Station Name: KELVEDON LOW LEVEL[Source: Darren Kitson)]
Kelvedon Low Level Station: Gallery 1
Early 20th century - 1937  An undated view of Kelvedon Low Level station from British Railways days. There is a sign of life in the form of a youngster sitting on the platform bench nearest to the waiting room. On the right is the running-in board with the full title of the station squeezed on. The station name could also be found on the backrests of the bench seats as was common practice. On the left the branch goods brake van awaits its next duty and further along is a coal truck.
Copyright photo from John Alsop collection  
1:2,500 1923 OS map, the year the Great Eastern Railway disappeared into the newly created London & North Eastern Railway. Despite the Low Level station being marked it is, due to its basicness, not too easy to pick out. This map would have been a revision of a much earlier publication as the three-way point at the Low Level station is absent as is the engine shed road which ran from it. Assuming this is not a cartographic error (not unknown) when the engine shed road was provided is not known and the Minutes make no mention of it. The footpath alongside the viaduct leading from the Up main platform is shown but is not labelled. The signal box and grand total of two signals at the Low Level can be seen. The building almost off the bottom of the map just below the main line station footbridge was the stationmaster's house, the incumbent being responsible for the entire Light Railway as well as the main line station. This house was provided in 1890, replacing an earlier house thought to have stood on Station Road on the site of what in due course became the garage. There is still a garage there, albeit with modern buildings, but in 2024 it was under threat of demolition to provide room for houses.
1953 1:2,500 OS map correctly shows the by-then-closed Low Level station, devoid of track and with the branch to Tiptree and Tudwick Road running directly from the Up main line. Shown as extant in the Low Level station area are the water tank (Tk), coaling stage and the small waiting room on the platform. Further along the line the hut which was the signal box was apparently also still present. All other station furniture was removed immediately after closure in 1951. Bearing in mind the 1953 map would have been another revision of an earlier map, whether the water tank etc. were in fact still present in 1953 is a matter of conjecture. Also still present on this are the footbridge and path alongside the viaduct and marked as such. The extended Down main line platform is also marked.
 1970 1:2,500 OS map. By this time the Low Level platform was still evident but all else on the station had gone. The hut thought to have once been the signal box is still shown, towards top right, but in 1970 this had in fact long since disappeared. The footbridge alongside the viaduct is also still shown but precisely when this was removed is unclear. It was still usable into the 1980s.
On 9 April 1910 the 10.35am mixed train has just departed from Kelvedon Low Level behind nominally
0-6-0T locomotive No. 267 which is running as a 2-4-0T, this being a not uncommon sight both on this line and elsewhere on the GER system. The main line can be seen to the right. The disc attached to the locomotive's bunker was part of a train or route identifier system used by the GER. The centres of the discs were of various colours and surrounded by a white border. The reverse sides were plain white. The website of the Great Eastern Railway Society (see link in the Sources list on the main Kelvedon & Tollesbury page) has some information on this disc system but comprehensive details are now lost in the mists of time. Some 'die hard' crews, particularly at Stratford, continued to display these discs long after the Great Eastern Railway Company had ceased to exist. Photo by Ken Nunn 
A view taken from Kelvedon Up Home signal in 1911 while the Down platform extension was under construction. Kelvedon signal box can be seen in the distance; it was to be abolished in 1961. To the left of the footbridge is the stationmaster's house and at far left can be seen part of Kelvedon gasworks. The partially covered walkway to the Low Level station can be seen, the waiting shelter being the structure just in the picture at bottom left. One may wonder why the entire walkway was not covered, given the slope down to the Low Level platform was steep and probably precarious at times of snow and ice. The probable answer is cost. At bottom centre is the connecting line which was on a 1:50 gradient while outside the engine shed a locomotive is taking on water.
Photo from Duncan Chandler collection 
A postcard view looking north-west towards the bridge carrying the main line over Station Road and the Blackwater, showing the partially covered walkway between the mainline station, to the left, and Kelvedon Low Level to the right. The rear of the engine shed is visible at far right. The walkway was supported by stanchions of which two, possibly three, are visible. There may also have been brackets fixed to the bridge although there is no obvious evidence today of such once existing. The cottages on the left are Rosslyn Terrace and while these still exist the separate building at the far end does not.
