South Willingham and Hainton railway station was a railway station that served the village of

South Willingham South Willingham is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, and partly within the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, . It is situated south of the A157 Lincoln to Louth road, wes ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, England between 1874 and 1958, on the to line.

History

The Louth and Lincoln Railway planned and built a branch line from Bardney to Louth in stages, the first stage between Bardney and South Willingham opened to goods traffic on 9 November 1874. South Willingham acted as a terminus until South Willingham Tunnel was completed. The line then opened to on 27 September 1875, still goods traffic only. The line was completed through to for goods traffic on 6 August 1876 and opened to passengers on 1 December 1876. One month later, on 1 January 1877, ''South Willingham'' station was renamed ''South Willingham and Hainton''. However, the station nameboard read ''Hainton and South Willingham'', probably to save having to replace an otherwise new board."South Willingham and Hainton"
''Disused Stations Website'', Retrieved 12 January 2020 It was absorbed by the Great Northern Railway in 1882. The station was located 139 miles 63

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

s from London Kings Cross via , and Bardney. The branch was mostly single track and the station had only one

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

. 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 located at South Willingham, to control the

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

and the small

goods yard A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are lo ...

. The yard had two

siding Siding may refer to: * Siding (construction), the outer covering or cladding of a house * Siding (rail) A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch l ...

s serving an end

loading dock A loading dock or loading bay is an area of a building where goods vehicles (usually road or rail) are loaded and unloaded. They are commonly found on commercial and industrial buildings, and warehouses in particular. Loading docks may be exterio ...

and cattle pen. There was no

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at South Willingham to allow trains to pass one another but connections to the sidings allowed the train's engine to run round a few wagons. At the road entrance to the goods yard was a

weighbridge A truck scale (US), weighbridge (non-US) or railroad scale is a large set of scales, usually mounted permanently on a concrete foundation, that is used to weigh entire rail or road vehicles and their contents. By weighing the vehicle both emp ...

and office. The platform was increased in height over half its length sometime between 1930 and 1950. The station building included living accommodation for the

Station Master The station master (or stationmaster) is the person in charge of a railway station, particularly in the United Kingdom and many other countries outside North America. In the United Kingdom, where the term originated, it is now largely historical ...

and his family as well as

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facilities, a booking office, a general waiting room and a ladies waiting room. Architecturally, the building was in the same style as others on the line; built of

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

with a number of brick

string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...

s of a contrasting colour. The number and appearance of the string courses differed on each station; at South Willingham, the general bricks were a lighter colour with darker string course bricks. The signal box was of timber construction and was constructed on a brick plinth set into the side of the

embankment Embankment may refer to: Geology and geography * A levee, an artificial bank raised above the immediately surrounding land to redirect or prevent flooding by a river, lake or sea * Embankment (earthworks), a raised bank to carry a road, railwa ...

opposite the eastern end of the platform.

Passenger service

When the line opened five passenger trains a day were provided, but this was quickly reduced to 4, with 5 on Fridays. At the start of the Second World War the service was suspended for three months.Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, ''Eastern Main Lines: Boston to Lincoln, also from Louth and Horncastle'', Middleton Press, Midhurst, 2015, When it was reinstated in December 1939 the timetable was reduced to three trains in each direction and the 1950 timetable shows that this arrangement continued after the war until closure. Although originally intended to run to Lincoln, trains on the line only ran between Louth and Bardney; passengers had to change at Bardney to get to Lincoln. Trains were timetabled to get to Wragby in 11 minutes, and Bardney in 22 minutes, with a connection to Lincoln taking a further 25 minutes. In the other direction, trains took 8 minutes to get to Donington and 24 minutes to arrive in Louth (these are sample times and varied during the day and in the direction travelled). Passenger services ended on 5 November 1951, goods traffic on 1 December 1958.A J Ludlam, ''Branch Lines of East Lincolnshire: volume 1: Louth to Bardney'', published by Lincolnshire Wolds Railway Society, 2015,

After Closure

The track was lifted in 1961 and the bridge over the road was demolished sometime during the following 12 years. The signal box had been demolished sometime between 1953 and 1958, whilst goods traffic still used the line. The station building became a private residence and has since been rendered and extensively extended. A large brick and asbestos cement industrial shed was built in the goods yard in the 1960s, which was subsequently used to build Piper sports cars. The platform and end loading dock remains (in 2020) as does the weighbridge office."History of South Willingham Railway Station"
''The Parish of South Willingham - The Life & History of South Willingham'', South Willingham History Group website. Retrieved 19 January 2020

Station Masters

The following Station Masters are recorded along with the date of the record. They lived in the station building, along with their families. *1875 James Andrews *1881 & 1891 Charles Smith *1901 & 1911 Alfred Coulson *1926 John Edward Paul *1939 James Moseley Whilst James Moseley is recorded as living with his wife and family in the station building in 1939, he is not a station master; he is described in the 1939 Census as a

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and a

signalman A signalman is a person who historically made signals using flags and light. In modern times, the role of signalmen has evolved and now usually uses electronic communication equipment. Signalmen usually work in rail transport networks, armed for ...

Route

References

External links

South Willingham and Hainton Station on navigable 1946 O.S. map
{{Closed stations Lincolnshire Disused railway stations in Lincolnshire Former Great Northern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1876 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1951