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ELY & DISTRICT MODEL RAILWAY CLUB THE HISTORY OF THURSTON RAILWAY STATIONThis article is produced with the kind co-operation of the Great Eastern Railway Society
to visit The Society's sites click links below. http://www.gersociety.org.uk/index.htm to visit Thurston village website click below
by Keith Barker INTRODUCTION
The history of the line began in the mid 19th century when the Eastern
Union Railway Company (E. U. R.) was formed by some dissident directors
of the Eastern Counties Railway Company (E. C. R.) who were aggrieved at
that companies failure to build their line from London beyond Colchester
and on to Ipswich. The Eastern Union Railway Company gained the
appropriate sanction of parliament and started to construct their line
from Colchester to Ipswich. Even before the countryside completion of
this line parliamentary approval was sought for
“the Bury extension” from the E. U. R. line at Ipswich right
through to Bury St Edmunds. A
separate company, the Ipswich and Bury Railway Company (I. and B. R.)
was formed with an authorized share capital of £400,000.
The chairman was Mr. John Chevallier Cobbold; a solicitor of the
well known Suffolk family later known for their brewing interests; also
chairman of the E. U. R. and former director of the E. C. R.
His father John Cobbold was also on the board of both the E. U.
R. and the I. and B. R. The
bill for the "Bury extension" and the I. and B. R. company was Frederick Barnes of Ipswich was an architect, who like Wood had been articled and trained under Sidney Smirke architect of the British Museum. Barnes was born in Hackney in 1814 and educated at Christ’s Hospital School, where his father was a master. The design contract for the majority of intermediate stations, (Bramford) Clayden, Needham, Stowmarket, (Haughley Road), Elmswell and Thurston was awarded to Frederick Barnes. It is not known whether the timber structure at Bramford or the station building at Haughley Road were Barnes designs, although the later station on the line from Ipswich to Norwich at Haughley Junction about 1 mile away certainly was. I have not been able to establish who was the building contractor for the Thurston station buildings. The Bury and Suffolk and Yarmouth Chronicle of Wednesday 9th September 1846 stated that the tender meeting of the I & BR for the construction of Thurston and Needham station buildings had been postponed from Thursday 10th September until Tuesday 15th September 1846. The buildings at Stowmarket were commenced on Thursday 29th October 1846 by a Mr. Revett. As work on construction of the line continued, one night in January 1846 near Norton, a temporary stable built of faggots and thatch belonging to Robert Sallis a sub contractor to Brassey, burnt down. Fortunately Sallis and his wife and children escaped from an adjoining hut, but five horses and a weeks supply of food for his workers were lost. He was then described as destitute and his loss estimated at £125. A collection throughout the region raised £117 on his behalf. Another sub contractor, John Douglas was working on the section of the line by the site of Stowmarket station. The ground was very boggy and much of the material forming the embankments kept slipping into the mire. On the night of 1st August 1846, forty metres of embankment, sleepers and rail disappeared overnight. At one point a bridge had been planned and timber piles some 15 metres (45 feet) in length were placed in the ground, and these sank out of sight under their own weight. Probes were then used to discover the depth where solid ground was present, and this was finally encountered at a depth of 24 metres (80 feet)! The idea of a bridge was then abandoned and the course of the River Gipping diverted. The embankments were then formed on a raft mat of faggots, hurdles, brushwood and earth, with timbers laid along the route longitudinally onto which the sleepers were then laid. Finally the track was virtually complete all the way to Bury St. Edmunds and a special train was formed for the inaugural run on 26th November 1846. The train consisted of five carriages and was hauled by the EUR N°4 , 2-2-2 locomotive “Bury St. Edmunds”. This locomotive had been built by Sharp Brothers of Manchester and had been delivered in October of the same year. On the footplate for this first run was Robert Taylor the Locomotive Superintendent acting as the