Hadleigh | |
---|---|
General information | |
Location | Hadleigh, Babergh England |
Coordinates | 52°02′27″N0°57′38″E / 52.0407°N 0.9605°E Coordinates: 52°02′27″N0°57′38″E / 52.0407°N 0.9605°E |
Platforms | 1 |
Other information | |
Status | Disused |
History | |
Original company | Eastern Union & Hadleigh Junction Railway [1] |
Pre-grouping | Great Eastern Railway |
Post-grouping | London and North Eastern Railway |
Key dates | |
2 September 1847 | Opened [1] |
29 February 1932 | Closed to passengers |
19 April 1965 | closed to freight |
Hadleigh railway station was a station in Hadleigh, Suffolk, the terminus of the Hadleigh Railway, a short branch line from Bentley Junction. The line opened in 1847. The original intermediate stations were at Bentley Church, Capel and Raydon Wood.
The terminus had goods sidings on both the south-western and north-eastern sides, the latter serving malt houses and which was also used as a running round loop. There was also a small engine shed. [2]
The station building was very ornate, if somewhat dwarfed by the adjacent malt houses, with attractive coupled chimneys and unusual windows with the frame and arch of stone. [3]
The decline in passenger numbers using the branch can be seen in the patronage figures, which were 14,447 in 1923 compared to 5,086 just five years later. [4] The line closed to passenger traffic in 1932, although freight services lingered on until 1965.
A proposal to extend services by building a light railway between Hadleigh and Long Melford was reported in the Haverhill Echo on 10 March 1900, [5] but that was not done.
The station building still stands and is in use as a private residence, with newer dwellings around it. The route to Raydon Wood is accessible as the Hadleigh Railway Walk.
Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Terminus | Great Eastern Railway Hadleigh Railway | Raydon Wood |
Headcorn railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line in England, serving the village of Headcorn, Kent. It is 45 miles 20 chains (72.8 km) down the line from London Charing Cross. The station and all trains that serve the station are operated by Southeastern.
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. The businessman John Chevallier Cobbold and the engineer Peter Bruff were prominent in launching the company. The allied but nominally independent Ipswich and Bury Railway built a line onwards to Bury St Edmunds, also opening in 1846, and soon amalgamated with the EUR.
The Mayflower line is a railway branch line in the east of England that links Manningtree, on the Great Eastern Main Line, to Harwich Town. During peak times, many services connect to or from the main line and its London terminus at Liverpool Street. The Mayflower line has six stations, including the two termini, and is situated within the county of Essex.
Harwich International railway station on the Mayflower Line, a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line, serves Harwich International Port in Essex, England. It is 68 miles 72 chains (110.88 km) from London Liverpool Street, between Wrabness to the west and Dovercourt to the east. Its three-letter station code, HPQ, derives from its original name, Harwich Parkeston Quay.
Manningtree railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) in the East of England, serving the town of Manningtree, Essex. It is 59 miles 35 chains (95.66 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Colchester to the west and Ipswich to the east. The three-letter station code is MNG. It is also the western terminus of the Mayflower Line, a branch line to Harwich Town. The following station on the branch is Mistley.
Mistley railway station is on the Mayflower Line, a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the village of Mistley, Essex. It is 61 miles 14 chains (98.45 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Manningtree to the west and Wrabness to the east. Its three-letter station code is MIS.
Harwich Town railway station is the eastern terminus of the Mayflower Line, a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line, in the East of England, serving the port town of Harwich, Essex. It is 70 miles 61 chains (113.88 km) from London Liverpool Street; the preceding station on the line is Dovercourt. Its three-letter station code is HWC.
The Hawkhurst branch line was a short railway line in Kent that connected Hawkhurst, Cranbrook, Goudhurst and Horsmonden with the town of Paddock Wood and the South Eastern and Medway Valley lines, a distance of 11 miles 24 chains.
