its life there was little change in the number and frequency of passenger trains on the branch.  The 1906 timetable shows five southbound weekday (up) through trains and four down.  There was no Sunday service.  Additionally, at 8.30 am, a non-stop train left Thetford and terminated at Watton. On Wednesday only market-goers bound for Watton were catered for by a 1.20 pm departure from Swaffham: it set out on its twenty-minute return journey at 3.15 pm. 

Steam-hauled passenger services ceased in 1955 when newly arrived diesel multiple units began work out of Dereham, where the steam engine shed closed at the same time.  The 1953 steam-worked timetable shows six through trains with no extra services to or from Watton.  Sunday saw two trains, both late in the day, the first activity being at 4.32 pm from Swaffham.  Indeed, on weekdays, a traveller might reach Swaffham only as late as 9.44 pm, whilst on Sunday evening it was midnight exactly when the second train reached the town!  

By 1960 no steam locomotives plied the line on passenger trains and the Sunday service had disappeared.  Five Down trains ran throughout, supplemented by an 8.03 am Watton departure to Swaffham (the first up train made a long stop at Watton so may have detached a unit there to form the extra train).  One, the 8.25 am from Swaffham, ran through to Ely: there was no corresponding down service.

Tickets for travel from intermediate stations, except at Watton, were issued by the guard.  This had happened since Great Eastern Railway days, providing evidence of low numbers of passengers using the line’s smaller stations.

Steam locomotives worked out of Swaffham engine shed, a sub-shed of Norwich Thorpe (shed code 32A in BR days).  Photographs from the 1950s show passenger work in the hands of D16 4-4-0s and goods trains hauled by various former Great Eastern 0-6-0 types.  Latterly Class 03 diesel shunters were to be found working goods turns on the branch. 

The final timetable in force before closure of the line to passengers shows five through trains in each direction.  In addition there was an 8.00 am Watton to Swaffham service.  An 8.20 am Thetford to Watton train returned from the market town at 8.49 am after a five minute stop.  There was no Sunday service.

The British Railways Board published Dr Richard Beeching’s report The Reshaping of Britain’s Railways on 27 March 1963.  By 20 September of that year the Eastern Region had published proposals to close the Thetford to Watton Branch, allowing two months for consultation and objections.  With what may seem like undue haste Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport, received a report on 9 January 1965 and gave his consent to closure on 27 February.  The line closed on 15 June 1964.  The last passenger service, the 9.21 pm from Thetford to Swaffham, ran on 12th June 1964 and was formed of a two-car diesel multiple unit with driver David Grant of Dereham in charge, carrying, it was reported locally, seventy passengers.  Roudham Junction to Watton closed completely.  The line north of Watton closed finally on 19 April 1965.  The last train carried in coal and took away a sugar-beet harvest.  Rails were removed soon after.

Route map drawn by Alan Young. Tickets from Michael Stewart and (0438 & 0003) Brian Halford. 1961 Bradshaw from Nick Catford.

To see the other stations on the Watton & Swaffham Railway click on the station name: Roudham Junction, Wretham & Hockham, Stow Bedon, Watton & Swaffham


Holme Hale Gallery 1: May 1953 - July 1982


A train for Thetford is ready to depart from Holme Hale in this May 1953 photograph. The gents' toilet is identified at the end of the station building and the goods dock is clearly seen behind the
eastern end of the platform.
Copyright photo by HC Casserley


1884 1:2,500 OS map. Around Holme Hale station in 1884 there was little developed land.  The Railway Inn is in place.  The village is some distance along the lane to the east.  The Up side goods siding is worked from an east-facing point some distance from the station. The goods shed is seen opposite the platform but no signal box is shown. A dock is shown behind the platform.

At Holme Hale the vicinity of the station remains undeveloped. The ‘Inn’ is now described as ‘Tavern’.  The Up side goods facilities are accessed from a west-facing point at the station: the remote point-work further east has been removed.

he view at Holme Hale station towards Swaffham in May 1953.  The gates are closed to road traffic but neither railway signal is yet in the ‘off’ position.
Copyright photo by HC Casserley

Looking east along the platform of Holme Hale station in 1963.
Photo from John Mann collection


Holme Hale station nameboard in 1963. The main building is of Norfolk flint and the annexe of brick, and both are under slate roofing.
Photo from John Mann collection

Looking eastwards along the platform of Holme Hale station from the level crossing in 1964; goods traffic is evident in the sidings.
Photo from John Mann collection

An undated photograph of Holme Hale station looking east towards Thetford.
Photo from John Mann collection

A seemingly timeless scene at Holme Hale in June 1964.  Although the station is impeccably presented, with a well maintained display of plants in the foreground, it would be closed to passengers within days.
Copyright photo from Stations UK

The platform and station buildings at Holme Hale looking east from the road in October 1976.  The nameplate is missing from the signal box and farm buildings occupy the site of the sidings on the north side of the trackbed.
Photo by Alan Young

Holme Hale station looking west in July 1982. The access lines to the goods shed are now an expanded coal yard and fields have consumed the line of the railway beyond the former road crossing. Some of the platform edging has been removed.
Photo by John Mann

The station buildings and signal box at Holme Hale in July 1982. The one-time open verandah in the centre of the building has been filled in to form part of the house.
Photo by John Mann

Click here for Holme Hale Gallery 2: 1987 - July 2017



 

 

 

[Source: Glen Kilday]




Last updated: Tuesday, 19-Dec-2017 17:42:00 CET
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