driver, J. C. Cobbold, John Footman Deputy Chairman of the I & BR, John James Saunders EUR Company Secretary, Peter Bruff EUR and I & BR Engineer, John Squire Martin EUR Traffic Superintendent and possibly a fireman as well! Although none of the stations were very advanced, with Stowmarket barely started, stops were made along the line and Haughley, Stowmarket, Elmswell, and Thurston. The line was only single in places and some sections were laid in temporarily for this first run. As there was not yet any turning facilities at Bury another loco running tender first followed the train to pull it back to Ipswich. The line opened for goods traffic four days later on 30th November 1846. The first train ran from Ipswich to Bury and consisted of 24 tons of general goods and 90 tons of coal. Heavy snow made it necessary to divide the train at Needham and to take it on to Stowmarket in two sections. A further train was then sent and the two were combined and double headed on from Stowmarket. The first passenger service was a special train that ran from Shoreditch in London on 7th December 1846. The train was hauled by two locomotives and consisted of seventeen carriages and one open truck in which the Humfress Band rode and played in. The Board of Trade inspection was made by Captain Coddington on 15th December 1846 and the formal approval telegraphed through during the afternoon of 23rd December. The first public train left Ipswich for Bury St. Edmunds at 0910 the next day Christmas Eve 1846. By 1848 the E. U. R. and the I.&B.R although not officially amalgamated were using the same offices and holding joint board meetings. Early in that year to make economies the companies announced a pay reduction for staff together with some redundancies. The Ipswich and Bury Railway Company formally amalgamated with the Eastern Union Railway Company on the ninth July 1847. An insurance valuation by Peter Bruff in 1849 for the E. U. R. board placed the value of Thurston station buildings, platforms, goods and coal sheds and the residences at £1500. In 1848 the fare from Thurston to Bury was 10d (4p) first class, 6d (2.5p) second class and 4d (2p) for third and parliamentary. The fare from Bury to London was 18s -0d (90p) first class, 13s - 0d (65p) second class, 9s - 0d (45p) third class and 7s - 10d (39p) for parliamentary. EXTRACT OF THE PUBLIC TIMETABLE JUNE 1st 1848
Notes: Parliamentary. Train that has to be run to comply with the Act of Parliament under which the railway was permitted to be built.
Mail. Train to convey mail and passengers.
On 4th October 1850 the locomotive due to work the 0800 departure from Bury burst a tube and had to be withdrawn. There was no telegraph at the time, however Gideon Hartwell the station master at Bury knew that when the Bury train did not arrive at Ipswich, the engine from the connecting down train from Ipswich to Norwich would be run wrong line to Bury St Edmunds to investigate the situation. To save time he ordered four of the company’s horses to be connected to the two-coach train to pull it along the line to meet the loco coming from Ipswich. To enable them to see the relief train at the earliest opportunity Hartwell and a porter William Baldwin climbed on to the roof of the first carriage. On arrival at Thurston the stationmaster James Wolton joined the other two on the roof. At the second (now first) over bridge from Thurston station the horse drawn train met the relief engine coming from Ipswich. After the removal of the horses the engine was coupled to the train and started its journey to Ipswich. Unbelievably the three men remained sitting on the carriage roof, with the two stationmasters sitting in the opposite direction of travel and facing Bury. At the fourth (now third) over bridge from Thurston, known as Jannings bridge (now No 1158) were hit by the bridge as the train passed under it. James Wolton was killed instantly and despite valiant efforts by the porter William Baldwin, Gideon Hartwell fell from the train and was also killed. The train was stopped as soon as possible by the mortified driver and the train reversed slowly back to Thurston, where both bodies were placed in a horsebox. That same afternoon an inquest was held at the Fox and Hounds public house that stands opposite the station. A verdict of accidental death was recorded and subsequently Wolton was buried in Thurston churchyard and Hartwell at St. Marks, New Lakenham.
