Weybourne Railway Station

Summary

Railway station, built in 1900 for the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Company, probably to a design by William Marriott, the company engineer, opened in 1901, closed in 1964. It reopened in 1975 as a heritage station on the North Norfolk Railway’s preserved line which originally ran from Sheringham to Weybourne but was extended to Holt in 1989. The signal box and waiting room on Platform 2 and the footbridge are excluded from the listing.

Reasons for Designation

Weybourne Railway Station, built in 1900 for the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, probably to a design by William Marriott, Company Engineer, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as one of the most substantially intact M&GNJR stations that displays an impressive architectural quality over and above the functional designs that were adopted for many rural stations nationally during the completion of the rail network;

* for its remarkably complete elevations with their original fenestration, doors and platform canopy, along with its well-preserved plan form;

* the internal spaces survive remarkably well and retain historic fixtures throughout, including ticket windows, M&GN branded fireplaces, matchboard-clad ceilings, panelled doors, picture rails and office furniture.

Historic interest:

* as a station serving a line engineered by William Marriott, an engineer who played a significant role in consolidating and developing the railway network in the East of England, laying the groundwork for further expansion and contributing to the economic and social development of the region.

History

In 1876, 1880 and 1881, the Lynn and Fakenham Railway (L&FR) was authorised by Acts of Parliament to construct railways extending eastward from King's Lynn through Melton Constable to Norwich; to Holt, Blakeney and Cromer; and to North Walsham to join the Yarmouth and North Norfolk Railway (Y&NNR). In January 1883, the L&FR and YNNR along with the Yarmouth Union, Midland and Eastern, and Peterborough, Wisbech and Sutton Railway Companies, amalgamated to form the Eastern and Midlands Railway (E&MR). The E&MR then commenced work on the Blakeney line the following April, with the work overseen by William Marriott, the Company's resident engineer. Although Holt was reached later the same year, passenger services to the town only commenced on 1 October 1884. When work restarted in 1885, the Company refocused its attention on serving the fast-developing, and more profitable, holiday destinations of Sheringham and Cromer. The line from Holt to Cromer opened to passengers on 16 June 1887, with stations at Cromer (Beach) and Sheringham opening at the same time, although the station at West Runton was delayed until September. No plans had been drawn up to build a station at Weybourne at this time, as indicated by the line’s route, which by-passed the village one mile to its south. The Blakeney line was abandoned in 1888 as it was considered to be economically unviable.

In 1889, the E&MR, which had struggled to generate profits and faced financial difficulties from the outset, was declared bankrupt. After a brief period in administration, it was acquired by the Midland and Great Northern Railway Companies in 1893. All three units combined as the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GNJR) which, as the largest ‘joint’ railway in Britain, challenged the near monopoly held by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) on East Anglian rail traffic. As a means of increasing revenue, after seeing Cromer and Sheringham develop as fashionable seaside resorts, the M&GNJR decided to develop Weybourne as a holiday destination. A station was subsequently built in 1900 and opened to passengers on 1 July 1901. On opening, the main station building on Platform 1 on the north side of the tracks comprised a booking hall, booking office, ladies waiting room, ladies toilet, general waiting room, porters room, lamp room, coal shed and gentlemen’s toilet. A waiting shelter and signal box stood on Platform 2 on the south side of the tracks. The station was primarily built to serve the Weybourne Springs Hotel which opened in 1902 on a site around 140m to the south-west of the station. Although originally popular, the 36-bedroom hotel never realised its full potential and failed to attract further development to the area. It was eventually demolished in 1940.

On 28 February 1959, four years after the publication of British Rail’s (BR) ‘modernisation plan’, the majority of the M&GNR’s network was shut down. The line between Cromer and Melton Constable was given a short reprieve until the section from Sheringham to Melton Constable closed on 4 April 1964. BR immediately lifted the track through Weybourne and demolished the waiting room and signal box on platform two.