Long Melford railway station is a disused station that served the village of Long Melford in Suffolk, England. It opened in 1865 as "Melford" and was renamed "Long Melford" in 1884. The station was on the Stour Valley Railway between Sudbury and Cambridge, operated by the Eastern Counties Railway, as well as a branch line between Sudbury and Bury St Edmunds. Services over the latter route ended in 1961 and the station and Stour Valley line closed in 1967 as part of the Beeching cuts. The station building is now a private residence.
Raydon is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Located around two miles south-east of Hadleigh, it is part of Babergh district. The parish also includes the hamlets of Lower Raydon (west) and The Woodlands (east). It was recorded in Domesday as "Reindune" or "Reinduna" and appears on John Speed's 1610 map as "Roydon".
Bentley railway station, also known as Bentley Junction between 1849 and 1878, was located in Bentley, Suffolk on the Great Eastern Main Line. It opened in 1846 and became a junction in 1847 when the Hadleigh Railway opened. The station was closed in 1966.
Capel railway station was a station in Capel St Mary, Suffolk, on a short branch line from Bentley Junction to Hadleigh. The station buildings were remarkably ornate for a village with a population of 649 in 1851 and 504 in 1931. There were goods sidings on the northern side of the station, which were used extensively in World War II handling supplies to a nearby United States Army Air Forces base, later known as RAF Raydon.
Raydon Wood railway station was a station in Suffolk, on a short branch line from Bentley Junction to Hadleigh. There was a goods shed on a passing loop which included a small siding on the south side of the station at the Bentley end.
Witney railway station served the Oxfordshire town of Witney on the Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway line. It consisted of two stone-built platforms, a station building, a signal box, and a shed in the form of a pagoda.
Witney goods station served the Oxfordshire town of Witney on the Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway. It consisted of seven sidings, a goods shed, a wooden parcel office and a cattle dock. It also had an engine shed, which was demolished early in the twentieth century. Following the opening of the East Gloucestershire Railway in 1873, the station became a goods depot, with passengers using the second station situated to the south. The original station remained open to goods traffic until 1970.
Bradfield railway station served the village of Bradfield in Essex. It was on the Manningtree to Harwich branch line, which is today known as The Mayflower Line. It closed in 1956. Consisting of just two through platforms it had no sidings for working local goods traffic, which was the normal scenario in rural East Anglia. The station buildings on the up platform were particularly splendid for a very small station and were captured by the well known and popular transport artist Malcolm Root FGRA. The facilities on the down platform were very modest by comparison. The station had a very restricted catchment area and with a local population of just 730 in 1901 and 811 in 1961, passenger numbers were always very limited. A level crossing at the west end of the station was controlled by a signal box on the up side with just 12 levers.
The Hadleigh Railway was a 7+1⁄2-mile (12.1 km) long single track branch railway line in Suffolk, England, that connected Hadleigh to the main line railway network at Bentley Junction. It was built by the nominally independent Eastern Union and Hadleigh Junction Railway company and opened in 1847. By the time of opening it had been taken over by the larger Eastern Union Railway.
Dinas station was built by the Festiniog Railway (FR). It was the first passenger station in Blaenau Ffestiniog, then in Merionethshire, now in Gwynedd, Wales. This station is not to be confused with Dinas some miles distant on the Welsh Highland Railway; nor is it to be confused with the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway's northern terminus in the centre of Blaenau Ffestiniog which was sometimes referred to colloquially as "Dinas".
Railway Walk, Hadleigh is an 11.6 hectare Local Nature Reserve which runs for 2 miles along the route of the former Hadleigh railway south-east from Hadleigh in Suffolk. It is owned and managed by Babergh District Council.
Sheerness Dockyard railway station was the original terminus of the Sheerness line. It was built by the Sittingbourne & Sheerness Railway and opened in 1860. The station closed for passengers in 1922, closed for freight in 1963 and the buildings were demolished in 1971.