Notes: Sprouston was the westernmost station on the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway’s (YNB) Kelso Branch, several miles into Scotland.  From its opening on 27 July 1849 until 27 January 1851 it was the terminus of the line from Tweedmouth; on this date the North British Railway’s (NB) permanent station at Kelso opened and it was reached by YNB trains. The NB and YNB lines met at the end-on Sprouston Junction, a little over a mile south-west of Sprouston station. In Bradshaw of March 1850 Kelso, rather than Sprouston, is listed in the index although in the timetable the station is Sprouston (Kelso) for down trains and Sprouston (for Kelso) for up trains. The service is presented in narrative form with only the times of departure from the two termini stated and no reference to intermediate stations. Departures from Sprouston on weekdays are at 1.15am (stated as 1¼ morn.) – surely a mistake? – and at 2.45 and 6.20pm. On Sunday there are departures at 9.00am and 7.00pm.

The station building was designed by John and Benjamin Green, the Newcastle architects responsible for the YNB’s exceptionally fine stations on what is now the East Coast main line in Northumberland. The company put on a flamboyant display of architecture at Tweedmouth, its frontier station – Berwick was an NB building – and although the YNB purse strings had been tightened when Kelso Branch stations were designed, the company’s frontier at Sprouston was thought worthy of a more attractive building than was provided at Norham, Sunilaws and Carham; however it was on a smaller scale than the structure at Coldstream. At Sprouston the station was stone-built; on the up platform the stationmaster’s house of two storeys presented a gable to the platform beneath a ridged, overhanging slate roof. It was flanked by single-storey sections, each also with an overhanging roof, making for a nicely balanced elevation.  The north-eastern section was graced by a bay window on the booking office. Mullioned windows provided an impression of solidity. At a later date the North Eastern Railway (NER) added a waiting shelter on the down platform, opposite the main building. It was of stone construction with a pent roof sloping down towards the platform face and was partially enclosed. Both platforms were 96yd in length.

Reflecting its role as a terminus Sprouston station had an engine shed, although it was not constructed until 1863; it was a timber structure. This shed was destroyed in a gale on 14 October 1881, but rather than abandon it – larger sheds existing at Tweedmouth and Kelso - the NER provided a replacement in brick the following year. The new shed was single-road and was an austerely handsome structure; its hipped roof was capped by ventilators and there were four semicircular-arched windows in both of the side walls.

The earliest large-scale OS map shows four short sidings north-east of the passenger station on the up side of the running lines. A coal and lime depot is named and one siding serves a small goods warehouse immediately behind the passenger platform, close to the north-east ramp.

A 6,800-gallon water tank stood just beyond the up platform’s north-east ramp, carried on a 10ft brick plinth. The tank comprised standard cast iron sections 4ft 6in square with three sections by two horizontally and two vertically. The date 1864 was carried by the central casting. The station possessed two water columns; one stood at the north-eastern end of the up platform, adjacent to the tank; the other was at the west end of the down platform and was transferred to Alnmouth in 1944.

Circa 1860s a terrace of six cottages was constructed in stone, adjacent to the down line north-east of the station, for railway staff. A further terrace of three houses, this time in brick, was added circa 1900.

‡ Stops when required: approximate time

NER records show that Mr G Ilkesley was stationmaster at Sprouston for a period until April 1879 and that he was succeeded by Mr J Muir the following month. How long Mr Muir held the post is not known.

The timetable below indicates that the NER Kelso Branch did not have a particularly frequent passenger train service, reflecting the sparsely populated rural landscape that it served.

The Railway Clearing House Handbook of 1904 indicates that a full range of goods traffic could be handled but that no crane was installed. NER statistics for 1913 show that the principal consignments dispatched were 361 tons of barley and 51 wagons of livestock. Apart from the nearby village of Sprouston the surrounding area was lightly populated amounting to only 876 inhabitants within the station’s catchment area in 1911; in this year 4,722 tickets were booked at the station.

Sprouston was provided with a signal box of uncertain design in the early 1880s, but this was replaced in 1912 with an NER box of N4 design located on the down side, diagonally across the public level crossing from the earlier box. The new box was fitted with 25-lever McKenzie & Holland frame. From 1 March 1940 a ground frame was installed at Sprouston Crossing, and a King lever released the Crossing ground frame when the signal box was switched out.

Sprouston engine shed closed, as an economy measure, in 1916 but it remained in place for about half a century until closure of the line in the mid 1960s.  During World War 2 the shed had the honour of accommodating a distinguished evacuee: GWR 4-4-0 City of Truro was sent here from the York Railway Museum. After this locomotive was returned to York in 1947 the shed remained empty.

