Bourne and Sleaford Railway

Bourne and Sleaford Railway
Bourne and Sleaford Railway
	Billingborough & Horbling station in April 1961
Overview
Locale	East Midlands, England
Termini	Bourne ; Sleaford ;
Stations	4
Service
Operator(s)	Great Northern Railway
History
Opened	1872
Closed	1930 (passengers); 1964 (goods)
Technical
Line length	18 mi (29 km)
Number of tracks	1

Last updated December 18, 2024

The Bourne and Sleaford Railway was promoted as a branch of the Great Northern Railway to fend off an expected incursion by the rival Great Eastern Railway. It was authorised by Parliament in 1865, but not opened until 1871 (part way) and 1872. Although agricultural traffic provided healthy business, the rural character of the line never produced much passenger trade, and it was closed to passengers in 1930. The line was severed and ceased to be a through line in 1956 and closed completely in 1965.

Origin

In the 1860s the Great Eastern Railway was pressing for powers to build northwards from March, to increase its share of the lucrative transport of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire coal to the south. In the 1864 session of Parliament the Great Northern Railway presented a Bill for a line between Sleaford and Bourn (later spelt Bourne); this was a spoiler to keep the GER out of the area; it was thrown out by Parliament in that session.

It was submitted again in the next Session, and this time was authorised by an Act of 29 June 1865, with powers to raise £190,000 in share capital.^[1]^[2]

Construction -- eventually

The GNR evidently had second thoughts about the line, for they sought power to abandon the powers in 1868. This was refused by the Board of Trade who required completion by June 1871.^[3]

Firbank's tender of £29,363 for construction of the line was accepted on 2 August 1870. An Act of 24 July 1871 permitted a slight deviation at Bourn to allow the line to terminate by a junction with the Bourn and Lynn Joint Railway. The railway was built as cheaply as possible. Except for a passing place at Billingborough, it was single track. Commencing by a junction at Sleaford the line ran for 17 miles 12 chains to Bourn junction (later Bourne East junction).^[4]

The GNR paid the Midland and Eastern, the actual owners of the Bourn and Lynn section, £25 per annum for use of 143 yards of its line. There was a viaduct with six openings of 22ft 6in. Stations were built by S & W Pattinson for £4,781. Goods and passenger facilities were, north to south, at Burton (goods siding only); Scredington for Aswarby, Billingborough & Horbling for Folkingham, Rippingale, Hacconby (goods siding only: where the board turned down petitions for a station); and Morton. Before sanctioning passenger use, the Board of Trade Inspecting Officer required that turntables be installed at Bourn and Sleaford by 1 May 1872, and waiting sheds provided on the platforms at Bourn, Billingborough and Sleaford. The total cost was £107,020.^[4] Billingborough was the only station with two platforms.^[3]

Opening

Goods trains, worked by the contractor's engines, began operating between Sleaford and Billingborough on 10 October 1871 and the line was opened throughout on 2 January 1872. There were six passenger trains each way on weekdays only (one of these on Mondays only) and a daily goods train worked from Grantham to Bourn and back. The journey time for passenger trains on the branch was fifty minutes. Scredington was renamed Aswarby & Scredington on 1 February 1875 and the spelling of "Bourn" station was altered to "Bourne" in the May 1872 timetable.^[4]^[5]^[3]^[6]^{[ excessive citations ]}

Complaints were immediately made about timing because the first train from Sleaford did not make a useful onward connection.^[3]

Decline and closure

The branch only served rural communities and was never commercially successful, Bus services proved more convenient, and on 22 September 1930 it was closed to passenger trains.^[6]^[3] After that date there were occasional Sunday Stamford and Bourne to Skegness excursions which called at all stations on the line, but these ceased in 1939. One daily goods train continued to run from Sleaford to Bourne and return.^[5] Potatoes and grain provided a worthwhile traffic for some time.^[3]

The line between Sleaford and Billingborough closed to all traffic on 28 July 1956, but it was used for some years afterwards for the storage of redundant mineral wagons. The southern end, from Bourne to Billingborough, was cut back to Haconby siding after 15 June 1964, and the line was completely closed on 2 April 1965.^[3]

Stations

Bourne to Sleaford branch

Legend

					To Grantham
					To Lincoln
					Sleaford
					To Boston
					To Peterborough
					Aswarby and Scredington
					Billingboro and Horbling
					Rippingale
					Morton Road
					To Spalding
					Bourne
					To Saxby
					To Essendine

