TRANSPORT

CLOSURE OF ASHWELLTHORPE RAILWAY 

STATION

Great Eastern Railway's 6+mile, double-tracked, branch line from Forncett (on the Norwich/London main line) to Wymondham, opened 2 May 1881 with one intermediate station - Ashwellthorpe - which was accessible from the turnpike road (B1113). This spur enabled a route connecting the main line to North Norfolk, without going through Norwich. Ashwellthorpe station had two platforms, a 2-storey building housing the Stationmaster's house, a booking office, toilets and a waiting room on the down line, with just a shelter on the up line. There was also a single siding goods yard. Two brick-built cottages were sited on the Station Approach. The proximity of Ashwellthorpe Station and its onward connections to nearby villages and for sales of timber and coals, was much lauded by local auctioneers and merchants. LNER took over in 1922 and in July 1939 there were 6 passenger trains each way on weekdays.War broke out and all passenger services were stopped on 11 September 1939, but it was kept open for freight.The line did not re-open for passenger traffic after the end of the War.

Rushmore market gardeners in Blacksmith's Lane used the line to transport their tomatoes and chrysanthemums, sugar beet was carried from the station and coal delivered to the merchant's there.

The coal yard at the station was run by Henry Fulcher who, in the 1940s, also owned Walk Farm in nearby Blacksmith's Lane. Coal was brought in to the Station by train, bagged and then delivered around the local villages by horse and cart. There used to be an air-raid shelter on the grass bank beside the railway bridge on the opposite side of the B1113 road to the station. Railways were nationalised in 1948 and, by July 1950, the timetable provided only one freight train per day on an "as required" basis with the Rail Executive indicating to Depwade RDC that closure of this line was contemplated.

Nothing is reported in the Ashwellthorpe Parish Council Minutes but the Forncett/Ashwellthorpe/Wymondham railway line and Ashwellthorpe Station's forthcoming planned closures were mentioned at the Depwade Rural District Council meeting on Monday 25 June 1951. This Council had received notice from the Railway Executive that the line was soon to close which would mean the complete closiure of Ashwellthorpe Station. The Diss Express newspaper of June 29th 1951 reported that protest to the Railway Executive was resolved at this meeting about the closure of the Waveney Valley Line between Beccles and Tivetshall; no such protest is mentioned about the Forncett/Ashwellthorpe/Wymondham closure which went ahead on 4 August 1951. After the Station closed, City Station in Norwich became the Fulcher's coal depot.

In July 1952, the rail-over bridge in Ashwellthorpe with others on the stub, was demolished. A two-mile stretch of track was retained at the Wymondham end for storage of old rolling stock and its break-up. The rolling stock from the old Ashwellthorpe Railway station had been bought up by Archie Kemp, a Norwich scrap merchant, and taken along the line towards Silfield – approximately where the Goff oil depot is on the Wymondham to Hethel road, Stanfield Road and, after the metal was removed, the railway carriages were burnt there, the smoke rising was clearly visible from Ashwellthorpe.

The old Station housing is now all privately owned, and the Station yard is now the Ashwellthorpe Industrial Estate

More, in-depth, information about the Forncett to Wymondham railway line as it travelled through Ashwellthorpe and Wreningham, can be seen on the Wreningham Heritage Group website: https://wreninghamheritage.uk/index.php/the-railway/

Sources: Depwade Rural District Council documents, Ashwellthorpe Parish Council Minutes, newspaper cuttings, personal reminiscences from Mr Bob Garwood and Mr Cyril Rix, private photographs