Harling Road 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, a ...

in the

east of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...

, serving the villages of Larling,

Roudham Roudham is a small settlement in Norfolk, England, part of the civil parish of Roudham and Larling in the district of Breckland. It was once home to Roudham Junction railway station. There are remains of a medieval In the history o ...

and

East Harling East Harling is a village in the England, English county of Norfolk. The village forms the principal settlement in the civil parish of Harling, Norfolk, Harling, and is located east of Thetford and south-west of the city of NorwichOrdnance Surv ...

, Norfolk. The line runs between in the west and in the east. Harling Road is situated between and , 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 . The station is managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates most of the services calling at the station. Some

East Midlands Railway Abellio East Midlands Limited, trading as East Midlands Railway (EMR), is a train operating company in England, owned by Abellio, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. History In March 2017, the Department for Transport a ...

also stop at Harling Road.

History

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, actuall ...

(N&BR) received Royal Assent on 10 May 1844. Work started on the line in 1844 and the line and its stations were opened on 30 July 1845. . The line ran from Ely to Trowse, in Norwich. The link into Norwich was delayed due to the need to build a bridge over the River Wensum that kept the river navigable. 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 Harling station became a Norfolk Railway asset.

Description

The station is situated approximately north-west of

, the village from which it takes its name. A footpath links the station to the village. Harling Road is a small station and until recently had remained largely outdated. The wooden

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

gates adjacent to the station used to be opened and closed manually by a signaller in the Harling Road

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

. In December 2012 the signal box was closed and the crossing was renewed with automatic barriers with warning lights. Passenger facilities are basic, with a car-park and seating in a shelter on the eastbound (Norwich) platform only. There is a bicycle shelter on the westbound (Cambridge) platform. There is no ticket office, and tickets may be bought from the conductor on the train. Harling Road is located in a rural area, and is ideally placed to provide access to the countryside for those who can not, or do not wish to, make use of a car for transportation. There is easy access to several long-distance footpaths, including the

Peddars Way The Peddars Way is a long distance footpath that passes through Suffolk and Norfolk, England. Route The Peddars Way is 46 miles (74 km) long and follows the route of a Roman road. It has been suggested by more than one writer that it was n ...

Angles Way The Angles Way is a long-distance footpath in England, close to the River Waveney and River Little Ouse and thus close to the Norfolk/Suffolk border between Great Yarmouth and Thetford. Originally the Angles Way went only as far as Knettishall ...

Icknield Way The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern and eastern England that runs from Norfolk to Wiltshire. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills. Background It is generally said to be, within ...

, Iceni Way and the

Hereward Way The Hereward Way is a long-distance footpath in England that links the Viking Way at Oakham with the Peddars Way at Knettishall Heath, near Thetford. The path takes its name from Hereward the Wake, the 11th-century rebel leader who fought again ...

. There are a number of other opportunities with

Knettishall Heath Knettishall Heath is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Knettishall in Suffolk. A larger area of 176 hectares is the Knettishall Heath Nature Reserve, which is managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. Despite its name, Knett ...

, West Harling Heath and

Wayland Wood Wayland Wood is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near to Watton, Norfolk, Watton in Norfolk. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 2, and it is managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust Habitat The wood covers an area of ...

(where the events that inspired the ''

Babes in the Wood Babes in the Wood is a traditional English children's tale, as well as a popular pantomime subject. It has also been the name of some other unrelated works. The expression has passed into common language, referring to inexperienced innocents ent ...

'' took place) all being within walking distance.

Services

, from Monday to Saturday there are two trains per day eastbound to , both timed to arrive in Norwich before 09:00 and operated by Greater Anglia. Westbound, there are two trains per day on weekday afternoons, one operated by

which calls at and before reversing and continuing to ; and the other to , operated by Greater Anglia. On Saturday afternoons there are two westbound services to via Cambridge, both operated by Greater Anglia. There is no Sunday service.

References

External links

* {{coord, 52.45326, N, 0.90808, E, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(TL977879), display=title Breckland District Railway stations in Norfolk Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1845 Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Greater Anglia franchise railway stations