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

SMITHY CORNER ASHWELLTHORPE - ROAD SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS

Smithy Corner Ashwellthorpe, at the top (east) end of Wymondham Road where it meets the Norwich/New Buckenham road (B1113) - the old Turnpike - and Blacksmiths Lane.

For many generations, this junction looked like the picture below - the Smithy with wheelwrights on the right dated back several centuries; Smithy cottages on the left were built in the mid-1800s - buildings appear on the Ashwellthorpe Tithe Map of 1841. 

It was a dangerous road junction because of the diminished sightline looking to the right (south) past the Smithy Cottages which, when coming from Ashwellthorpe Street, obscured the road towards the Kings Head Public House and the sharp bend, 

Smithy Corner with police house, looking n.e. along B1113 towards railway station
Smithy Corner with police house, looking n.e. along B1113 towards railway station

Sadly, Mrs Olivia Constance Browne from New Road, Ashwellthorpe, was killed at Smithy Corner in January 1948, and the Parish Council approached Norfolk County Council for road safety improvements immediately afterwards. The Inquest Coroner advised that the HALT sign should be placed in a more prominent position but that was the only official improvement that happened in the next thirty-five years, despite pressure from Ashwellthorpe villagers and its Parish Council. Work was carried out periodically tp cut back the hedges and other vegetation from encroachment on to the road.

In December 1956, plans had been drawn up by Norfolk County Council under its building restrictions lines policy which favoured the purchase of land to move the road junction over eastwards to gain a better sight line. The Parish Council were not in favour of this stating that one of the existing buildings at Smithy Corner was in a bad state and could soon be declared unfit and others could be compulsorily purchased with the resultant space used to clear and widen the splay. I believe this NCC policy stayed on the books until 1979/1980 when the County Council decided to abandon the former improvement lines on the Norwich Road/Turnpike and replace them with minor schemes for individual sections of the road "when conditions require it and financial circumstances make it possible".

With all the new development in Ashwellthorpe in the 1960s, there was more traffic using that junction. Ashwellthorpe Street/Wymondham Road used to be part of the B1135 from East Dereham to Woodton/Bungay, via Wymondham, and was also used by much extra traffic as a useful cut-through to the main Norwich to  Ipswich road (A 140). The village policeman, who lived at Smithy Corner, did his best to make drivers more aware and safer by patrolling the junction on foot and pointing out the driver's error if he thought  the driver might disobey the STOP sign.


The Smithy and wheelwright's buildings were demolished in the 1960s and, with the many requests and hopes that the junction could be made safer over decades, plans were eventually suggested by the NCC that the problem could be solved by the demolition of the semi-detached cottages on the other corner of Wymondham Road with consequent realignment of the junction.

.Smithy Cottages were Grade II listed buildings dating from the mid-19th Century and, certainly, buildings were shown at this site on the 1841 Tithe Map.. 

 At the January 1984 Parish Council meeting, questions were again asked as to whether any road improvement plans were available. A preliminary scheme by Norfolk County Council Surveyors proposed that the cottages should be demolished in order to alter and widen the road and splay for better visibility. Planning permission was being sought from the South Norfolk District Council to which the DC requested that, before demolition started, the cottages be photographed for record purposes, with the window boarding-up removed; also that the Victorian cast-iron windows should be carefully taken out and set aside for use elsewhere. Listed Building consent would also have to be obtained

By April that year, the County Council Highways sub-committee had decided on a cheaper improvement scheme, costing £34,000 instead of £48,000 and the cottages would not have to be demolished. 

In August 1984,  Norfolk County Council referred the matter back to the Surveyors with the order that they start all over again to prepare another report; this had come about through a Parish Council request, a petition from some villagers and a further site meeting. It was reported in October 1984 that the cottages had been acquired by agreement and not by compulsory purchase, The junction improvement plans were to be displayed in the entrance to Ashwellthorpe Village Hall on 19 November 1985 and the matter was settled at the Highways Sub-Committee of the NCC  on 28 November 1984. It was decided the cottages should be demolished, .

.Demolition of the cottages started in October 1985.[photographs by courtesy of Mr and Mrs RIx]