Edenham and Little Bytham Railway

The Edenham & Little Bytham Railway was a railway company formed by Lord Willoughby de Eresby to build a line from the Great Northern Railway at Little Bytham to Edenham, serving the villages of Edenham and Grimsthorpe and also Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire, England.

History

The standard of construction left something to be desired, and as a result the line failed its first two Board of Trade inspections. It passed its third inspection but severe speed restrictions were imposed, as low as 8 miles per hour (13 km/h) in some places. The E&LBR worked the line themselves as the GNR refused to operate it. The line opened on 8 December 1857 and was originally worked by steam locomotives. The line struggled, with passengers services being particularly unprofitable. In 1863 the passenger service comprised 5 trains each way Mondays to Saturdays, taking about 17 minutes to cover the 4 miles, and no service on Sundays. Passenger services ceased on 17 October 1871, because the locomotives were worn out and the company could not afford to replace them. A freight service of sorts lingered on using horse traction until 1884, when the line closed.^[1] In 1889, the Eastern & Midland Railway (later part of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway) were surveying a route between Little Bytham and Bourne and considered building from Bourne to near Edenham and reopening part of the E&LBR, as this would avoid the expense of Toft tunnel, but rejected it in favour of the more direct route.^[2]

A history of the line was recently published by the castle.^[3]

Remains and access

The Little Bytham to Witham on the Hill road crossed the line by means of a road overbridge which still exists at grid reference TF025176. The Little Bytham to Edenham public footpath runs next to the trackbed from TF039195 to TF041196. Another public footpath leaves the Little Bytham to Witham road at TF024176 and runs along the trackbed as it approaches Little Bytham station. The path then turns north and rejoins the same road at TF019177. The public footpath from Edenham to Swinstead leaves the A151 road at Edenham at TF060220 and immediately passes through the site of Edenham station, now Copy Lawn Farm.

Timetable for February 1863

The tables below shows the train service on weekdays in February 1863. The trains were timed to connect with main line trains at Little Bytham for travel south to Peterborough, London, etc or north to Grantham, York, etc.^[4]

References