Tivetshall was a railway station on the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

located in Tivetshall,

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 ...

. It was also the western terminus of the Waveney Valley Line from

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fli ...

. It served six small parishes in an agricultural area.

History

Design and opening

It was first opened when

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

were connected by 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 ...

in 1849. The EUR was taken over by the

Eastern Counties Railway The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English Rail transport, railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Great Yarmouth, Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 on t ...

before becoming 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 ...

in 1862. The station building, located on the down side of the main line, was believed to have been designed by

Frederick Barnes (architect) Frederick Barnes (1814–1898) was a British architect who is best remembered for his work on railway stations in East Anglia. Early life Frederick (sometimes Frederic) Barnes was born in the London Borough of Hackney in 1814, although the exa ...

who was responsible for designing a number of other stations at this time in East Anglia.

19th century

In 1855, the Waveney Valley Line was opened as far as Harleston; it was extended to Bungay in 1860 and finally on to

. A new signal box was provided in 1880 and this lasted 106 years. Immediately south of the station was a level crossing, which spanned all three tracks (the two main lines and platform road for the Waveney Valley line). A small goods yard was provided north of the station on the down side of the line and a small maltings (operated by

Watney Combe & Reid Watney Combe & Reid was a leading brewery in London. At its peak in the 1930s it was a constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies on the London Stock Exchange. It produced Watney's Red Barrel. History The Watney family were the mai ...

in the 1960s) was also served by rail. In the 1880s, there were four main line trains each way serving Tivetshall and five trains serving the Waveney Valley line. In 1881, the GER built a timber waiting room on the up side of the station. Water troughs were installed near Tivetshall station in 1896, which allowed trains to pick up water without stopping. These were taken out of service in 1945, but the station had three water cranes.

20th century

On 31 August 1907, Arthur Hardiment attempted to save an 18 month old toddler from an oncoming express train. The toddler got clear, but Hardiment was struck by the engine suffering injury as a result. For this action, he was awarded the Albert Medal Second Class for gallantry receiving his award at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

from King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

on 13 November the same year. In 1923, the operation of Tivetshall station was taken over by the

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 ...

. Some additional sidings were added during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

for traffic to local airfields. Following

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 became part of the

Eastern Region of British Railways The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified from the dark blue signs and colour schemes that adorned its station and other railway buildings. Together with the North Eastern Region ( ...

. In the early 1950s, there were eight main-line trains each way serving Tivetshall and seven trains serving the Waveney Valley line.

Decline and closure

Passenger services on the Waveney Valley line ceased in 1953; goods services continued on the line until 1966. Tivetshall Railway

1966 also saw an end to the local main line freight services in April and, with the withdrawal of the local Ipswich to Norwich passenger service, the station closed on 7 November. The signal box survived for a further twenty years but, following resignalling and electrification of the line, this closed. At this time, the remaining station buildings were demolished although the goods shed was still extant in 1994.

Former services

References

{{coord, 52.4472, 1.1747, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Disused railway stations in Norfolk Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 1849 establishments in England