Stowmarket railway station is on the
Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) in the
East of England, serving the town of
Stowmarket
Stowmarket ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England,OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket
Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. on the busy A14 trunk road between Bury St Edm ...
, Suffolk. It is down the line 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 ...
and is situated between to the south and to the north. It is also the junction where the
Ipswich to Ely Line
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...
joins the GEML. Its three-letter station code is SMK.
The station is currently operated by
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 ...
, which also runs all trains that serve the station.
History
Opening (1846-1862)
The station was opened by the Ipswich & Bury Railway in 1846 with red brick main buildings in a flamboyant Jacobean manner by Frederick Barnes.
Building the railway from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds proved challenging. When 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 ...
opened the line to Ipswich Stoke Hill railway station in 1846 this was located south of the existing tunnel. The Ipswich and Bury Railway built the tunnel which proved a challenge and then a further challenge awaited the railway's engineers at Stowmarket area where local marsh swallowed up a lot of material with test probes finding the bog was 80 feet deep! The railway employed George Stephenson's solution for the Chat Moss bog (a mere 40 feet deep) and a raft of brushwood and faggots was used to give the embankment a firm footing. The
River Gipping
The River Gipping is the source river for the River Orwell in the county of Suffolk in East Anglia, England, which is named from the village of Gipping, and which gave its name to the former Gipping Rural District. The name is unrelated to ...
was also diverted to aid the project.
On 26 November 1846 the first test train ran to Bury St Edmunds with stops at most stations on the route, accompanied by the inevitable lavish celebrations. The official opening followed on 7 December 1846 when a special train ran from Shoreditch (later Bishopsgate railway station) to a temporary station at Bury St Edmunds. The Board of Trade inspection took place on 15 December 1846 and the line opened for traffic on 24 December.
The IBR and the EUR (they shared most of the directors anyway) were worked as one concern from 1847 and the following year the line from Haughley Junction (just north of Stowmarket) and Norwich opened in stages: from Haughley to Finningham (4 miles) on 7 June 1848, from Finningham to Burston (11 miles) on 2 July 1849 and finally through to Norwich Victoria (18½ miles) on 1 December 1849. Stowmarket now had links to Bury St Edmunds and Norwich.
The EUR was in financial trouble and effectively hemmed in by the
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) making further expansion difficult. Following negotiations in 1853, The ECR took over the working of the EUR (and thus Stowmarket station) on 1 January 1854, a situation formally sanctioned by the Act of 7 August 1854.
1854 also saw the completion of the link from Bury St Edmunds to Cambridge thus linking Ipswich and Stowmarket to Cambridge.
By the 1860s the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble, and most were leased to the ECR; they wished to amalgamate formally, but could not obtain government agreement for this until 1862, when the
Great Eastern Railway was formed by amalgamation. Thus Stowmarket became a GER station in 1862.
Great Eastern Railway (1862-1922)
The line from Chippenham Junction to Snailwell Junction near Newmarket opened on 1 April 1880 giving Stowmarket a direct link to Ely and the Midlands.
[The Newmarket to Ely line had opened the previous year] From 1883 the North Country Continental used this route to Manchester.
Up until 1913 all shunting was performed by either the train locomotive or horses. From that year a local shunting engine was employed additionally and this also covered shunting duties at nearby
Needham Goods Yard.
Additional sidings were installed during World War One for the increased demand in explosive traffic and both the down and up side goods facilities remodelled.
London & North Eastern Railway (1923-1947)
Following the
Railways Act 1921 Stowmarket station was operated by the
London and North Eastern Railway from 1 January 1923.
During the mid-1920s the LNER rebuilt the two track timber goods shed and a number of industrial concerns were built south of the station on the up side all of which were rail served.
A third signal box – Stowmarket Works – was opened to serve these facilities in 1941.
British Railways (1948-1994)
Following nationalisation in 1948, Stowmarket station became part of the
Eastern Region of British Railways.
