Spooner Row railway station is on the

Breckland line The Breckland line is a secondary railway line in the east of England that links in the west to in the east. The line runs through three counties: Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk. It takes its name from the Breckland region of Norfolk, a ...

in the

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...

, serving the village of

Spooner Row Spooner Row is a small village, and civil parish, in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated some south-west of the town of Wymondham and south-west of the city of Norwich. The village was within the civil parish of Wymondham before sepa ...

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 ...

. The line runs between in the west and in the east. Spooner Row is situated between and , 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 ...

via . The station is managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates all of the services calling at the station. It is one of the least-used stations in Norfolk, with just 1,344 passenger entries/exits in 2018/19, according to

Office of Rail and Road The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...

estimates, though this figure was a marked increase on just 264 passengers six years prior. On weekdays, there are two trains per day to Norwich and one to Cambridge, booked to call on request only. In 2020/21, there were 74 passengers.

History

The Bill for the

Norwich & Brandon Railway The Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR) was the second railway in Norfolk, England, after the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR). Its Act of Parliament on 10 May 1844 authorised it to build a line between Norwich and the small town of Brandon, actuall ...

(N&BR) received Royal Assent on 10 May 1844. The line was to link with an

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 ...

(ECR) project of a line from Newport in Essex to

Brandon Brandon may refer to: Names and people *Brandon (given name), a male given name * Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins Places Australia *Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales *Brandon, Q ...

in Suffolk. Once complete, the line would enable trains to travel from Norwich to London. Work started on the line in 1844. The line and its stations were opened on 30 July 1845. Spooner Row station opened with the line and was, as now, situated east of Attleborough station and west of Wymondham station. The line ran from Ely to Trowse, in Norwich. The link into Norwich was delayed due to the need to build a bridge over the

River Wensum The River Wensum is a chalk river in Norfolk, England and a tributary of the River Yare, despite being the larger of the two rivers. The river is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation. The Wensum is ...

that kept the river navigable. One month before the N&BR opened a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the

Yarmouth & Norwich Railway The Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR) was the earliest railway in Norfolk, England. It was formed after it became apparent that it would be a number of years before the Eastern Counties Railway would extend their railway into Norfolk. Its Act o ...

with the N&BR came into effect and so Spooner Row station became a

Norfolk Railway The Norfolk Railway was an early railway company that controlled a network of 94 miles around Norwich, England. It was formed in 1845 by the amalgamation of the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway opened in 1844, and the Norwich and Brandon Railway, n ...

asset.C.J. Allen The NR closed Spooner Row station in September 1847. In 1848 the NR was absorbed by the Eastern Counties Railway. The ECR reopened Spooner Row station on 1 December 1855. The station closed for a second time on 1 August 1860. An Act of Parliament on 7 August 1862 authorised the amalgamation the ECR and 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 ...

, which resulted in the formation of 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 ...

(GER). Subsequent to this, Spooner Row reopened for the third and final time on 1 March 1882. The difficult economic circumstances that existed after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

led the Government to pass the

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

which led to the creation of the Big Four. The GER amalgamated with several other companies to create 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 ...

(LNER). Spooner Row became an LNER station on 1 January 1923. On

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 and its services came under the management 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 ( ...

. The original station buildings were destroyed by fire in the 1970s. Upon

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

the station and its services were transferred to

Anglia Railways Anglia Railways was a train operating company in England, owned by GB Railways and later FirstGroup, that operated the Anglia franchise from January 1997 until March 2004. History The InterCity Anglia franchise was awarded by the Director of P ...

on 2 March 1997. On 1 April 2004 the station and its services were transferred to

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 ...

, then known as ''one''. On 5 February 2012 these were transferred to

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 (transport company), Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Neder ...

. The original wooden

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

gates were operated manually from the station's

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'' ...

. However, in 2012 the signal box was closed and the crossing gates were renewed with automatic barriers and warning lights. The signal box is due to be relocated to

Wymondham Abbey railway station Wymondham Abbey railway station is a railway station in the town of Wymondham in the English county of Norfolk. The station is served by heritage services operated by the Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) between Wymondham and East Dereham. History T ...

on the heritage

Mid-Norfolk Railway The Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) is a preserved standard gauge heritage railway, one of the longest in Great Britain. Preservation efforts began in 1974, but the line re-opened to passengers only in the mid-1990s as part of the "new generation" o ...

Facilities

The station is unstaffed. The platforms are staggered on either side of the level crossing, with sheltered seating on both. On the westbound (Cambridge) platform there are unusually two help-points. The eastbound (Norwich) platform is considerably lower in height than is usual on the British railway network.

Services

Spooner Row is a

request stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, st ...

. , on weekdays there are two trains each morning to , also calling at . There is one train each afternoon to , also calling at , , , and . On Saturdays, the station is served by one train in each direction, with the Cambridge service extended to . There is no Sunday service.

References

External links

* {{Railway stations served by Abellio Greater Anglia Railway stations in Norfolk Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1845 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1847 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1855 Railway request stops in Great Britain Greater Anglia franchise railway stations