Click on thumbnail to view With the opening of the railway, coal prices in Bury fell between 10 and 15%. Coal had been previously sent by barge from the port of Kings Lynn down the waterways of the Ouse and Lark. When the line opened for goods traffic on Monday 30th November 1846 a notice in the Bury and Suffolk Herald and Yarmouth Chronicle of Wednesday 2nd December announced that tolls on the Lark Navigation waterway had been reduced to 1 s 6 d per ton. Following the first passenger train service in late December 1846 a notice in the same newspaper during January 1847 stated that henceforth reduced fares would apply to travel by coach and horses between Bury and London. It is apparent from the publication of the notices that the stagecoach operators and canal company were very worried about the competition of the railway. History shows that their concern was very justified. The population of Bury increased /from 12,358 in 1841 to 13,900 in 1851. The line between Bury and Ipswich was finally equipped with a telegraph in 1854 just shortly before the opening of the line between Newmarket and Bury. The latter meant that trains could now run between Ipswich and Cambridge, as is still the case today. During the same year the Eastern Union Railway was taken over by its rival the Eastern Counties Railway. Under the Eastern Counties Railway by 1856 the number of passenger trains stopping at Thurston had risen to six to Ipswich and seven to Bury, with six stopping goods trains. The Great Eastern Railway was formed by an amalgamation of several East Anglian railway companies, including the Eastern Counties Railway. The Great Eastern Incorporation Act of 1862 included an obligation to run a through train from Bury to London via Cambridge. In 1949 carriages from the Ipswich--Bury train were added to The Fenman at Cambridge. In 1976 the through service was still being perpetuated by the 0712 up from Ipswich to London via Cambridge (reporting code 1K11) and the 1656 down from London Liverpool Street to Ipswich via Cambridge (reporting code 1K60). Regrettably this service no longer runs. By 1879 the Newmarket--Ely line was open with access to the Bury line (without entering Newmarket) at Chippenham Junction. This now allowed through trains to run from Ipswich to Ely, March, Peterborough and beyond. There were now twelve daily passenger trains running between Bury and Ipswich (or from Cambridge or Ely). In 1892 there were nine daily freight trains in each direction coming from or to Bury St Edmunds from Temple Mills, Peterborough, March, Cambridge, Colchester, Ipswich, Stowmarket and Harwich. Under the Light Railways Act of 1896/7 a proposal was made to Parliament for the construction of a Mid- Anglian Light Railway. The Suffolk Record Office have a map for the November 1899 session which shows one of the proposals was to have a line starting at Thurston running via Ixworth to Stanton. The distance was surveyed as 6 miles 7 furlongs 0 chains. This would have then connected to two further lines that were to run from Stanton to Hilborough and Diss respectively. In the final plans deposited with West Suffolk County Council in May 1900 the Thurston to Stanton line had been abandoned in favour of a Bury St Edmunds – Stanton line. Regrettably none of them were built. The development facilitated by the railway allowed the population of Bury to increase further to 16,255 by 1901. The population at Thurston remained fairly static around 670 for most of the latter half of the nineteenth century and then gradually declined to 556 in 1921. Its expansion during the latter half of the twentieth century to its current level, estimated in 1998 at 3080; has been due to greater car ownership and the post-war housing boom. The sugar beet processing factory was built at Bury in 1925 and was developed into the largest factory in the country. This development was originally made possible by the railway with sugar beet, limestone and coal being delivered in for processing and sugar being sent out via rail. Since 1945 Bury has had the largest cattle market in the country with 200,000 animals being handled annually (1968). By 1961 the population of Bury had risen to 21,179. In 1952 the working timetable shows how railway traffic had developed over the years from 1892, with the following trains passing through Thurston. Down (to
Haughley)
Up
(to Bury) 17 freight trains 15 freight trains 2 mail/parcels trains 2 mail/parcels trains 10 stopping passenger trains 12 stopping passenger trains 6 express trains 4 express trains 1 pick up goods train 1 pick up goods train 1 fish train 1 empty coaching stock train. The express trains included The North Country Continental, which ran between Liverpool Central, and Harwich, for passengers using the sea ferry route between Harwich and the Hook of Holland. Also the overnight services between Colchester and Scotland and services to and from Peterborough, York and Newcastle. Just over a quarter of the freight services ran to and from Parkeston (Quay) at Harwich were goods were loaded onto or from merchant shipping as either exports or imports. The majority of all freight services ran to or from the large Whitemoor marshalling yard at March. The goods were delivered to, or collected from Thurston by local pick up goods services working between Bury - Stowmarket/Ipswich.
