Woodhall Junction railway station (previously Kirkstead railway station) is a former station in Woodhall,

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 ...

. It served as a junction where several different lines met, none of which are still open. The station opened as ''Kirkstead'' (''Kirkstead and Horncastle'' according to the notice in "The Times") on 17 October 1848 as part of the "

Lincolnshire Loop Line The Lincolnshire loop line was a double-track railway built by the Great Northern Railway, that linked Peterborough to Lincoln via Spalding and Boston. History The Lincolnshire loop line was authorised on 26 June 1846 as part of the London a ...

" between

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

which largely followed the course of the

River Witham The River Witham is a river almost entirely in the county of Lincolnshire in the east of England. It rises south of Grantham close to South Witham at , passes through the centre of Grantham (where it may be closely followed using the Riversid ...

. A branch line was opened from Kirkstead to Horncastle via Woodhall Spa by the

Horncastle Railway The Horncastle and Kirkstead Junction Railway was a seven mile long single track branch railway line in Lincolnshire, England, that ran from Horncastle to (opened as ''Kirkstead'') on the Great Northern Railway (GNR) line between Boston and Li ...

on 11 August 1855 by which time the station was known as Kirkstead. The

Kirkstead and Little Steeping Railway The Kirkstead and Little Steeping Railway, locally known as the New Line, was a railway line in England built to shorten the route between Lincoln and Firsby in Lincolnshire, England. It was built by the Great Northern Railway (GNR), and opened ...

, known locally as the "New Line", opened in 1913 leaving the Loop Line just south of Woodhall Junction and cut across the fens to Midville allowing faster journey times to Skegness. The renaming of the station from Kirkstead to Woodhall Junction in 1922 was an attempt to increase the profile of Woodhall Spa as a holiday destination. The station was host to a

LNER LNER may refer to: * London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947 * London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018 * Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a typ ...

camping coach Camping coaches were holiday accommodation offered by many railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted to ...

for the 1935 season. The lines through the station closed at different times: *The branch line to Horncastle closed to passengers on 13 September 1954. *The Lincolnshire Loop Line route from Lincoln to Boston via

Tattershall Tattershall is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the A153 Horncastle to Sleaford road, east from the point where that road crosses the River Witham. At its eastern end, Tatter ...

closed to passengers on 17 June 1963. *The station closed to passengers on 5 October 1970 when the to via Midville was closed to passengers. *On 5 April 1971 the Goods Service between Lincoln - Bardney - Woodhall Junction and Horncastle was withdrawn - the last line to stay open through the station. It is now a private residence, but the platforms and former goods yard are clearly still visible

References

External links

Private web site with history & photos

Photo of derelict station.
{{Closed stations Lincolnshire Disused railway stations in Lincolnshire Former Great Northern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1970 Beeching closures in England