Spalding Gentlemen’s Society looks back at the golden age of rail when you could travel from Bourne to Norfolk
Once upon a time you could board a train in Bourne for a family day out to a seaside destination in Norfolk.
It’s not too long ago, certainly within living memory, that you could let the train take the strain all the way to Great Yarmouth.
The former Midland and Great Northern line, known as the M&GN, or, unfairly, the Muddle and Go Nowhere, stopped for passengers at Bourne, Twenty, Counter Drain, North Drove, Spalding, Weston, Moulton, Whaplode, Holbeach, Fleet, Gedney, Long Sutton and Sutton Bridge, where it crossed the River Nene, and into Norfolk.
Each place possessed a station - some substantial buildings, such as those at Spalding, Moulton, Holbeach, Long Sutton and Sutton Bridge, some not so grand and furnished with just a small shelter to keep the wind and rain off waiting passengers.
The M&GN line continued on to King’s Lynn, where the Great Eastern Railway line could take you to Sunny Hunny (Hunstanton) and Wells-Next-The-Sea, or you could stay on the M&GN for other coastal delights such as Sheringham and Cromer.
The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, to give it its full title, became a working railway in 1893 and operated until 1959 when most of the line closed to passenger traffic.
Spalding Gentlemen’s Society keeps the memories alive with a number of exhibits from the great days of steam, and then diesel.
The lines which made up the system had been spreading out since the 1850s under the ownership of small, individual companies before being taken over by M&GN, itself coming under the control of the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 1936 followed by nationalisation in 1948.
It connected the major conurbations of Peterborough, Norwich, King’s Lynn and Yarmouth and towns and villages all around.
A lot of the line was single track, so timing of trains to avoid collision was essential. Train crew had to pick up a “tablet” at various stages - a metal disc giving permission for only that train to be on a section of line.
Although train was king, so far as transport was concerned, crossing keepers were needed to open and close gates where the line was crossed by a road. There were 140 level crossings on the entire route, manned day and night.
Some of the bigger, busier stations had up and down lines, with station and station house and goods and engine sheds.
The golden years of the M&GN saw it used to haul freight as well as passengers bound for family holidays by the seaside and the Norfolk Broads. In this area agricultural products were a mainstay - thousands of tons annually of mainly potatoes, fresh fruit and vegetables, cut flowers and cattle were carried by trains loaded at all the bigger stations. But increasing competition from the roads - lorries for freight and cars becoming more popular - saw the railways in economic difficulty.
It was not the infamous Beeching cuts that saw the end of the M&GN services but the Eastern Area Board of the British Transport Commission which, in June, 1958, declared plans for closing the line in the name of efficiencies.
The only section to remain open in south Lincolnshire was for freight on the Spalding to Sutton Bridge spur. Some firms continued to rely on rail transport into the 1950s. Pettit’s of Moulton loaded regular consignments of agricultural machinery on wagons in Moulton goods yard. Moulton Station, now a private residence, is well preserved and features the waiting room for the up platform.
The final train to use the line on February 28, 1959, carried a hand-drawn placard on the front of the engine announcing, sadly, “That’s Yer Lot”.
The society's museum is now closed for building work, but a changing display of exhibits is being maintained at Ayscoughfee Hall, Wednesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 4pm. Admission is free.