Click on thumbnail to view Allocation of locomotives at Bury St Edmunds shed in 1950. (The shed closed in 1959).
D15. 62503, 62508: D16. 62566, 62615: E4. 62286, 62795: J15. 65362, 65420, 65442: F6. 67236, 67237, 67238
The Bury Free press of 2nd January 1959 reported that all local passenger services between Cambridge and Ipswich would now be run by diesel multiple units (dmus). On the 5th August 1966 the Suffolk Mercury reported that Mrs. Barbara Castle the Minister of Transport had given approval for the closure of the stations at Fulbourn, Six Mile Bottom, Dullingham, Kennet, Higham, Saxham & Risby, Thurston and Elmswell. The Closures were to take effect from November 5th of that year. On 4th October the same newspaper reported that the some stations on the line had been given a reprieve and that Dullingham, Kennet, Thurston and Elmswell would remain open. Needless to say the others were closed as planned. THE STATION, ITS WORKINGS AND SURROUNDINGS Thurston station buildings are set on a high embankment and consists of two and a half storey buildings constructed with local red bricks with white stock bricks used decoratively on the corners and around door and window openings. The down (to Ipswich) platform building also had a diagonal cross pattern of white brickwork on some elevations, which matched a diagonal cross pattern in the roof tiles. When originally built the building had Dutch gables. It is believed the buildings were re-roofed during the LNER period of ownership and the gables reconstructed as pointed types. The tile pattern was not reinstated and the main body of the building was re-roofed with plain tiles and the two wings with slate.
Click on thumbnail to view The up (to Bury) platform building was demolished around 1965 and was thought to have been a contemporary structure with the down building, although much smaller in size. So far the only photograph I have discovered of the up building dates from the 1960’s when the building had pointed gables and plain tiles. The down building contained the station masters house, the booking office on the ground floor with a stairway which ran up past the gentleman’s cloakroom at the mezzanine level to a waiting room at platform level. From the booking office a subway ran under the tracks to the up platform building entrance. A stairway led up past the ladies cloakroom at the mezzanine level again to a waiting room at platform level. I understand villagers sometimes used the subway as a shortcut rather going round and under the road over bridge. It was also possible to cross over the lines by means of the barrow crossing at the Ipswich ends of the platforms. The platforms were originally constructed of sleepers and other timber. It was not unknown for the lads of the village to crawl under the platforms to find any coins that had fell through the slatted surface, but woe betide any one caught by the station staff. The platform has since been rebuilt in steel rail and concrete slabs with a tarmac top surface. The fencing at the back of the platforms consists of rail and rod (gas pipe?) type with some of the rail posts extending above the fence line on which the gas lamps were mounted. There were also some brackets to hold the four (two per platform) rectangular station name boards. There were also some of the oval smaller name boards. At the Bury end of the both the up and down platforms the railings are returned across the end of the platforms to met the parapets of the bridge and to stop passengers from walking onto the bridge which crosses over the road. On the up platform opposite the barrow crossing the fence has a gate in which gave access into the roadway going past the rear of the signal box leading up to the end loading ramp and cattle pens. On either side of the station building on the down platform the first part of the fencing is constructed in timber close boarding about 1.5 metres high. The cattle pens were formed at the end of the loading dock on the up line to the east of the signal box and it is believed they were constructed of rail and rods similar to the platform fencing. After the war it is believed they saw little use although one of the villagers tells me that his mother in law remembers sheep in the pens before the war. He also tells me that he can remember a Nuffield tractor being unloaded on the ramp in the 1950’s. At the Ipswich end of the down platform was a small timber hut used by the porters as a mess hut together with the ramp leading down to the barrow crossing and the exit from the station via station yard. Beyond the Ipswich end of the up platform was the signal box. This was more or less a standard Great Eastern Railway five window wooden cabin, but with the rear elevation and return on the Bury end being constructed in brickwork. The box is believed to have contained a 26-lever frame, with numbers 5,6,21, and 22 being spare in the 1960’s.
Click on thumbnail to view During the 1950’s there were five main signals within the station area, plus two distant signals.
