Melton Constable railway station

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Melton Constable Hall circa 1880.

Melton Constable railway station was a station in North Norfolk, opened in 1881 by the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway.

[edit] History

Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway
Legend Guestwick Thursford Hindolveston Melton Constable Corpusty Holt

The station was constructed by the company both to serve the village of Melton Constable and to act as a junction for the two branches splitting off towards King's Lynn and Norwich respectively. For more than half a century, the station acted as one of the most important interchanges in East Anglia despite its rather obscure location in rural Norfolk.

It was located close to the great hall at Melton Constable Hall made famous by its use in the film The Go Between. The land on which the station was built on had been given by Lord Hastings. A large engineering works was also situated there.^[1] The platform was 800 feet long.

It was closed during the Beeching Axe, as numerous lines were shut and services withdrawn. The expected enlargement of Melton Constable had not happened. The population had peaked at over a thousand at the start of the First World War and then begun to fall once more. Today around 500 people live in the village.

Today much of the large junction has mostly disappeared into the fields.

[edit] Future

The North Norfolk Railway have long-term plans to restore the line from Holt to Melton Constable. Similarly National Rail services may return to the station as part of the Norfolk Orbital Railway, a community railway scheme.

[edit] References

1. ^ The Insiders Guide and history of Melton Constable in North Norfolk, from northnorfolkimages.co.uk