Towards the end of the NER era the train service between Berwick and Kelso amounted to only three trains each way on weekdays and two on Sunday, all of which called at Sprouston. East of Coldstream the service was enhanced by two trains in each direction running to or from the Alnwick line via Wooler.

For a period until March 1921 Mr Avery was stationmaster at Sprouston; his successor, Mr F S Houghton was in post only until November 1922. In January 1923 the NER became part of the new LNER, one of the ‘big four’ companies created at the ‘Grouping’ of Great Britain’s railways. In the same month Mr W H Warne was appointed stationmaster at Sprouston, a post that he held until March 1931. At some time during his tenure the supervision of neighbouring Carham station was added to his responsibilities. As at the other former NER stations between Tweedmouth and Kelso the LNER appears to have spent little on modernising Sprouston station, but it appears to have received new nameboards. Oil lighting was considered sufficient as it had been since the station opened. The winter 1937-38 train service shows four weekday trains each way, all of which call at Sprouston, but Sunday trains have been withdrawn. The 12.18 and 12.37pm departure is shown as ‘one class only’ in the timetable, and it is a return working of a Sentinal railcar.

§ One class only

During World War 2 Mr H L Wilson was stationmaster at Sprouston (supervising Carham) until August 1942, and he was followed by Mr W G D Thompson from October 1942 to December 1943. From April 1944 Mr G R Milner was in post; for how long is not known. Algernon T. Brison was stationmaster from 30 December 1947.

When the railways were nationalised in January 1948 the boundary between the new North Eastern and Scottish (ScR) regions of British Railways (BR) corresponded with the Anglo-Scottish border on the Kelso Branch. In the early years of BR there seems to have been little, if any, investment in the ScR stations on the branch, presumably because traffic was light and closure of the line was a possibility. The viability of the passenger services on the Berwick – Kelso – St Boswells railway was scrutinised by British Railways. Withdrawal of all trains running between St Boswells and Berwick was considered but because of the heavy parcels traffic, consisting mainly of fresh meat, game and poultry, it was decided not to effect a complete closure. However it was proposed to save £7,744 a year by closing Velvet Hall, Twizell, Sunilaws, Sprouston and Carham stations, all on the former NER section, and substantially reducing the number of trains; Norham and Coldstream stations would remain open. It was reported in an October census that annual revenue from Sunilaws amounted to £217, Velvet Hall £125, and Twizell £66 and the number of passengers travelling daily were four, six and two respectively. Although Sprouston station was, by the standards of this line, conveniently sited adjacent to its village, since at least the mid 1930s buses operated by Scottish Motor Traction and United had served the village en route between Cornhill and Kelso. The summer 1950 timetable shows that the first and last up trains of the day did not call at Sprouston (or Carham) whilst all other stations between Berwick and Kelso were served by every train. Bradshaw of February 1955 shows Sprouston’s train service in its final form; the June 1955 table differs only in that the 9.35am and 4.19pm departures are retimed on Saturday only.

SO  Saturday only      SX  Saturday excepted

On Saturday 2 July 1955 passenger trains made their final calls at Sprouston, Carham, Sunilaws, Twizell and Velvet Hall stations, and they officially closed to passengers two days later, on Monday 4 July. From this date the already infrequent train service on the line was reduced. Sprouston remained open for goods traffic but was demoted to an unstaffed public siding on 15 June 1964 (the date when the line closed to passengers) before closing completely on 25 January 1965; the line closed entirely on 29 March 1965, the date when Sprouston signal box was decommissioned. The box was partially demolished soon after, probably by late summer 1965.  By this time the water tank had been removed, leaving only the brick plinth. The passenger station remained in good condition for many years, although the shelter on the down platform was removed at some stage between 1964 and 1968; the engine shed was demolished at about the same time. The two terraces of railway cottages were demolished sometime after 1972.  The main building stood derelict for many years but has since been substantially expanded and is in residential use.

Tickets from Michael Stewart. Route map drawn by Alan Young

Click here for a brief history of the
Tweedmouth - St Boswells line

To see other stations on the Tweedmouth - St Boswells line click on the station name: Tweedmouth, Velvet Hall, Norham, Twizell, Coldstream, Sunilaws, Carham, Kelso, Wallace Nick, Roxburgh, Rutherford & Maxton & St Boswells

See also Jedburgh branch: Kirkbank, Nisbet, Jedfoot & Jedburgh