Thurston Signaling diagram circa 1960
Click on thumbnail to view The goods shed was a timber framed building with vertical feather edged boarding and a felt covered roof. It was fitted with sliding doors on the yard side and had a hand worked crane inside. Two posts supported the canopy over the yard loading doors. The building contained the goods office and had steps at the Bury end and on the yard elevation. A large water tank for the collection of rainwater was also present at the Bury end. The rails ran right through the shed and were curved up at the ends to act as (buffer) stops. Between the wars traffic handled by the station is believed to have been coal, barley, wheat, potatoes, sugar beet, roadstone, fish offal, (from Yarmouth and Lowestoft and spread on the land for manure) flower bulbs, (for the local nursery), general merchandise, agricultural equipment and animals. The Cambridge University Polo Club would send their horses for unloading at Thurston when playing at Beyton. An express goods service (known locally as the “Bury Meat”) ran through Thurston in the late afternoon/early evening on most weekdays. The train conveyed meat and produce for London via Ipswich, for the next days wholesale markets at Smithfield and Covent Garden. As with most areas owing to competition from the roads the level of goods traffic handled had decreased by the 1950’s but the station still had traffic in coal, barley, general merchandise and occasionally agricultural implements. The barley traffic could be quite intense during September to March with a train in the morning and one in the evening collecting or delivering 8-10 grain wagons at a time for the shipment of barley to the brewery of Messers Bass, Ratcliffe and Gretton at Wolverhampton. When shunting in the yard the points in the yard were thrown by hand levers by the shunter/porter. Only the points on and leading to the main running lines were controlled from the signal box. In thick fog when the train was picking up or setting down wagons the shunter would tell the driver what movements to do by the use of a whistle and an agreed code. At one time a horse was stabled at Thurston to move individual wagons around the yard. One horse (called Dick) was killed when tied up near the goods shed and a wagon being moved by an engine rolled into him. I have not been able to establish exactly when horse shunting was finished at Thurston but I assume around 1960 when wagon traffic volumes were decreasing. The granary at Thurston is believed to have been built around during the late 1850’s early 1860’s and been added to probably by every owner since that time, especially during the 1940’s and 50’s in Harold Clarke’s ownership. According to Whites commercial directory for Suffolk the first corn merchant was a William Arthur Smith in 1855. By 1864 the firm was know as W & A Smith and by 1868 they were listed as corn and coal merchants. The firm continued trading under this name until around the turn of the century. In 1900 the firm is listed as W & A Smith and P. Bacon and by 1904 as Smith & Bacon. The firm carried on in this style until just after the World War I when Harold Clarke purchased it. The firm was then taken over by Kenneth Wilson (Southern) Limited sometime during the 1960’s until the closure of the granary in about 1980. Mablin Handley Developments then converted the building into business units in 1985. During Harold Clarke’s ownership a black sign with white lettering was used at the station entrance. A good deal of the buildings were painted red, (probably with red oxide) and known locally as the Red Buildings. Just after the war and in the early 1950’s the granary was using the following lorries: - 2 x pre-war Reo 1 x pre-war Dodge (chrome radiator) 1 x post-war Dodge (black radiator) 1 x Morris CV135 (split windscreen) 1 x Morris FVSO 2 x pre-war 1932 Dennis 1.5 ton (used for the coal delivery business) The
lorries were painted blue and black and had plain white lettering on the
dropsides. “Harold Clarke, Barley Merchant, Thurston”
Most of the barley was brought to the granary in sacks on lorries (later in bulk in the lorries) and thin tipped into a chute set in the ground in the red painted timber boarded open fronted shed at the left hand end of the buildings. The barley then passed via various worm drives and pipes into silos in the main parts of the building. There was a weighbridge between the open fronted shed and the driver’s rest room. When barley was to be shipped out a rake of grain hopper wagons would be propelled into a tunnel at the rear of the building and filled in with barley through hatches on the top of the wagons. The clearance in the tunnel was very tight with the wagons only just fitting inside. On 13th January 1942, Mr. Claude Salmon, a granary worker was killed in the tunnel after being trapped between the tunnel wall and a rake of loaded wagons, which were being drawn out of the building.
