Thetford Railway Station, Thetford, Norfolk

Summary

Main station building built in 1845 by the Norwich & Brandon Railway and extended in 1889 by the Great Eastern Railway, and a loading gauge probably dating to the 1930s.

Description

MATERIALS: the 1845 station building is constructed of knapped flint with gault brick dressings under a roof clad in late C20 cedarwood shingles. The 1889 booking office is of red brick with brick and stone dressings under a roof clad in concrete tiles. The platform canopies have timber awnings with iron columns and brackets.

PLAN: the 1845 building is located on the south side of the tracks. It has one storey plus an attic, with two single-storey extensions projecting from the façade and a single-storey extension on the left (west) gable end, all built in the late C19. Attached to the right (east) gable end via a low red brick wall is the single-storey 1889 booking office with a lower, recessed block to the right accommodating lavatory facilities. Opposite on the north side of the tracks is the 1889 screen wall with waiting room. Further to the west of the building on the south side of the tracks is the loading gauge situated at the end of the loading dock.

EXTERIOR: the neo-Jacobean 1845 station is distinguished by its stone-coped, elongated shaped gables at each cardinal point which rise above the pitched roof. This has two symmetrically placed, brick panelled ridge stacks with oversailing courses, both rebuilt in the late C20. It has a brick parapet with projecting bands along the top and bottom, and there are brick quoins on all the corners of the building, including the late C19 extensions. The central gabled bay has a projecting extension with a brick parapet and is lit by a large window on the front and narrow windows on each return. These have blocked brick surrounds with a keystone, as has all the fenestration. The windows were boarded up during the site inspection but appear to be mostly early C20 four-over-four pane sashes with horns. There is a window on the left of the extension and the gable head is pierced by a small window at attic level, as are all the gable heads. On the left side of the central bay are two tall windows, and on the right a large late C19 extension which is lit by two windows and has a brick parapet, repaired in red brick, and a tall brick chimney. The lower extension on the left side has a brick plinth and parapet, much repaired. On the right side it has a segmental arched opening with timber shutters and, in the top right corner, a small window opening. The left return bears evidence of much alteration, and the rear (north) elevation of this extension is in red brick. It has two round arched doorways, the left one is boarded up, and the right one has a double-leaf timber door and overlight without glazing bars. The platform (north) elevation of the 1845 building has a large square opening with a rebuilt flat brick arch, flanked by two windows on the left and three on the right. The right gable end has a door (boarded up), flanked by one window, all with the same surround already described.

The 1845 building is linked by a walled yard to the 1889 extension which is reached via a wide flight of steps. It has a plinth of engineering brick and a moulded stone sill band. The pitched roof has external gable-end stacks with oversailing courses and circular pots, and the gables have raised stone-coped edges which continue along the frontage to form a parapet. This rises in the centre into a segmental arch pediment inscribed with ‘THETFORD STATION 1889’ and flanked by ball finials. Under the pediment, the middle bay has a centrally placed, four-panelled door with a square overlight. It has a gauged flat brick head and lugged surround of rubbed brick which is raised at the outer edges. This is flanked by one-over-one pane horned sash windows which have similar surrounds except they are also lugged at the bottom. On either side of the windows are moulded stone corbels, possibly originally for holding lamps. The left bay has two sash windows with gauged flat brick arches and openings embellished by a single roll moulding. The windows are set in a large projecting surround with a moulded brick parapet, incorporating beneath the windows a rectangular brick panel carved with a scalloped design. The right bay has a similar projection which originally had a group of three windows. The central window has been replaced with a double-leaf door with glazed upper panels which is flanked by the original narrow sashes. Above is a flat timber canopy, added later. The recessed lower block on the right hand side has a pitched roof with similar gable end and stack, and moulded stone sill band. It is lit by three sash windows. This is followed by a plainer flat-roofed block which has a parapet above a dentilled brick course and is lit by a single sash window with a stone sill and lintel.

The 1889 platform (north) elevation has the same brick plinth and stone banding, and mostly the same fenestration and panelled doors as the front elevation. From the left, there is a door and window under a shared lintel, followed by two small sash windows, a door, window, double-leaf door, window, two doors, and finally another window. The platform canopy, which also extends along the length of the 1845 building, consists of a boarded timber roof structure with decorative valencing, supported by fluted iron columns, the lower half of which are decorated with strapwork. Decorative iron brackets, incorporating a wheel motif, support the iron beams upon which the roof rests.

On the opposite (north) side of the platform is the brick screen wall and waiting room which has the same detailing already described. In the centre of the wall is the waiting room which has a steeply pitched roof with a central chimney, and is accessed through a panelled door, flanked by sash windows. There are two further windows on the right hand side.

INTERIOR: the interior of the 1845 building has been repaired after fire damage in the late C20. The roof structure and the floor of the first floor have been entirely rebuilt. Steel supports have been inserted in some of the external walls, and the internal walls have been re-plastered. No fixtures or fittings have survived.