Sleaford; opened 15 or 16 June 1857; still open;
Scredington; opened 2 January 1872; renamed Aswarby and Scredington 1875; closed 22 September 1930;
Billingborough & Horbling; opened 2 January 1872; closed 22 September 1930;
Rippingale; opened 2 January 1872; closed 22 September 1930;
Morton; opened 2 January 1872; renamed Morton Road 1895; closed 22 September 1930;
Bourn; opened 16 May 1860; usually spelt Bourne from 1893; closed 2 March 1959.^[7]^[8]

Related Research Articles

The Great Northern Railway (GNR) was a British railway company incorporated in 1846 with the object of building a line from London to York. It quickly saw that seizing control of territory was key to development, and it acquired, or took leases of, many local railways, whether actually built or not. In so doing, it overextended itself financially.

Billingborough is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of Bourne and 10 miles south of Sleaford, and on the B1177 between Horbling and Pointon just south of the A52.

The Derbyshire and Staffordshire extension of the Great Northern Railway was an English railway network built by the GNR to get access to coal resources in the area to the north and west of Nottingham. The Midland Railway had obstructed the GNR in its attempts to secure a share of the lucrative business of transporting coal from the area, and in frustration the GNR built the line. The line was forked: it reached Pinxton in 1875 and a junction with the North Staffordshire Railway at Egginton, approaching Burton on Trent in 1878. The line cut through Derby, resulting in considerable demolition of housing there.

The Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway, colloquially referred to as "the Joint Line" was a railway line connecting Doncaster and Lincoln with March and Huntingdon in the eastern counties of England. It was owned jointly by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) and the Great Eastern Railway (GER). It was formed by transferring certain route sections from the parent companies, and by the construction of a new route between Spalding and Lincoln, and a number of short spurs and connections. It was controlled by a Joint Committee, and the owning companies operated their own trains with their own rolling stock. The Joint Line amounted to nearly 123 miles (198 km) of route.

Horbling is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the B1177, 7 miles (11 km) south-east of Sleaford, 15 miles (24 km) north-east of Grantham and 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Billingborough.

Rippingale is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish was 929 at the 2011 census. The village is situated on the A15 road, about 5 miles (8 km) north from Bourne.

Bourne was a railway station serving the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, which opened in 1860 and closed to passengers in 1959.

Morton Road railway station was a station serving the village of Morton, Lincolnshire on the Great Northern Railway Bourne and Sleaford railway. It opened in 1872 and closed to passengers in 1930. The section from Bourne through Morton to Billingborough remained open for goods until 1965.

Rippingale railway station was a station serving the villages of Rippingale, Dowsby and Dunsby, Lincolnshire on the Great Northern Railway Bourne and Sleaford railway. It opened in 1872 and closed to passengers in 1930. The section from Bourne through Rippingale to Billingborough remained open for goods until 1964.

Billingborough and Horbling railway station was a station serving the villages of Billingborough, Horbling and Threekingham, Lincolnshire on the Great Northern Railway Bourne and Sleaford railway. It opened in 1872 and closed to passengers in 1930. The section from Bourne to Billingborough remained open for goods until 1964.

Aswarby and Scredington railway station was a station close to Scredington, Lincolnshire on the Great Northern Railway Bourne and Sleaford railway. It opened in 1872 and closed in 1930. It was originally shown on maps as Aswarby Station, but by 1905 it was shown as Aswarby and Scredington Station.

The East Lincolnshire Railway was a main line railway linking the towns of Boston, Alford, Louth and Grimsby in Lincolnshire, England. It opened in 1848. The ELR Company had leased the line to the Great Northern Railway, and it was the latter which constructed the line and operated it, as its East Lincolnshire Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louth to Bardney Line</span>

The Louth to Bardney Line was an English railway line built by the Louth and Lincoln Railway Company, in Lincolnshire, England. It opened in stages between 1874 and 1876, after serious difficulties in raising subscription capital, and following alteration to the planned route. It was hoped to serve large reserves of ironstone along its route, but the deposits were not as large as hoped, and the line was never financially successful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nottingham Suburban Railway</span> British railway company

The Nottingham Suburban Railway was a British railway company that constructed a line 3.65 miles (5.87 km) in length serving the north-eastern suburbs of Nottingham. It was built to shorten the distance by train to Ilkeston and towns on the Leen Valley railway line, and to connect important brickworks near Nottingham. The short line was expensive to build due to difficult topography; it opened in December 1889, and was worked by the Great Northern Railway; the trains used that company's Nottingham terminus.