Photo from Ian Gillies  The informative running-in board at the south end of the Down platform at Kelvedon main line station on an unknown date. It comprised painted cast-iron letters screwed to a wooden backboard. Coggeshall is some 2½ miles away and to access the light railway platform was something of a trudge, over the footbridge and then along the partially covered walkway across the river. The sign beneath the running-in board informs passengers they must cross the line by the footbridge. The platform ramp is just out of view on the left; today the platforms have been extended southwards. The building in the background was a seed warehouse and today it is in residential use as Kings Meadow Court. Founded in 1888, E. W. King & Co., trading as 'Kings Seeds' (no apostrophe), are now located at Monks Farm in rural surroundings on Pantling's Lane off the Coggeshall road.
Photo from Jim Lake collection 
A postcard view of Kelvedon main line station forecourt with stationmaster's house on the right. This makes an interesting comparison with the similar (below) but rather later view. The date is unrecorded but will be sometime around 1911. The background is too unclear to judge if the Down platform had been extended by the time of this photograph, although a platform lamp is just visible through the haze, between the footbridge and nearest Up platform lamp, which might suggest it had been. The station building here retains its porch and the steps show far less wear and other damage compared the later view. The roofed footbridge and the footbridge to the Low Level platform can be seen. The sign above the entrance to the latter directed passengers to Tiptree and Tollesbury trains. The main line station was never given a suffix, such as 'High Level', to its name but signage informing passengers they could change for the Light Railway was abundant. As far as is known the reverse never applied, i.e. signage at Low Level informing passengers they could change for main line trains. Passengers did however have to use the main line station entrance, seen here, to reach or leave the Low Level to which there was no other public access. The man with a hand on the post box is a Royal Mail employee. He would have been of what was then one of the 'Porter' grades, Royal Mail having several such grades according to task. The job of the man seen here would have been emptying post boxes and taking the contents to the Post Office. Staff who dealt with loading and unloading mail to/from trains were a different grade of porter. The station building has now been demolished and replaced but the station house still stands.
Photo
from John Mann collection
A similar view to that from 1911 but this time showing the Down platform extension completed, with milk churn present as if to make the point. The extension still appears quite new so this photograph will have been taken not long after 1911. At top right is the road entrance to the Down side goods yard. This area today is partly the station car park and partly the Kings Meadow development. The Up side goods yard, location of Kelvedon's cattle pens, was accessed via the station approach road running past the stationmaster's house. The gasworks was never rail connected; instead coal was delivered from the goods yard by road. Like most small gasworks, Kelvedon used horizontal retorts and the chimney from these can be seen to the left.
Photo
from John Mann collection
Looking along the main line towards Marks Tey from, presumably, the station footbridge. At centre can be seen the entrance to the walkway leading to the Low Level platform with, above the entrance, another sign directing passengers but unfortunately it is unreadable. The Low Level engine shed and water tower are also visible. In the distance some rolling stock sits on the carriage siding of the light railway. Under magnification the nearest vehicle appears to be one of the ex-Wisbech & Upwell cars. If so this would date the photograph to 1928 or later although the general air of the photograph suggests earlier. It is certainly after 1911 as the Down platform extension is in place.
Photo from John Mann collection
 The livery of the waiting room tells us this photograph dates from LNER days, otherwise the scene is difficult to date. There are however a couple of clues on the right. The bushes on the right appear to be still tended to and as the years went on these bushes took over, partially engulfing the running-in board and the urinal at the near end of the waiting room. This is the only view which has come to light clearly showing the small roof over the urinal. The oil lamp on the right lost its casement at some point in time and remained in this condition until the station closed. The pane of glass overlooking the platform is designed to hold the station name but no such names appear to have been applied on the Low Level platform if photographs are to be relied upon. Further back the brick hut has appeared, doing so sometime around 1930. Two vans sit on the siding to the left while two coal trucks sit beside the engine shed. The house partially visible left centre background is the stationmaster's house for the main line station. The Kelvedon & Tollesbury came under this stationmaster's jurisdiction for its entire life. The house still stands in 2025, largely unaltered externally apart from the loss of some of the chimneys.