The closure of the M&GNJR gave rise to the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway Preservation Society (M&GNJRPS) who’s initial aim was to preserve as much of the network as possible. As an operating company was required to run a preserved railway, the Society established Central Norfolk Enterprises Ltd in 1961, which changed its name in 1969 to the North Norfolk Railway Company. In 1964, by which time the Society’s aims had become more realistic, they purchased a three-mile section of track from Weybourne to Sheringham, including Weybourne Station, along with an option to buy the track bed from Weybourne to High Kelling. The Society initially established its headquarters at Weybourne, but relocated to Sheringham in 1967 when BR opened a replacement station 200m to the east. In the same year, the operating room from the Holt signal box, which was erected there in 1912, was transferred to Weybourne and re-erected on newly-constructed brick-built locking room (excluded from the listing). Initially, only members of the M&GNJRPS could use the preserved line, although day membership was available at the ticket office. The general public were finally carried from July 1975 after the granting of a Light Railway Order.

In 1980, the trackbed from Weybourne to High Kelling was purchased, although it was another nine years until the line finally opened to a new station at Holt on 19th March 1989. To meet the expected demand from increased passenger numbers, a new waiting room (excluded from the listing) was built on Platform 2 in 1987. In 1990, the footbridge from Stowmarket Station (also excluded from the listing), which was erected in 1900, but had become redundant in 1982 under the Anglia Electrification project, was re-erected at the east end of the station. When at Stowmarket the footbridge had a roof, but this was discarded when it was rebuilt at Weybourne. Historically, Weybourne never had a footbridge and relied on a foot crossing.

Details

Railway station, built in 1900 for the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Company, probably to a design by William Marriott, the company engineer, opened in 1901, closed in 1964. It reopened in 1975 as a heritage station on the North Norfolk Railway’s preserved line which originally ran from Sheringham to Weybourne but was extended to Holt in 1989. The signal box and waiting room on Platform 2 and the footbridge are excluded from the listing.

MATERIALS: of red brick in Flemish bond with brick stacks and a plain clay-tiled roof with blue ridge tiles.

PLAN: the original station building of 1900 is single-storeyed and stands on the north side of the railway line on Platform 1. It is rectangular, aligned north-east to south-west, and comprises a booking hall, booking office, station master’s office (now bookshop), waiting room (now buffet), ladies’ wating room, ladies’ toilet, porters room, lamp room (now buffet kitchen), gentlemen’s toilet and coal shed. Standing on the south side of the railway track on Platform 2 is a waiting room built in 1989 and a signal box of 1912 which was relocated from Holt Station in 1967. The two platforms are connected by a footbridge which was erected at Stowmarket Station in 1900 and re-erected at Weybourne in 1990.

EXTERIOR: the station’s architectural treatment includes chamfered plinths edged with splayed blue bricks (now painted black), timber-framed mullion and transom windows with gauged-brick cambered heads and chamfered blue-brick cills (the latter also painted black), panelled doors under gauged-brick cambered heads, gabled roofs with pierced ridge tiles and spike finials, and ridge stacks with moulded caps and cornices.

The station’s road-side elevation is formed of two distinct blocks: a symmetrical range of 1:3:1-bays to the right-hand side and an asymmetrical three-bay range set back to the left-hand side with a lower ridge line. The right-hand range accommodates the booking hall, booking office, station master’s office (now bookshop), ladies’ wating room and ladies’ toilet. It has a central doorway flanked by two-light windows, the former with two-panelled double doors with raised and fielded panels with bolection mouldings under a dripmould and brass lantern. The flanking single bays are gabled and project with stone kneelers, blue terracotta coping stones, spike finials and three-light windows under dripmoulds. Within each gable are cambered-headed niches with chamfered cills and dripmoulds bearing the inscriptions ‘AD’ (left-hand side) and ‘1900’ (right-hand side).