Stowmarket Works signal box closed in October 1957.
Some shunting at Stowmarket was carried out by horses as late as 1958.
The buildings, which were Grade II
listed
Listed may refer to:
* Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm
* Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic
* Endangered species in biology
* Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...
in 1972, were restored in 1987.
An empty coal train derailed on 2 March 1976 with 16 of 21 wagons derailing.
Goods traffic lasted until the mid-1970s, the yard being shunted by a Norwich-based
British Rail Class 03
The British Rail Class 03 locomotive was, together with the similar Class 04, one of British Railways' most successful 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunters. 230 were built at Doncaster and Swindon works between 1957 and 1962, and were numbered D2 ...
locomotive until January 1977.
Some ICI traffic lasted a few years longer. There was also a very short-lived milk service that ran in the summer of 1981 which originated at Chard Junction in the West Country
The line through the station was electrified and resignalled by
British Rail in 1985 using the 25 kV AC electric system. The first electric train ran on 6 April 1987 with the full electric service starting on 11 May 1987.
The privatisation era
In April 1994
Railtrack
Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...
became responsible for the maintenance of the infrastructure. Railtrack was succeeded 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 ...
in 2002.
Passenger services have been operated by the following franchises:
* April 1994 to December 1996 - Operated as a non-privatised business unit under the
InterCity
InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
name
* January 1997 to March 2004 -
Anglia Railways (owned by
GB Railways
GB Railways was the parent company of a number of train operating companies, running the Anglia Railways franchise from January 1997 and launching Hull Trains and GB Railfreight. GB Railways was also involved in the management of the Estonian r ...
but bought out by
FirstGroup
FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.[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 ...]
* March 2013 to present -
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 ...
Description
Passenger station
![2013 at Stowmarket station - view from the south](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/2013_at_Stowmarket_station_-_view_from_the_south.jpg)
As mentioned above the station buildings were listed in 1972 and restored in 1987. Historic England describes the station buildings thus:
"Red brick with gault brick dressings under roofs clad in machine tiles. 1-3 storeys on high basements. Composition, in Jacobean style, is symmetrical, comprising a central one storey and attic block linked by single-storey ranges to taller 2-3 storey side blocks. Central block with Dutch gables to west, north and south, the west one facing the entrance and with an attic window. Windows generally are ovolo-moulded cross casements, cornices are saw-toothed. 2 square one-storey pavilions flank main entrance right and left. Recessed linking blocks had retaining walls with taller central doorways enclosing forecourt, but this remains now only to south side. Main outer blocks with cross casements, Dutch gables to all faces (north return of north block with twin shaped gables), and frontal (west) polygonal towers with doors at the bases and pierced parapets at the top. Gabled roofs carry romantically-placed 2- and 3-flued stacks. Platform canopies supported on square section welded steel piers of late C20. The piers rise to timber braces within which are cast-iron scrolled brackets. Inner face of main west range with 4 arches right and left of central entrance to booking hall."
Nicklaus Pevsner described it as "an elaborate piece of Elizabethan architecture by Frederick J Barnes, 1849. Red and yellow brick, symmetrical, with shaped gables and angle towers."
The Stowmarket area was controlled by two signal boxes – one at the station that exists today as a gate control box and the Yard Box to the south. A third called Stowmarket works existed 1941–1957.
There are two platforms linked by a footbridge (which was replaced in 1985 with a taller structure to allow for the electrification of the route). The original footbridge is preserved at
Weybourne railway station
Weybourne railway station is a station in Weybourne, Norfolk on the preserved North Norfolk Railway. It was formerly part of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway route between Melton Constable and Cromer. Regarded as an iconic Edwardi ...
on the North Norfolk Railway. The down platform was restricted to five coaches for many years but both platforms were lengthened prior to electrification in 1985.
Today (2016) there is a small convenience store is located on platform 2. Disabled access between platforms is possible using the Stowupland Road
level crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...
