www.wymondham-station.com

The 36¾ mile Norwich & Brandon Railway, incorporated in 1844, backed by George & Robert Stephenson and built by Grissell and Peto, opened as the Norfolk Railway with a double track line on 30th July 1845. It made an end-on connection at Brandon with the Eastern Counties Railway, which had extended it's route from Shoreditch to Newport, Essex northwards via Cambridge and Ely on the same day. At Norwich, services terminated at Trowse until the Swingbridge was completed on the 15th December 1845 from when through services commenced between London, Norwich and Great Yarmouth, calling at Wymondham.

For the townsfolk of Wymondham, the coming of the railway was a huge event, coming at the height of the so-called "Railway Mania" (not unlike the dot.com boom of the late 1990s) ending the market towns rural isolation and paving the way for the growth of industry to supplement the predominantly agricultural rural economy. The Railway telegraph arrived - in it's day just as important in the communication of information as the internet has become in recent years. And there was also "Railway Time" as clocks were coordinated across the country.

Growth continued with the opening of the branch line from Wymondham to Dereham - now the "Mid Norfolk Railway" - on 15th February 1847, and later with it's extensions to Fakenham and Wells. In 1862, Wymondham became part of the giant Great Eastern Railway Company (which amalgamated many of the smaller companies) and whose initials "GER" can still be seen today in our platform seats and canopy brackets. Wymondham became a railway crossroads on 2nd May 1881 when the 6¾ mile line to Forncett, on the direct Norwich to London line via Ipswich was opened. In 1923, in an attempt to stem financial losses, the GER became part of the London and North Eastern Railway (one of the 'Big Four' railway companies covering the whole country) until railway nationalisation in 1948 created "British Railways". And in the 1990s, the railways were privatised once more with the end of "British Rail" and the creation of 25 Train Operating Companies (TOCs) to run trains with Railtrack owning and operating the infrastructure. Now, most of the UKs TOCs are owned by just four big multinational companies. Train services at Wymondham Station are currently provided by National Express East Anglia and East Midlands Trains, whilst the track and signalling infrastructure is owned by Network Rail.

At one time, Wymondham was provided with a staff of more than 50 "railway servants". There were station porters, shunters, goods clerks, ticket office staff, signalmen, permanent way (track) men, lampmen, carters, refreshment room staff, locomotive drivers, firemen and guards all based at Wymondham and presided over by the Station Master - at one time one of the most important figures in the town. While wages were not that good, the railway was seen as secure employment and for many, working on the railway became a family tradition. For many businesses, the railway opened up new markets with goods being despatched across the country from Wymondham and industries attracted to set up in the town. The railway was then a "common carrier" which meant that it carried anything and everything. If you wanted to send a goat to Inverness you just took it down to the station! And of course, goods arrived into the town too - the price of coal dropped when the railway opened because it was so much easier and cheaper to transport it in a railway wagon than by horse and cart.

The railway become a vital supply line for the town, never more so than in the two world wars, when there was heavy miltary traffic on Wymondham's railways. But after 1945, the inexorable rise of the motor car and improvements in the road system signalled the start of decline of the railways' predominant role in the in the distribution of goods and people. The line from Wymondham to Forncett was closed to passengers in 1939 at the outbreak of war, and goods traffic was withdrawn in 1951 - a short stub remained at Wymondham which was used by Kings Scrap Metal for dismantling and storing redundant railway rolling stock. The decline of the railways' fortunes continued into the 50s and 60s. Despite reduction to single track in June 1965 and economies in train working, the Wymondham-Dereham line closed to passengers in October 1969 although freight traffic continued until June 1989. Through the efforts of dedicated enthusiasts and volunteers, the line was never lifted and survives today as the Mid Norfolk Railway. Meanwhile, Wymondham station gradually lost most of it's through trains to London over the years and by January 1967 was left with a stopping service between Norwich and Cambridge on a route marketed as "The Breckland Line". As the freight and goods workings disappeared so did the staff required and on 6th March 1967, Wymondham station was destaffed completely (except for the signalman) and the "Paytrain" concept was introduced with tickets being sold on board the trains. Happily, after nearly 40 years, this trend has now been reversed with the opening of a new ticket sales point at Wymondham station.To read a more detailed account of the way train services have changed along the line over the years, especially in more recent times, click here.

W.H. Smiths had a bookstall on Platform 2 at Wymondham (a sub-stall of Norwich) from Great Eastern Railway days up until 7th January 1968. We are indebted to the Archivist at W.H.Smiths for the information and the provision of the photograph of the Wymondham Bookstall, which although undated, seems to be from the early 1950s.

The original 1845 station building on platform one (the Norwich platform) happily survived through all the railways good and bad years, but after destaffing, began to fall into a sad state of disrepair. Fortunately, local businessman David Turner saw it's potential and in the late 1980s negotiated a lease on the whole station. Gradually, and with a lot of hard work, the building was brought back to life, culminating in the beautifully restored and decorated building you see today housing the Brief Encounter Refreshment Room & Restaurant, David Turner Pianos, The Railwayana Collection, and the new rail Ticket Office. All the time and effort put into the restoration work, and into the maintenance and upkeep of the buildings and the floral displays have been rewarded with the station winning a number of prizes in recent years in both regional and national competitions. In 2006, the station was awarded the ultimate accolade, being named "Small Station of the Year" at the National Rail Awards.

Wymondham is a growing town these days, and seven years ago, under sponsorship from the former Strategic Rail Authority and Anglia Railways, the Norwich to Cambridge train service was enhanced to an approximately hourly frequency. With a new 90 space car park to cope with the numbers of commuters travelling daily to Norwich, Cambridge and London, Wymondham station is, happily, currently undergoing something of a revival in its fortunes. We hope you can visit us very soon and look forward to welcoming you to Wymondham Historic Railway Station.

Click 'Play' above for a 4 minute video history of Wymondham Historic Railway Station

Today fast trains take us along the route from Norwich and Wymondham to Ely, Peterborough and beyond. The village stations with their gated crossings and Victorian signal boxes provide plenty of clues that this is a route with a history. The pine and bracken of Thetford forest and the rich fenland soil have witnessed many changes since 1845. This is a brief guide to the stations past and present along the route – a mixture of history and obscure trivia. Click Here

The view from the cab of a DMU (diesel multiple unit train) en-route from Norwich to Cambridge and passing through Wymondham Station, filmed in 1983. It is interesting to note how much the passing scene has changed over the last 26 years.

A vanished scene from Brirtish Rail days 25 years ago. On an early summer day, diesel locomotive 37040 brings the mixed freight from North Elmham and Dereham into Wymondham, stopping outside the signalbox to return the single line token. Note the Guard riding in the brakevan. The train shunts back into the down sidings and deposits the brakevan, before moving out onto the main line and setting back ready to move into the up sidings. Later, having left the Dereham wagons in the up sidings and collected some cement tanks, and then returned to the down sidings to reattach the brakevan, the loco powers out of the yard and away through the station towards Norwich, leaving a trail of exhaust fumes. The video also includes brief shots of the interior of Wymondham Signalbox, and glimpses of Met Cam and Cravens DMUs on local stopping services.

In the tradition of the classic BBC film "London to Brighton in Five Minutes", here's a quick trip from Wymondham Abbey to Dereham today, courtesy of our friends on the Mid-Norfolk Railway, but taken at a rather faster pace than usual.

The www.wymondham-station.com website is operated independantly and not by National Express East Anglia or East Midlands Trains. Information and links are shown for the benefit both of customers using the businesses based at the station and travellers using the train services calling there.