The asymmetrical three-bay range to the left-hand side accommodates a waiting room (now buffet), lamp room (now buffet kitchen) and porters room. Its right-hand bay has a double doorway with two-panel double doors with vertical plank panels under a dripmould. To its left is a three-light window and to the left again is a two-light window, both under dripmoulds. Its gabled left-hand return has three-panelled doors to the former lamp room (now buffet kitchen) and porters room, both with two, rectangular, pyramidal panels over a large, square, raised and fielded panel, all with bolection mouldings.

Set back to the right-hand side of the 1:3:1-bay range is a coal shed and gentlemen’s toilet block which has a flat-roof and glazed roof lantern. Its north wall is blind while its right-hand return has a three-panel coal shed door consisting of two rectangular raised and fielded panels over a large, square, raised and fielded panel, all with bolection mouldings. To its right are three single-light hopper windows with horizontal glazing bars. The toilet is accessed from the platform through a door identical to the coal shed door, over which is a dripmould.

The platform elevation is of 10 bays of which all except the easternmost bay are covered by a wall-bracketed platform canopy with pierced daggerboard valancing comprised of alternating shingled (pointed) and scalloped (round ended) daggers. Its underside is clad with matchboard and the cast-iron brackets have foliated pierced spandrels. The fourth and eight bays have two-panel double doors to the booking hall and waiting room (now buffet) respectively, both with raised and field panels with bolection mouldings, while the station master' office (now bookshop) in the seventh bay has an identical three-panelled door as described above for the lamp room and porters room. The other seven bays have two-light windows under dripmoulds.

INTERIOR: the station’s internal treatment is largely identical throughout and includes herringbone parquet floors, deep skirting boards, moulded dado and picture rails, and matchboard-clad ceilings with moulded cornices.

The booking hall is of double height and divided into four bays by two king-post trusses in which the king post is formed by scrolled ironwork. Its east wall has a small ticket window with a moulded timber surround and counter shelf. On its west side is a back-to-back fireplace with a moulded-timber surround to a cast-iron grate with plain-tiled insets, pyramidal corner stops and a lintel bearing the initials of the Midland & Great Northern. The fireplace is flanked on each side by four-panelled doors with sunk bolection-moulded panels, with the left-hand door leading through to the ladies waiting room and the right-hand door the ladies toilet.

The ladies waiting room has a back-to-back fireplace on its east side, again with an identical cast-iron grate as described above for the booking hall, but with an elaborate timber surround with split-baluster jambs and mirrored overmantel. A four-panel door in its north wall leads through to the ladies toilet which has a quarry-tiled floor, painted brick walls, a late-C20 matchboard-clad ceiling and late-C20 reproduction sanitaryware by Thomas Crapper.

The waiting room (now buffet) has a replacement herringbone floor and matchboard-clad ceiling, both of late-C20 date. On its west side is a four-panel door with sunk bolection-moulded panels to the booking office. An identical door in the east wall was inserted in the late C20 when the lamp room was converted into a kitchen.

The booking office has a corner fireplace with a plain cast-iron surround and an identical cast-iron grate as described above for the booking hall. In the porters rooms there is a cast-iron range and the gentlemen’s toilet has a quarry-tiled floor, glazed brick walls, an original vitreous china wash basin, and late-C20 reproduction sanitaryware by Thomas Crapper. The station master’s office (now bookshop) has no historic fixtures of note and a late-C20 matchboard ceiling.

Sources

Books and journals
Simmons, J, Biddle, G, The Oxford Companion to British Railway History From 1603 to the 1990s (1997), 320-1
Joby, RS, Regional Railway Handbooks: No.2: East Anglia (1987), 31-33
Oppitz, L, East Anglia Railways Remembered (1989),

Websites
Information on Weybourne Station from the North Norfolk Railway website, accessed 17 June 2025 from https://nnrailway.co.uk/portfolio-items/weybourne-station/
Information from the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Society website, accessed 2 July 2025 from https://www.mandgn.org/

Other
Railway News, 16 July 1887

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