Brandon railway station is on the
Breckland Line
The Breckland line is a secondary railway line in the east of England that links in the west to in the east. The line runs through three counties: Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk. It takes its name from the Breckland region of Norfolk, ...
in the
East of England, serving the town of
Brandon, Suffolk
Brandon is a town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.
Brandon is located in the Breckland area of Suffolk, close to the adjoining county of Norfolk. It lies between the towns of Bury St Edmunds, Thetford, Mildenhall, Downha ...
, although the station is actually situated across the county boundary in
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
. The line runs between in the west and in the east.
Brandon is from
London Liverpool Street
Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...
via . It is managed by
Greater Anglia, which operates most of the services. The station building was designed by the sculptor
John Thomas and completed in 1845. The station is Grade II listed.
History
Early years (1844-1862)
The bill for the
Norwich & Brandon Railway
The Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR) was the second railway in Norfolk, England, after the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR). Its Act of Parliament on 10 May 1844 authorised it to build a line between Norwich and the small town of Brandon, actual ...
(N&BR) received
Royal Assent
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...
on 10 May 1844. The line was to link with an
Eastern Counties Railway
The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Yarmouth.
Construction began in 1837 on the first nine miles at the Lond ...
(ECR) project of a line from
Newport in Essex to Brandon in Norfolk. Once complete the line would enable trains to travel from Norwich to London. Work started on the line in 1844.
One month before the N&BR opened a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the
Yarmouth & Norwich Railway
The Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR) was the earliest railway in Norfolk, England. It was formed after it became apparent that it would be a number of years before the Eastern Counties Railway would extend their railway into Norfolk.
Its Act o ...
with the N&BR came into effect and so, the soon to open, Brandon station became a
Norfolk Railway
The Norfolk Railway was an early railway company that controlled a network of 94 miles around Norwich, England. It was formed in 1845 by the amalgamation of the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway opened in 1844, and the Norwich and Brandon Railway, n ...
asset. The station building was designed by the sculptor
John Thomas, some of whose other rail stations are
Grade II listed. To blend it with the local vernacular, Thomas designed it to be built with Brandon
flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
.
The line opened on 30 July 1845 at the same time as the ECR's Brandon to Newport (Essex) line which served Cambridge and Ely. However, the line only got to Trowse, in the suburbs of Norwich, as the contractors were having to build a swing bridge to cross the navigable River Wensum. This was finished in December and on 15 December services started running through to .
Generous provision was made for the maintenance of locomotives at Brandon with a six-road engine house being provided, although once the ECR took over the NR in 1848, the shed's role was diminished. Although it was reported in the ''Locomotive Magazine'' during 1901 that stabling was being undertaken there. A picture of 1911 shows goods stock stabled outside the shed buildings.
The ECR and its rival the
Eastern Union Railway
The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was an English railway company, at first built from Colchester to Ipswich; it opened in 1846. It was proposed when the earlier Eastern Counties Railway failed to make its promised line from Colchester to Norwich. T ...
(EUR) were both sizing up the NR to acquire and expand their railway empire. The ECR trumped the EUR by taking over the NR, including Brandon station, on 8 May 1848.
In September 1853, a freight train came to a halt near Brandon, due to a defect on the locomotive. The driver of a second freight train ignored a red signal and consequently his train was in a rear-end collision with the first. Time interval working was in force at the time.
Great Eastern Railway (1862-1922)
By the 1860s the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble, and most were leased to the Eastern Counties Railway, which wished to amalgamate formally but could not obtain government agreement for this until an
Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...
on 7 August 1862, when the
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...
(GER) was formed by the amalgamation. Actually, Brandon became a GER station on 1 July 1862 when the GER took over the ECR and the EUR before the Bill received the Royal Assent.
The system settled down for the next six decades, apart from the disruption of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The difficult economic circumstances after the war led the Government to pass the
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...
which led to the creation of the
Big Four. The GER amalgamated with several other companies to create the
London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). Brandon became an LNER station on 1 January 1923.
London and North Eastern Railway (1923-1947)
Six months into LNER ownership it was decided to rename the station as Brandon (Norfolk) (1 July 1923). It is uncertain as to why as, according to Butt, there were other stations called Brandon, but none had the suffix-less title ''Brandon''. The renaming was seen as unnecessary and on 1 March 1925 the station reverted to its original name.
British Railways (1948-1994)
On
nationalisation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
in 1948 the station and its services came under the auspices of the
Eastern Region of British Railways.
In 1978 Brandon became an unstaffed station.
The privatisation era (1994-present day)
On
privatisation,
Anglia Railways took over the management of the station and most of its services on 5 January 1997. Services to the Midlands were operated by
Central Trains
Central Trains was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated a variety of local and inter-regional trains from 2 March 1997 until 11 November 2007.
Overview
Created out of the Central division o ...
.
On 1 April 2004 management of the station and the bulk of its services came under
National Express East Anglia
National Express East Anglia (NXEA) was a train operating company in England owned by National Express that operated the Greater Anglia franchise from April 2004 until February 2012. Originally trading as ''One'', it was rebranded National Exp ...
, then known as ''one''.
On 11 November 2007 services between
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
and Norwich were transferred to
East Midlands Trains
East Midlands Trains (EMT) was a British train operating company owned by the transport group Stagecoach, which operated the East Midlands franchise between November 2007 and August 2019.
Following the Department for Transport (DfT) award of ...
upon the breakup of the Central Trains franchise.
Until spring 2009, an original telegraph pole route remained in situ from here to ; this was one of the last remaining in the country.
The station and most of its services were transferred to
Abellio Greater Anglia
Greater Anglia (legal name Abellio East Anglia Limited) is a train operating company in Great Britain owned as a joint venture by Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and the J ...
on 5 February 2012.
On 18 August 2019, all services operated by East Midlands Trains transferred to
East Midlands Railway upon the expiry of the former's franchise.
Proposed demolition
In 2020, Greater Anglia planned to demolish the historic 1840s station building to enlarge the car park. On 6 May 2020 Greater Anglia confirmed that it had been granted permission to carry out the work. The project was expected to begin by the end of 2020.
Greater Anglia's plan was to replace it with a car park and "anti-vandal waiting shelters". In spite of objections by the local parish council and others,
Breckland District Council
Breckland in Norfolk and Suffolk is a 39,433 hectare Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The SPA partly overlaps the 7,544 hectare Breckland Special Area of Conservation. As a l ...
said, "The only issues of consideration ... are the method of demolition and site restoration. The purpose of this application is not to assess the historical merit of the building and potential restoration of the building."
However, according to
Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...
, railway stations of such an early date are considered to be "of international significance as being among the earliest railway structures in the world, and even partial survivals need to be assessed carefully".
Nevertheless, the Railway Heritage Trust (sponsored by
Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
and
Highways England
National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards used by all f ...
) did not support the objectors' cause. However
SAVE arranged for plans to be drawn up for an office conversion, in another attempt to preserve the building.
In August 2020 the planned demolition was put on hold following campaign group
SAVE Britain’s Heritage launching judicial proceedings. At the end of August the station was granted Grade II listed status.
Services
A regular hourly service calling at Brandon was introduced in 2007. This resulted in a significant increase in the number of passengers using the station.
there is typically one train per hour to and one to via , operated by
Greater Anglia.
East Midlands Railway operates a single morning service to Norwich, Monday to Saturday only, on its route from .
In popular culture
The station was used as a location in an episode of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''.