Station Name: TOLLESHUNT KNIGHTS[Source: Darren Kitson]
 In this undated view the running-in board is seen at its original location. The carriage body is thought to have been provided subsequent to the halt opening, which would explain why the running-in board has been remounted off centre in respect of its stanchions. In other words it was repositioned to make room for the carriage body which would need to be alongside the level section of platform. This arrangement was clearly deemed unsatisfactory as the running-in board was later moved to the other end of the platform on new stanchions. The platform bench seat does not look very stable. Like all such benches along the line, the station/halt name was given on plate mounted on the uppermost backrest.
Photo from John Mann collection  
Tolleshunt Knights station shown on the 1922 1:2,500 OS map. The crude platform, carriage body and permanent way hut are all there was to show. Although only a part can be seen, the line is titled 'Kelvedon, Tiptree & Tollesbury Light Railway'. This title was commonly used until 'Kelvedon & Tollesbury Light Railway' became the norm while some GER material referred to it simply as 'the Kelvedon & Tiptree'.
The 1934 1:2,500 OS map showed Tolleshunt Knights was still a mere scattering of buildings but it has become much more populous in modern times. Brook Hall still exists, the smithy (blacksmith) has long gone while the Rose & Crown at 35 D'arcy Road ceased trading in 2015 and is now in private residential use. Left of centre, Tudwick Road Siding may be seen. From Tiptree to Tudwick Road the railway was on a falling 1:50 gradient and from Tudwick Road to Tolleshunt Knights station the gradient was 1:50 rising. Tudwick Road Siding was on the level and as per standard practice it had a trap point close to the junction. Depending on scale some maps show the trap point some, such as this one, do not. After closure of the line beyond Tudwick Road in 1951, the track as far as Tolleshunt Knights station was retained as a headshunt. Just off the map to the right is Top Road where the former level crossing can still be discerned thanks to a surviving section of former trackbed indicated by a home-made sign depicting the silhouette of a steam locomotive.
 1971 1:2,500 OS map shows most evidence of the K & T has now gone. A section of track bed survives at the bottom of gardens in Brook Road. There has been substantial residential development around the station site.
 A Kelvedon bound train pauses at Tolleshunt Knights sometime in British Railways days. The numberplate on the locomotive is all-but unreadable; it is either No. 68606 or 68616. The open carriage door suggests the photographer had dismounted to take the photograph. The presence of the train makes the low, 15" high, platform all the more evident. It is not clear if the running-in board was absent at this time or if glare or a photographic flaw has made it invisible. The board had originally been mounted on the two stanchions adjacent to the oil lamp nearest the camera, but mounted off-centre due to the presence of the grounded carriage body, making for a rather peculiar appearance. The ever-present house on the right provides a reference point for anybody looking for the site of the halt and level crossing today.
Photo from John Mann collection  On 16 April 1949 a Tollesbury - Kelvedon train arrives at the unstaffed halt that was Tolleshunt Knights as the guard closes the level crossing gates behind the train. The road is the B1023 D'Arcy Road. The locomotive is Class J69 LNER No. 8636 and she would soon become British Railways No. 68636. The train was the last Up service of the day, 6.37pm from Tollesbury and as with all public trains on the line by this time could run as a mixed train if required but it appears this particular train seldom did. There was an early morning goods working, 6.40am ex Kelvedon, to which was attached empty coaching stock. This train called at all goods sidings if required in the Down direction and returned from Tollesbury as a mixed train at 8.30am, finally arriving back at Kelvedon at 9.9am, thus the round trip of 16 miles 70 chains had occupied one minute short of 2½ hours.
Photo from John Mann collection 
An undated view possibly from 1949 and at the same time as that showing No. 8636 arriving as both views show something hanging down around the oil lamp casement. On the left the competition is passing by along the D'Arcy Road. There are passengers onboard, something which was often lacking on this railway during its final years. The livery of the omnibus and therefore its owner is difficult to evaluate in this black and white photograph. Given wartime austerity which lingered into the 1950s, the vehicle may have been acquired secondhand by one of the local operators and was yet to be repainted.
Photo from John Mann collection 
The halt photographed in May 1951, the month and year of the withdrawal of the passenger service. The poster is unreadable although it was probably announcing the end of the passenger service. At its bottom right corner is the British Railways 'totem' logo. The platform provided here was somewhat shorter than the 100ft affairs elsewhere on the line and can be estimated at 40 - 50ft excluding ramps. The platform length can be judged from the adjacent rail lengths which were twenty feet. The line abounded in various rail lengths of which most were effectively obsolete hand-me-downs from more important lines, one of the provisions made possible by the Light Railways Act. See the Tollesbury pages for an explanation of how these twenty feet rail lengths can be proven. Also fairly obvious are dipped rail joints; a journey along the line in a 4 or 6-wheel carriage must have been a quite tuneful and jolty experience.
Photo by Walter Denby 
The date of this photograph is something of a puzzle. Compare it with the photograph known to have been taken in May 1951 and it will be seen that in this view the carriage body is a little more dilapidated, suggesting after May 1951, yet the poster promoting travel is in situ rather than what is thought to have been the notice advising of closure. At minor stations and halts 'Big Four' signage such as the LNER poster board header often remained in situ for quite some time into British Railways days, the initial focus being on more important stations. The poster seen here appears to be one of series issued to promote the Yorkshire Dales. The idyllic colour scene it depicted would have made an almost comical comparison with the sorry sight that was Tolleshunt Knights station. The running-in board is now at this end of the platform but the redundant stanchions of the original position remain at the far end. The rather dodgy-looking platform bench seat has vanished.
Photo
from John Mann collection
 Saturday 5 May 1951 and No. 68578 arrives at Tolleshunt Knights with the final Up train, the 6.37pm from Tollesbury. The train is straddling the level crossing so must have been still moving despite certain passengers and onlookers being where they really should not have been. In those pre Health & Safety days nobody worried too much and the Kelvedon & Tollesbury was hardly a high speed line. No doubt the group of people far right were locals out to witness of the end of their railway. The house partially visible on the right still stands today, No. 13 D'Arcy Road. The driveway to No. 11 is partially on the former trackbed and the area is now built up, leaving no trace that the railway ever existed. The station, or more precisely the halt, site is now occupied by properties and their gardens on the north side of Strawberry Lane. Due to a quirk resulting from land boundaries it is however still possible to trace the route of the former railway at this location from the air.
Photo by J J Smith 
Looking west across the site of the level crossing to the site of Tolleshunt Knights station in July 2024. The platform was under the single storey extension to the house.
Photo by Nick Catford 
Wisdom Art Prints is a Tiptree based studio, illustrating and producing the highest quality greeting cards and art prints. Artist Robert Wisdom has been illustrating professionally for over 45 years. Robert has a particular interest in his local railway, the Kelvedon & Tollesbury Light Railway, and has illustrated all the stations
Print by Robert Wisdom
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The only other facility at Tolleshunt Knights was a permanent way hut, situated on the Tiptree side of the station and on the Down side. This hut would have been used by one of the linesmen, who would have been responsible for, among his other duties, maintaining station oil lamps, the lighting and extinguishing of which was the job of train guards. The timetable throughout the life of the passenger service was such that during most of summer the oil lamps would not have been required. 
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