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Sheringham Station.
The Eastern & Midlands Railway branch
line from Melton Constable to Cromer Beach was finally
opened in 1887, with stations at Holt, Sheringham, West
Runton and Cromer Beach. Weybourne station was opened in
1901, principally to serve the new “Weybourne Springs” hotel
nearby.
When the railway reached “Sherringham” (the
modern spelling of the town name came about with the
formation of the M&GN in 1893) there was only a small
fishing village to be found, with upwards of 100 fishing
boats drawn up on the beach and the fishermen living with
their families in the beach-side hamlet of Lower Sheringham.
The station stood in open fields! At this time Upper Sheringham was the main dwelling place in
the area.
William Marriott, in his reflections on his career “40 Years
of a Norfolk Railway”, has this to say about the growth of
Sheringham: “A great deal of work was done by us in the
early development of Sheringham. The Directors set up the
first building estate, laid the main drain, got hotel and
gasworks built, and gave the place its start in life. Now it
rivals Cromer in public appreciation, though there should be
no rivalry between the two towns.”
The railway brought in an influx of tourists, keen to see
North Norfolk and “Poppyland”, as made famous by the writer
Clement Scott in his holiday articles for the Daily
Telegraph in 1883. The fishermen’s wives soon discovered
that they could earn much more by letting out rooms to the
visitors than their husbands could merely by fishing. Bed &
Breakfast establishments began to spring up alongside the
hotels and in the mid 1890s the M&GN expanded Sheringham
Station to reflect the newly acquired status of the holiday
resort it now served.
The station was again extended in 1906, when the venture
with the Great Eastern Railway – The Norfolk & Suffolk Joint
– brought more London trains to Sheringham, this time from
the East, along GER routes.
Initially the station was leased to the NNR but in
2001 it was purchased by the company.
The former ladies waiting room is now used as a general
waiting room and houses a number of M&GN artefacts.
At the eastern end of the main station building there is a
small, separate building now used as an office.. This
building dates back to the time when there was inter-company
rivalry between the M&GN and GER.. When, in 1906 GER was
finally able to runs their trains to Sheringham from Cromer
the M&GN did not want the GER to use their facilities so a
special and separate building was erected. This is still
known as the "GE room".
At the western end of platform 2 is a signal box. This is
now non-operational and is open for viewing. It used to
stand alongside the level crossing that was in place before
the track across Station Road was taken up. It controlled
the gates and the points in that area. It was the Sheringham
East box.
Originally platform 2 had a series of buildings, including
offices and waiting rooms. There was a glazed canopy that
matched the one on platform 1.
At the western end of platform 2 stands a replica Eastern
and Midlands water crane, similar to the one that was in use
in the 1960's.
Beyond bridge 305 stands the signal box that controls local
signals and points. It
 was removed from Wensum Junction,
Norwich and erected at Sheringham in 1980. The original box
was demolished in 1965 by BR to prevent vandalism. The lever
frame came from Loughton on the London Underground (formerly
the GER) and was the last mechanical signal box on the
underground.
(Picture by Steve Allen showing LNER B1 61264
passing
Sheringham West signal box) |