Click on thumbnail to view Coal merchants also formed one of the main customer bases of the station; it is believed that during the 1940’s/50’s there were five merchants using or collecting supplies from the yard. These were: - Hicks and Hayward of Ixworth. Elliston of Barningham. Harold Clarke coal and barley merchant of Thurston. C & W Peachey of Thurston. Co-operative Society of Ixworth.
As noted above about the granary business, in 1868 W & A Smith were listed as a corn and coal merchant. By 1883 Goldsmith Bros were also listed as a coal merchant. By 1900 Thomas Moy & Co was added to this list. Prior to World War I Thomas Moy & Co had coal depots at every station between Thurston and Colchester. During 1915 many of the local men, including those working for Moy & Co at Thurston were called up for military service. At this time it was suggested to Mr. Harry Peachey of the Victoria public house that he could buy a wagonload of coal and deliver it around the district by horse and cart and this was what he did. He continued with the business after the war and eventually the business was taken on by his two sons and called C & W Peachey. The Peachey family purchased from Thomas Moy & Co., the freehold of the barn and house on the other side of the road on Station Hill where their coal business was based in 1958. In the early 1960’s Mr. dick Peachey (son of Cyril) took over the coal deliveries until he gave up the business in 1987. Peachey’s used Fordson and later Ford lorries that were painted royal blue. Prior to nationalisation of the railways in 1948 coal was carried in 12-ton wooden wagons belonging to individual collieries or large coal merchants. (Such wagons were known as private owner wagons). The five most regular suppliers to the Thurston merchants were: Bessey & Palmer - Great Yarmouth. Coote & Warren - St Ives. Thomas Moy & Co - Colchester J O Vinter - - Cambridge Rickett & Cockel Often the wagons were dedicated to returning to a particular colliery and ran only between the pit and the larger merchants or their customer’s yards. One such colliery known to have been a regular supplier to Thurston was Bestwood colliery in Nottinghamshire. At one time 38 coal wagons were counted at the station. Some were in the up siding, some in the coal road and some in the refuge siding. During the war and after nationalisation most of the wagons were taken over by the government and known as pool or common user wagons. This meant they were no longer dedicated to specific routes or customers and could be used anywhere. Gradually the old wooden wagons were replaced with larger capacity 16-ton steel wagons with two side and one end door. The white stripe painted on the side was to indicate at which end the end door was. Coal wagons would be unloaded by hand; shoveling the coal out of the wagon side door onto the ground to form stacks or heaps. Alternatively, if the coal merchant could get away with out being charged waiting time for the wagon, it wagon would be unloaded directly to the delivery vehicles as and when required. To unload a coal wagon a cart or lorry would be backed up end on to the side of the wagon and the side door dropped down onto the flatbed of the lorry or cart. The coal would then be shoveled into sacks and weighed to give the required 1 cwt ready for delivery. From about 1965 a small tractor loader shovel was used to unload some wagons and to place coal into a hopper from which sacks could be filled.
Click on thumbnail to view After the withdrawal of the scheduled goods services to Thurston in 1966, the firm of C & W Peachey still received deliveries of coal by rail, although these were now brought by trip working from Bury St Edmunds using a diesel shunter. In early 1976 all rail goods services to Thurston were withdrawn and after this all coal deliveries were made by road. The sidings in Thurston yard were lifted 1st June 1976. The former goods yard is now a car park for users of The Granary business units and users of the railway station.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to thank the following people for their kind help and assistance during his research. Mr. J. Baker, Mr. E Button, Mr. T. Constable, Mr. C. Hall, Mr. S. Jenkins, Mr. D Peachey, Mrs. K Wood, The staff at the Suffolk Record Offices in Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich. If you would like to comment on this article or have further information or photographs please contact Ely & District Model Railway Club Webmaster:- eurotrack@ntlworld.com
This article is produced with the kind co-operation of the Great Eastern Railway Society
to visit The Society's sites click links below. http://www.gersociety.org.uk/index.htm to visit Thurston village website click below http://www.thurston-village.co.uk
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