Photo from John Mann collection 
Here is No. 7169 in 1937 (probably the same day as the picture below). She has arrived at Kelvedon with a passenger train comprising ex-Stoke Ferry Brake Third No. 62261 and one of the Ex-Wisbech & Upwell bogie cars. One member of the crew glares at the camera from the platform while the other observes from the cab. No. 7169 was born in August 1901 as GER No. 169, the LNER adding the '7' in 1924. In 1946 she became No. 8616 and ultimately British Railways No. 68616. Withdrawal came in November 1958, she having spent her final three years at Staveley ex-Great Central shed. Other than that exile to foreign climes she had spent the rest of her life in the former Great Eastern area.
Photo from John Mann collection  On 27 March 1937 the camera caught a rather smart Class J67 0-6-0T posing with staff outside the engine shed. The bars over the locomotive's cab rear lookouts were to prevent bunker coal smashing the glass. The open wagon in front of the locomotive had probably delivered locomotive coal.Photo by WA Camwell
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When the title 'Kelvedon Low Level' first appeared on the running-in board is unclear as early documentation referred to it simply as 'Kelvedon' or 'Kelvedon (Light Railway)' station with or without the brackets. It is however probably safe to assume 'Kelvedon Low Level' was adopted at the outset to avoid any possible confusion with its big brother nearby. The title of the main line station never included 'High Level' as might be expected and perhaps because no need to do so was identified. The GER and its successors did however make sure the travelling public knew in no uncertain terms that this was where they should change for the light railways. Running-in boards boomed 'KELVEDON Alight here for Coggeshall and the Tollesbury Light Railway' while elsewhere on the station, signage directed passengers 'To Tiptree and Tollesbury Branch' along with other information. These enamel signs included the delightful 'hand with pointing finger' guidance so typical of their time. They were destined to remain in use until withdrawal of the passenger service and examples have survived.
The platform was about 100ft long and on it was a small but neat enclosed waiting shelter with shallow awning. At the Tollesbury end of this shelter was a Gentlemen's toilet, set back somewhat and in photographs often largely obscured by bushes. Apart from the running-in board the rest of the platform furniture comprised two bench seats and three stanchion-mounted oil lamps. There may have been another oil lamp, but of the wall-mounted type, inside the waiting shelter but in the absence of photographs of the interior we do not know.
Kelvedon Low Level was the proud possessor of one of two signal boxes on the Kelvedon & Tollesbury, the other being at Tollesbury. The Low Level 'box had opened on 22 September 1904 with a 9-lever frame but it is thought that during or by 1921 it had been given a 7-lever frame. Beyond this point records are vague and it is pointless to speculate. The Low Level 'box had disappeared by 1957 which is logical because by that year all tracks into and at the Low Level station had been removed with the running line becoming plain track to the main line connection. The Low Level 'box was officially referred to as a signal box and is marked as such on maps, although as it would not have contained block instruments etc. it was in reality little more than a ground frame in a cabin. There was however telegraph or telephone communication with the main line station and/or signal box and a similar structure to that at Low Level also existed at the main line Up side goods yard.
Up on the main line, the first signal box dated from 1893 and closed on or by 1 October 1904. It had a 21-lever frame but little else is known. The date 1 October 1904 is significant as it was the opening date of the Kelvedon & Tollesbury. The original main line 'box was replaced by a GER Type 7 'box containing Saxby & Farmer 42-lever frame. It is likely this second 'box was operational before and in readiness for the opening of the Kelvedon & Tollesbury. This second 'box closed on 3 December 1961 as part of the main line resignalling which in this instance concerned the Witham (inclusive) - Marks Tey (exclusive) section. Colour light signals were installed. This work of course affected the connection with the Kelvedon & Tollesbury. The connection with the light railway was via a 1-lever frame unlocked by a key which was kept with the ground frame for Kelvedon goods yard. This frame was in a hut very similar to Kelvedon Low Level signal box but it was not the same structure simply relocated. The 1-lever ground frame controlling the connection also turned the relevant signal on the Up main line to red. The remainder of the movements concerning the connection with the light railway were controlled from Witham.
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