Not all the interior of the 1889 building was available for inspection but the rooms that were seen retained some fixtures and fittings, including wide skirting boards, picture rails, cornices and four-panelled doors. The original fireplaces in the main waiting room and in the platform waiting room have been replaced in the 1920s or 1930s with small Art Deco fireplaces.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the loading gauge is located at the end of the loading dock, to the west of the station building, on the south side of the tracks. It consists of a tall concrete post with a metal bracket from which is suspended the arc-shaped gauge.

History

Thetford Railway Station was built as part of the Norwich & Brandon Railway but a month before the station opened in 1845 it became part of the Norfolk Railway. This was later incorporated into the Great Eastern Railway. The line from Norwich to Brandon was constructed by Messrs Grissell & Peto, and the engineers were Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) and George Parker Bidder (1806-1878). It is likely that it was Bidder, rather than Stephenson, who was closely involved with the project on a day-to-day basis. Sizeable station buildings, mostly in neo-Tudor style, were erected at each of the stations along the line; and according to an article in the Great Eastern Journal (October 1998), they would have been designed by the engineer, in this case Bidder, and approved by the board of directors.

In addition to the main station building, located on the south side of the tracks, accommodation was provided for railway staff. The workers were housed in a terrace of four cottages situated on the north side of the tracks, and the station master had a separate station house and garden further to the north-west. A railway tavern for travellers was built to the south at the entrance to the station yard. These three buildings are contemporary with the main station building. A timber goods shed was also built to the west of the station together with a covered coal shed of a type once common in East Anglia. The coal shed has since been demolished. A brick extension was built onto the goods shed in 1898 but the timber part was destroyed by fire in 1912. It was rebuilt in the same year, retaining the 1898 extension. The loading gauge located at the end of the loading dock, to the west of the goods shed, probably dates to the 1930s, having replaced what would have been an original timber one. (This was used to check that carriage loads were not too high to pass under bridges.) Further developments at Thetford include the erection of the footbridge linking the up and down platforms in 1881 by J O & C E Beckett (it has since lost its corrugated iron roof); and the signal box, to the west of the main station building, which was built in 1883 when block signalling was installed on the Ely-Norwich line.

The original appearance of the main station building has been recorded in an illustration in the Illustrated London News (2 August 1845). It shows an open-fronted waiting area beneath the central gable which has since been blocked by a small extension, and a larger extension has been built on the right hand side of the façade. These additions took place before 1885 as they are shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of that date. Another large single-storey extension was added on the left (west) end, possibly in 1892 when £550 was authorised for increased accommodation. All these extensions were carried out in matching flint. In 1889 a comprehensive rebuilding of the station took place. The 1845 station building was retained but a new red brick booking office, erected by P H Dawes of King’s Lynn, was built onto its right (east) end, and a canopy was put up on the platform side. A matching waiting room in a screen wall with a canopy was also erected on the north (down) side.

Repairs were carried out to the 1845 station building in 1994 after it was damaged by fire. The roof was rebuilt and covered in cedarwood shingles, as originally finished, and the floor of the first floor was also rebuilt. The original windows on the 1845 building have been replaced at some point by large-paned sashes which were boarded up during the site inspection. This part of the building is vacant but the 1889 extension is still in use.

Reasons for Listing

Thetford Railway Station, built in 1845 and extended in 1889, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Date: it is an early example of a station building by an independent railway company during the heroic age of railway expansion;

* Architectural interest: the 1845 building is a striking example of the neo-Jacobean style, distinguished by well-formed, elongated shaped gables on each elevation. Although no attempt was made to harmonise the 1889 booking office with the style and materials of the original station, it nevertheless has a well-proportioned façade with some finely moulded brick detailing, and the decorative ironwork of the GER canopies is particularly attractive. The building is thus a multi-phased structure demonstrating the evolution of a small station established by an early railway company into a larger station developed by the amalgamated GER;

* Building materials: the local knapped flint used for the 1845 building has been carefully squared and laid in courses with thin joints, creating a textured finish of considerable aesthetic appeal, which is further enhanced by the subtle contrast of the gault brick dressings;

* Architectural context: it is one of the four contemporary station buildings of 1845 that achieve a high level of architectural coherence through the use of flint and gault brick, and the repeated application of certain details, such as the blocked brick window surrounds, gabled porches and angled chimney stacks. The hierarchy of the complex is moreover articulated by the varied architectural treatment of the different elements, providing valuable evidence of the social workings of a mid-C19 station complex;

* Rarity: the completeness with which the station complex has survived is rare. There are numerous stations throughout the country that retain three building types but only approximately forty in which a group of four or more types survive. Thetford retains nine, including the loading gauge which would once have been a familiar feature in all country stations but is now an increasingly rare element. Very few stations have survived with this number of buildings, and Thetford thus provides an almost complete picture of an early station that continued to evolve throughout the second half of the C19;

* Group value: the station building forms a key element in one of the finest surviving station complexes in East Anglia. It has strong group value with the station master’s house, railway workers’ cottages, railway tavern and signal box, all listed at Grade II. Although the bridge and good shed at Thetford are not listed, they would appear to be of local interest as they make an important contribution to the group of railway buildings.

External Links

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