The Stamford and Essendine Railway was built to connect Stamford, Lincolnshire, in England, to the nearby Great Northern Railway. It was a short line, and it opened in 1856. It was not commercially successful, and the directors sought a means of connecting Stamford directly to Peterborough. This was the Sibson Extension, opened from Stamford to Wansford in 1867, but the junction there did not facilitate through running to Peterborough, and the Sibson Extension was even less successful than the first line. It was closed in 1929.

The Boston, Sleaford and Midland Counties Railway opened a railway line between Grantham and Boston, through Sleaford, England. It opened in two stages, in 1857 and 1859.

The Mablethorpe Loop railway was formed in Lincolnshire, England, by two independent railway companies, which built branches from the East Lincolnshire Line.

The Grantham and Lincoln railway line was a line in Lincolnshire, built by the Great Northern Railway to shorten the distance between the town of Grantham and city of Lincoln. It had already formed a network in Lincolnshire, but the route from London and points south and west of Grantham was very indirect.

The Bourn and Essendine Railway was a seven mile long branch line which connected Bourne in Lincolnshire to the East Coast Main Line in the village of Essendine in Rutland. The line was opened in 1860; it was a single line and served the town of Bourne and the villages of Thurlby, Braceborough and Essendine. Its line ran through the ceremonial counties of Lincolnshire and Rutland in the East Midlands of England.

The Lincolnshire lines of the Great Northern Railway are the railways, past and present, in the English county built or operated by the Great Northern Railway.

References

↑ John Wrottesley, The Great Northern Railway: volume I: Origins and Development, B T Batsford Limited, London, 1979, ISBN 0 7134 1590 8, page 150
↑ John Wrottesley, The Great Northern Railway: volume II: Expansion and Competition, B T Batsford Limited, London, 1979, ISBN 0 7134 1592 4, page 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Stewart E Squires, The Lost Railways of Lincolnshire, Castlemead Publications, Ware, 1988, ISBN 0 948555 14 9, pages 109 to 113
1 2 3 Wrottesley, volume 2, pages 9 and 10
1 2 Neil Burgess, Lincolnshire's Lost Railways, Stenlake Publishing Limited, 2007 ISBN 978 184 033 4074
1 2 Paul Anderson, Lost Railways of Lincolnshire, Irwell Press, Oldham, 1992, ISBN 1-871608-30-9, pages 30 to 33
↑ Col M H Cobb, The Railways of Great Britain: A Historical Atlas, Ian Allan Limited, Shepperton, 2002
↑ Michael Quick, Railway Passenger Stations in England, Scotland and Wales: A Chronology, the Railway and Canal Historical Society, Richmond, Surrey, 2002

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[wrottesley1-150-1] John Wrottesley, The Great Northern Railway: volume I: Origins and Development, B T Batsford Limited, London, 1979, ISBN 0 7134 1590 8, page 150

[wrottesley2-7-2] John Wrottesley, The Great Northern Railway: volume II: Expansion and Competition, B T Batsford Limited, London, 1979, ISBN 0 7134 1592 4, page 7

[squires-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Stewart E Squires, The Lost Railways of Lincolnshire, Castlemead Publications, Ware, 1988, ISBN 0 948555 14 9, pages 109 to 113

[wrottesley2-9-4] 1 2 3 Wrottesley, volume 2, pages 9 and 10

[burgess-5] 1 2 Neil Burgess, Lincolnshire's Lost Railways, Stenlake Publishing Limited, 2007 ISBN 978 184 033 4074

[anderson-6] 1 2 Paul Anderson, Lost Railways of Lincolnshire, Irwell Press, Oldham, 1992, ISBN 1-871608-30-9, pages 30 to 33

[cobb-7] Col M H Cobb, The Railways of Great Britain: A Historical Atlas, Ian Allan Limited, Shepperton, 2002

[quick-8] Michael Quick, Railway Passenger Stations in England, Scotland and Wales: A Chronology, the Railway and Canal Historical Society, Richmond, Surrey, 2002

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