Heacham was a railway station which served the

seaside resort A seaside resort is a resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, suc ...

Heacham Heacham is a large village in West Norfolk, England, overlooking The Wash. It lies between King's Lynn, to the south, and Hunstanton, about to the north. It has been a seaside resort for over a century and a half. History There is evidence o ...

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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Opened in 1862, the station became a junction where services left the King's Lynn to Hunstanton line for

Wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

on the West Norfolk Junction Railway, which opened in 1866. The station closed with the Hunstanton line in 1969.

History

The station, about a mile (1.6 km) to the west of Heacham village, was intended to tap a thriving holiday market in the 19th century. A favourite resort of

Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King ...

in the earlier 20th century, the village later attracted large numbers of caravans and chalets to its shingly foreshore. The

Lynn and Hunstanton Railway The Lynn and Hunstanton Railway was a line in Norfolk, England that opened in 1862. The railway was a major factor in developing Hunstanton as a seaside resort and residential community. The company was allied to the West Norfolk Junction Railwa ...

proved an immediate success and encouraged the construction of a further line, the West Norfolk Junction Railway from Heacham to Wells, which opened in 1866. Heacham Railway Station

Services to Wells started and terminated at a

bay platform In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines. It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms. Overview Bay and islan ...

to the east of the station, while trains to Hunstanton and King's Lynn took the two through platforms. The station was rebuilt at least twice, with 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 ...

adding platform canopies and a turntable, and improving the platform buildings. More substantial changes were made by the successor

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

in 1937, as Heacham had become a significant holiday destination and the

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

needed to accommodate 13-coach trains. The platforms were linked by a lattice girder footbridge and a

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'' ...

was placed on the down side. Arriving passengers could lodge at the nearby ''West Norfolk'' hotel. In 1960–1961, the station offered a camping coach converted from a Pullman car, fitted with a full kitchen, two sleeping compartments and a room with two single beds. A further camping coach was available in 1962–1965. A post-war boom on the King's Lynn to Hunstanton line did not affect the West Norfolk Junction Railway, whose inconveniently sited stations contributed to a decline in passenger traffic. Passenger services from Wells were withdrawn from 31 May 1952, but the line remained open to freight until the

North Sea flood of 1953 The 1953 North Sea flood was a major flood caused by a heavy storm surge that struck the Netherlands, north-west Belgium, England and Scotland. Most sea defences facing the surge were overwhelmed, causing extensive flooding. The storm and flo ...

, when the track between Wells and Holkham was severely damaged. The King's Lynn to Hunstanton line survived 17 more years before closing in 1969 amid falling traffic and service cutbacks.

Present day

The station buildings mostly survived and from 1993 were converted into holiday accommodation, with a camping and caravan site on the old trackbed. The owners of the site acquired a

British Railways Mark 1 British Railways Mark 1 is the family designation for the first standardised designs of railway carriages built by British Railways (BR) from 1951 until 1974, now used only for charter services on the main lines or on preserved railways. Follo ...

first class carriage from the

Battlefield Line Railway The Battlefield Line Railway is a heritage railway in Leicestershire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It runs from Shackerstone (Grid ref ) to Shenton (), via Market Bosworth, a total of . Shenton is near Bosw ...

in 2006, converting it into further accommodation. The old signal box survived for many years, but was removed to make way for housing.

References

{{closed stations norfolk Disused railway stations in Norfolk Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1862 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1969 1862 establishments in England Heacham

History

Present day

See also

References