. The present bridge is set to be replaced with a new one with lifts, improving disabled access.
Most of the former railway land (goods sidings) is now given over for car parking for the station.
Goods facilities
The down side yard had an extensive array of sidings and a two-track wooden goods shed. Outbound goods traffic at Stowmarket was primarily agricultural in nature with coal being a major inward commodity.
The up side also had a number of sidings some of which were located behind the up platform.
Gun cotton
Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...
was produced here first by Prentices and later by the
New Explosives Company Limited.
[A brief history of this works can be found here showing the various changes of ownership eventually becoming part of ICI http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/00bad737-b187-4f01-8c63-e540754af59c]
The latter siding was actually accessed from the down side sidings of the British Acetate Silk Corporation Ltd (as it was in 1927 later part of ICI) and a short tunnel under the main line. The site had a number of standard gauge industrial locomotives between 1915 and 1931 although after that date it was shunted by LNER and then BR locomotives. Both sites had a narrow gauge tramways but it is unknown whether these had any locomotives.
The Stowmarket Down Goods Loop is home to the East-Anglian Rail-Head-Treatment-Trains, operated by Direct Rail Services in the Autumn months.
Other local rail served businesses included a brewery (Sutton & Phillips),a timber merchant (W R Hewitt siding built 1904), a Co-op milk depot (built 1934) and a
manure works (Prentices built 1870).
Locomotive facilities
An inspection pit and coal stage were provided in the early 1920s – probably primarily used by the local shunting locomotive, generally a GER 0-6-0T engine such as a
GER Class R24
The GER Class R24 was a class of steams designed by James Holden for the Great Eastern Railway (GER). They passed to the London and North Eastern Railway at the grouping in 1923 and received the LNER classification J67. Some R24s were reb ...
(LNER Class J67) or similar undertook these duties.
Currently the sidings at Marsh Lane, south of the station and on the site of the former down side goods yard, are used by
Direct Rail Services
Direct Rail Services (DRS) is a rail freight company in Great Britain. As of 2022, it is one of seven publicly owned railway companies in the United Kingdom, the others being NI Railways (the passenger rail operator in Northern Ireland), LNE ...
as a locomotive stabling point. A crew office is provided on platform 1.
Services
1850
The March 1850 Bradshaw's Guide saw Eastern Union Railway services to Stowmarket shown on page 33. Four weekday EUR trains from Colchester (where they connected to Eastern Counties Railway trains) to Norwich Victoria served Stowmarket. Connections for Bury St Edmunds were made at Haughley Junction just to the north. A similar service operated in the up direction and an arrival in London (via a change at Colchester) could be made at 1005.
1964
The September 1964 British Railways Eastern Region timetable saw three service groups regularly serving Stowmarket:
* Ipswich – Cambridge
* Liverpool Street – Norwich
* Ipswich - Norwich all stations local service
[This service was withdrawn on 7 November 1966.]
In addition, there were a number of other (one off) cross-country trains including:
* Harwich Parkeston Quay – Manchester Piccadilly (the former North Country Continental)
* Harwich Town – Rugby (in fact an all stations service to Cambridge extended)
* Colchester to Glasgow Queen Street
* Liverpool Street – Peterborough (via Ipswich and Ely)
2016
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 ...
operate services calling at Stowmarket, comprising services between London Liverpool Street or Ipswich and Norwich, and other trains between Ipswich and (hourly) or (two-hourly) via the
Ipswich to Ely Line
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...
. Additionally, in the evening, some services are extended from Ipswich to Colchester and some trains towards Cambridge and Peterborough terminate at Bury St Edmunds. Limited additional services to/from Liverpool Street start or terminate at Stowmarket during rush hour.
References
Notes
External links
{{Railway stations served by Abellio Greater Anglia
Railway stations in Suffolk
DfT Category C2 stations
Grade II listed buildings in Suffolk
Grade II listed railway stations
Former Great Eastern Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1846
Greater Anglia franchise railway stations
Stowmarket